Ex-model takes the stand in Harvey Weinstein's retrial. The prior jury never heard about her

NEW YORK (AP) — Days into Harvey Weinstein 's first sexual assault trial in 2020, prosecutors privately spoke for the first time with a former model who alleged that he had forced oral sex on her.

But that jury was never told about Kaja (KEYE’-ah) Sokola's claim. Prosecutors have said they still were investigating the allegation when Weinstein, a onetime movie tycoon-turned- #MeToo pariah, was convicted in February 2020 of charges based on other women's accusations.

On Wednesday, Sokola began to tell a new jury her story.

Sokola didn't look at Weinstein as she walked past him and onto the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom where he's on trial again. An appeals court overturned his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction, sending those charges back for retrial, and prosecutors subsequently added another sexual assault charge based on Sokola's allegations.

As she began testifying about her life before the alleged 2006 assault, Weinstein looked toward her, with his right hand across his mouth.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His lawyers contend that his accusers consented to sexual encounters with him in hopes of getting movie and TV opportunities, and the defense has emphasized that the women stayed in contact with him for a while after the alleged assaults.

The women, meanwhile, say the Oscar-winning producer used the prospect of show business work to prey on them.

The Polish-born Sokola, 39, is a psychotherapist and author and said she recently launched a film production company.

She sued Weinstein after industry whispers about his behavior toward women became a chorus of public accusations in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. Prosecutors have said Sokola eventually received $3.5 million in compensation.

Sokola testified that she was never interested in modeling — but rather in acting and writing — but her mother and sister decided she should enter a Polish modeling contest at age 14. She won a contract with a modeling agency and was soon juggling middle school with photo shoots.

The next two years “were a very fast growing-up lesson,” she said. By 2002, she was 16 and in New York to make the modeling rounds, without any of relatives on hand.

Sokola, who's expected to continue testifying Thursday, hasn't been asked yet about Weinstein. Prosecutors have said she was introduced to him while on that 2002 modeling trip to New York.

In her lawsuits, Sokola said that shortly after she met Weinstein, he invited her to lunch to discuss her career but then sexually assaulted her. The lawsuits alleged he sexually harassed and emotionally abused her for years afterward.

The criminal charge stems from one instance when Sokola maintains that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in May 2006.

Prosecutors have said it happened after Weinstein arranged for Sokola to be an extra in the film “The Nanny Diaries” and met her visiting older sister, whom she was trying to impress.

“She was proud of knowing him,” her sister, cardiologist Dr. Ewa (pronounced EH’-vah) Sokola, told jurors Wednesday.

She said the three of them met in a hotel lobby, chatted about Italian movies and the heavyset Weinstein's heart health, and then he and the model left the table together.

Kaja Sokola was tense when she returned about a half-hour later — “like somebody waiting for the result of an exam” or the Oscars — but didn't say anything about the alleged sexual assault, Dr. Sokola told jurors.

She said she was shocked to learn about the claim over a decade later, when she read about it in a magazine article.

Weinstein's lawyers will get a chance to question Kaja Sokola in the coming days. In an opening statement last month, defense attorney Arthur Aidala questioned why she waited years to come forward. Prosecutors have argued that accusers were reluctant to speak up because of Weinstein's wealth and influence.

Prosecutors have said they began investigating Sokola's claims after her attorneys called on the eve of Weinstein's first trial. But prosecutors set the inquiry aside after he was convicted and the coronavirus pandemic loomed.

They revived the Sokola investigation after New York's highest court reversed Weinstein's conviction.

Weinstein's lawyers fought unsuccessfully to keep Sokola's allegation out of the retrial. They accused prosecutors of “smuggling an additional charge into the case" to try to bolster other accusers' credibility.

One of the others, Miriam Haley, testified last week that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The third accuser in the case, Jessica Mann, is expected to testify later.

The Associated Press generally does not name sexual assault accusers without their permission, which Haley, Mann and Sokola have given.

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Kaja Sokola attends the premiere of "She Said" as part of AFI Fest in Los Angeles, Nov. 4, 2022. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP file)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/Pool Photo via AP)

Ewa Sokola arrives in state court in Manhattan for Harvey Weinstein's retrial on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Kaja Sokola attends the premiere of "She Said" as part of AFI Fest in Los Angeles, Nov. 4, 2022. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)