NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein 's lawyers sought Friday to raise doubts about an ex-model's allegation that he sexually assaulted her in her teens, portraying her as a wannabe actor who tried to leverage the former studio boss.
“You believed that if you had consensual sex with Mr. Weinstein, you’d get your foot in the door and become a movie star,” defense lawyer Mike Cibella said.
“No, that’s not what happened,” Kaja Sokola responded. “I never had a consensual relation with Mr. Weinstein.”
Throughout a day of questioning, Cibella sought to suggest that Sokola hadn't told the full story of her interactions with Weinstein. At one point, Cibella repeatedly asked whether she invited Weinstein up to a New York apartment — and into the bedroom — where she was staying in 2005. She denied it.
“I didn’t want any shortcuts from Mr. Weinstein. I wanted him to be honest with me,” Sokola testified at a later point, her voice growing heated.
She said the Oscar-winning producer promised to help her fulfill her acting ambitions but instead “broke my dreams, and he broke my self-esteem."
The Polish psychotherapist has accused Weinstein of repeatedly sexually abusing her when she was a teenage fashion model. Some of those allegations are beyond the legal time limit for criminal charges, but Weinstein faces a criminal sex act charge over Sokola's claim that he forced oral sex on her in 2006.
Prosecutors added the charge to the landmark #MeToo case last year, after an appeals court overturned Weinstein's 2020 conviction. The guilty verdict pertained to allegations from two other women, who also have testified or are expected at the retrial.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies ever sexually assaulting anyone.
The Polish-born Sokola, 39, had a jet-setting modeling career as a teen. She testified earlier this week that Weinstein exploited her youthful interest in an acting career to subject her to unwanted sexual advances, starting days after they met in 2002, while she was a 16-year-old on a modeling trip to New York.
She told jurors that four years later, when she was 19, Weinstein lured her to a hotel room by saying he had a script for her to see, then pinned her down on a bed and performed oral sex on her as she implored him not to.
Sokola never got a full-fledged role in a Weinstein movie, though he did arrange for her to be an extra in 2007's “The Nanny Diaries.” Her scene ultimately got cut, she said.
His company also wrote her a recommendation letter to an acting school. She said she hadn't been able to afford it.
Sokola sued Weinstein several years ago over the alleged 2002 incident, and she ultimately received about $3.5 million in compensation. Her suits never mentioned the alleged 2006 assault. She testified Thursday that she'd had a tougher time coming to terms with it than she did with the alleged 2002 sex abuse.
Cibella underscored the omission, and he suggested that she sued to gain financial independence and be able to leave her now-estranged husband. On the contrary, she said, she was working two jobs and out-earning him.
Cibella also pointed to differences in some details of Sokola's testimony this week and what she told a grand jury last year, including the month of the alleged 2002 sexual abuse. The attorney further noted that Sokola is pursuing various legal pathways to stay in the U.S. long-term, and her involvement in the criminal case could help with one of them.
Sokola is expected to continue testifying next week.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted, but Sokola has given her permission to be identified.
Jennifer Peltz And Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press
