Weinstein defense can use governor’s wife’s email at trial
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors in the trial of Harvey Weinstein will be allowed to hear that Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, emailed the movie magnate for advice about dealing with the media amid a scandal involving Gavin Newsom two years after Weinstein allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her, a judge ruled Monday.
The judge granted narrow permission to the defense to introduce evidence of the email sent to Weinstein in 2007, when Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco and was dating Siebel Newsom.
But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench forbid the defense from discussing the underlying issue behind the email — the revelation of an affair Newsom had had in 2005 with an aide. Lench called it “too tangential in relation to this trial.”
Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman argued adamantly for the inclusion of the details.
“Of all things you’d think a woman that is raped by Harvey Weinstein wouldn’t do, it’s ask him how to deal with a sex scandal,” Werksman said.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez responded: “I’m not sure how Mr. Werksman knows” how a rape victim would behave.
“They do not react in a matter how someone who has not been raped would think,” Martinez said.
Werksman argued that the contents of the email are essential, saying that for Siebel Newsom and the other accusers in the trial, the power dynamic with Weinstein was essential.
“When her boyfriend the mayor seduces an underling’s wife and gets scandalized over it,” she sides with the mayor,” he said, and suggested it was essential to Weinstein’s rights that the judge allow that line of questioning.
The judge suggested the attorney was overstating the case by saying Weinstein’s due process was at stake.
“Very...