Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary film-maker and the wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, has taken the stand at the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein, becoming the most prominent woman so far to testify against the former Hollywood producer. More than 90 women have publicly accused Weinstein of rape, sexual assault or sexual misconduct, including powerful A-list actors such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. But none of the women who have previously testified in criminal trials against Weinstein in New York and Los Angeles have had anywhere near the prominence of Siebel Newsom, an accomplished film-maker whose partner recently sailed to a second term as governor of the nation’s most populous state and could eventually make a White House run. Weinstein’s defense took an aggressive stance toward Siebel Newsom in opening statements last month, with defense attorney Mark Werksman accusing her of presenting herself as a #MeToo victim to avoid being “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood”. Weinstein has denied ever engaging in non-consensual sex, and New York’s highest court has agreed to hear an appeal of his 2020 criminal conviction there, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence. Siebel Newsom spent 15 minutes on the stand at the downtown Los Angeles courtroom before a lunch break on Monday, becoming the fourth woman Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulting to testify at his California trial. The 48-year-old Siebel Newsom was “a powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood” in 2005 when Weinstein raped her during what she thought was going to be a meeting to discuss her career at a Beverly Hills hotel, deputy district attorney Paul Thompson said during the trial’s opening statements. In court on Monday, when asked by a prosecutor if she saw the person in court that she met at a Toronto film festival in 2005, Siebel Newsom went silent then burst into tears before managing to mutter “yes” into the microphone. “He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me,” she said when asked to describe him. At the time she met Weinstein at the film festival, Siebel Newsom testified, she had not yet met her husband, but was in another relationship. She was a working actor, but “had little roles, guest-starring roles on TV shows and films”, she said, and was working on some short films. Weinstein at the time “was like the kingmaker, he was the top of the industry”. In their first meeting, she was both “intimidated” and “flattered” by the producer’s interest in her, and felt he showed “a genuine interest in talking about my work”. At a follow-up conversation with a friend at a hotel bar at the film festival, Weinstein “was really focused on telling me I was special and I was different”, Siebel Newsom testified. Siebel Newsom is known as Jane Doe 4 at the trial, and like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her name is not being spoken in court. But both the prosecution and the defense have identified her as the governor’s wife during the trial, and Siebel Newsom’s attorney confirmed to the Associated Press and other news outlets that she is Jane Doe 4. “She intends to testify at [Weinstein’s] trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women,” her attorney, Elizabeth Fegan, said in a statement at the start of the trial. Weinstein’s defense attorney Werksman told jurors during opening statements that Siebel Newsom was “a very prominent citizen of California” who has made herself “a prominent victim in the #MeToo movement.” Actor Daphne Zuniga, star of Spaceballs and Melrose Place, testified about her friend Siebel Newsom at the trial last week. Zuniga said she and Siebel Newsom were on a hike when she told her she had had a meeting with Harvey Weinstein. When asked how it went, Zuniga said Siebel Newsom told her: “Not good, I don’t want to talk about.” “I always had known her to be positive, upbeat, looks you in the eye, lovely energy,” Zuniga said, but here “she seemed upset, squirmy, agitated”. In a pattern described by many other Weinstein accusers, Siebel Newsom had expected she would be meeting the producer in a public space with others in attendance, but instead found herself alone with him in his suite, prosecutors said. Judge Lisa Lench is allowing the defense to use an email Siebel Newsom sent to Weinstein in 2007 asking him for help in dealing with the media surrounding a scandal involving her husband, who was mayor of San Francisco at the time.