Weinstein accuser rips defense lawyer: 'You should be ashamed of
yourself'
[May 15, 2025]
By JENNIFER PELTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — A former model reproached one of Harvey Weinstein ’s
lawyers for suggesting that her sexual abuse allegations against the
ex-studio boss are lies.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Kaja Sokola retorted. In her fifth
and final day of testimony at Weinstein's sex crimes retrial, she
maintained that she was telling the truth and that Weinstein's alleged
conduct in her teens had changed the course of her life.
“It changed the course of your life in that you got $3.5 million from
false accusations?” defense lawyer Mike Cibella pressed, referring to
compensation she was awarded through civil proceedings in recent years.
“No. That’s very unfair," Sokola said softly. “That’s not true.”
During her days on the witness stand, she said Weinstein repeatedly
offered to foster her acting ambitions but then made unwanted physical
advances, beginning when she was 16 in 2002.
Weinstein, 73, faces a sexual assault charge related solely to her
allegation that he forced oral sex on her when she was 19. He also faces
charges based on two other women's claims. He has pleaded not guilty to
all the charges, and his attorneys assert that his accusers had
consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer because
they wanted movie and TV work.
Weinstein's lawyers grilled Sokola about her requests for career help
from him after the alleged assault, her motives for her civil lawsuits
and criminal trial testimony, as well as her personal struggles, and
even a private journal she kept for an alcohol-abuse program in her
native Poland.
After apparently getting the decade-old writings via the witness'
sister, the defense was allowed to bring up portions in which Sokola
said two other men had sexually assaulted her over the years but didn't
say the same about Weinstein. Instead, she wrote that he promised her
help but didn't deliver.
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Kaja Sokola arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court before Harvey
Weinstein's trial on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in New York. (John
Angelillo/Pool Photo via AP)
 Sokola testified Wednesday that she
had left out Weinstein's alleged sexual abuse partly because she
couldn't come to terms with it at the time. Also, she said, her
sponsor was in the film business in Poland and knew who Weinstein
was.
Cibella questioned that explanation, noting that the text mentioned
only “Harvey W” and nothing about his profession. Sokola said her
sponsor nonetheless knew his identity because they talked about it.
Tearing up as she spoke, she said she hadn’t seen the black notebook
for 10 years, never gave anyone permission to share it and was
stunned and appalled to be confronted with it in court.
“I felt very violated,” said Sokola, now 39 and a psychotherapist.
She was the second of Weinstein's accusers to testify at the
retrial, and the only one who wasn't involved in his first trial in
2020. That proceeding led to a landmark #MeToo-era conviction that
was subsequently overturned, setting up the retrial. Prosecutors
decided to add Sokola's allegations to it.
Another woman, Miriam Haley, already has told jurors at the retrial
that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. The third
accuser, Jessica Mann, is expected to testify in the coming days or
weeks. She alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2013.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they
have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission to be
identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.
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