Harvey Weinstein Accuser Kaja Sokola: ‘The Devastating Part Was Not the Trial Itself — It Was the Betrayal of My Sister'

Yahoo

20 hours ago

Kaja Sokola spent five intense days testifying in Harvey Weinstein's New York retrial. Her testimony covered two alleged instances of sexual assault: one in 2002, when she was 16, and another at a Tribeca hotel in 2006. On June 11, a New York jury acquitted Weinstein of sexually assaulting Sokola.
But for the former Polish model–turned–psychotherapist, neither the testimony nor the verdict was the hardest part of Weinstein's months-long retrial in New York.
More from Variety
Harvey Weinstein Judge Declares Mistrial on Rape Charge
Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Sexual Assault After Tensions Explode on New York Jury
Amanda Seyfried Grossed Out She Invited 'Dictator' Harvey Weinstein to Past Sundance Premiere: 'It's Just the Way It Was - We All Needed Him'
'The devastating part was not the trial itself — it was the betrayal of my sister,' Sokola told Variety. 'I truly don't understand how she could — how anyone could do something like that.'
On her fourth day on the stand, the defense confronted her with a private journal in which she documented people who had sexually assaulted her — but did not include Weinstein. The journal, which Sokola said was part of a 'workbook for addiction treatment,' was provided to the defense by her older sister, Ewa.
'Please don't read that,' she said on the witness stand. 'This is my personal things.'
The former producer was mentioned in an entry referring to 'Harvey W,' where Sokola wrote that he was 'promising help' but 'nothing came of it.' The defense used the journal to argue that Sokola had fabricated her assault allegation.
Sokola told Variety that she had written about Weinstein's abuse in other diaries, but those were not read for the jury.
'My sister chose to bring this one thing from Poland that said what it said,' she said. 'This felt very unjust and very hurtful… These kinds of tactics are just showing how dirty of a game it is for them.'
Sokola said her relationship with her sister has been strained over the years.
'My sister was trying to do a lot of harmful things to me in the past,' she said. 'A lot of this was correlated with money, so we didn't have — let's say — the best relationship ever.'
Michael Cibella, Weinstein's attorney who questioned Sokola, told Variety that he is 'not aware of any other journals that have any allegations of abuse against Weinstein.'
'We had this journal which had allegations of sexual abuse against four other people, and in that same writing, talked about Harvey Weinstein having made promises that he didn't keep,' Cibella said. 'Nothing about sexual abuse whatsoever against Harvey Weinstein.'
Ewa Sokola testified for the prosecution in the case. She corroborated that she and Kaja had a lunch meeting with Weinstein at a Tribeca hotel in 2006. At one point during the meal, Kaja and Weinstein took an elevator upstairs together while Ewa remained at the table.
When Kaja returned by herself, the sisters left the hotel. Ewa recalled that Kaja appeared to be under 'extreme tension' after her time alone with Weinstein, though the two went on as if it were a 'regular day.'
During cross-examination, when the defense asked whether Kaja had ever said anything negative about Weinstein before 2017, Ewa said no. 'She was proud of knowing him,' she told the courtroom.
In the defense's closing argument, Arthur Aidala — another one of Weinstein's attorneys — mentioned Ewa to the jury again, arguing that she ultimately became a defense witness after her testimony. 'She was supporting our theory of the case,' Aidala said. 'That everything was fine with her sister.'
Over the phone, Cibella commended Ewa for her testimony. 'She told the whole story — not just one part of the story that helped the prosecutor.'
Kaja Sokola, meanwhile, has a theory about how her sister connected with the defense. She said that her sister's friend — an attorney Ewa's known for roughly 20 years — works for Aidala's firm, which she believes 'speaks a lot.'
'It's very sad and unfortunate when you see families being broken up because of these kinds of reasons,' she said.
Sokola also said that her sister's lawyer friend had visited her at the New York apartment she lived in back in 2006. 'He knew that I had known Harvey for a long time, and that I was scared of him for a very long time.'
'I'm familiar with the attorney that she is referring to, and he does not work at Arthur Aidala's firm,' Cibella replied when asked about Kaja's claims. 'But we are familiar with that attorney, and it is someone that [Ewa's] had a friendship with for quite some time.'
Kaja Sokola did not testify at Weinstein's 2020 trial. However, after an appeals court overturned his rape and sexual assault convictions — sending the case back for retrial — prosecutors added a new sexual assault charge in September 2024 based on the allegations by a then-anonymous Kaja. Her identity was revealed to the public months later, during opening statements of Weinstein's retrial in late April.
'He looked miserable, and he looked like a sick, old man,' Sokola told Variety of seeing Weinstein in the courtroom. 'Part of me felt sorry for him, because this man has messed up his life. He has done things that are crimes and, right now, he's paying the price for it. It didn't feel like seeing the Harvey that I knew from years ago.'
In her testimony, Sokola described two alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein in 2002 and 2006. The defense, however, repeatedly argued during the trial that Kaja never met Weinstein in 2002, pointing to a lack of evidence — such as writings or photographs — showing the two together that year.
'Harvey did not meet this woman when she was 16 years old,' Cibella reasserted to Variety. 'He did not know her in 2002 and adamantly has denied that. And the jury, by their verdict, they didn't believe her — and she was not credible.'
Sokola's attorney, Lindsay Goldbrum, said that an individual who was friends with her before the 2006 incident could have testified that Kaja had known Weinstein prior to that time as well.
'Unfortunately, because of criminal procedure laws and rules regarding hearsay, they were not able to call her as a witness, even though she was willing to testify on Kaja's behalf. And so that's one of the unfortunate pieces of the criminal justice system, is that juries don't ever get to hear the entire story,' Goldbrum said. 'The fact that there may not have been physical written evidence of the fact that Harvey Weinstein assaulted Kaja in 2002 doesn't mean it didn't happen. This event was an in-person interaction between two individuals from 23 years ago. Do we really expect there to be a mountain of written and photographic evidence? No, I think that many of us have interactions on a daily basis that there would be no written record of, and so I don't think it's indicative of anything.'
Although Weinstein was acquitted of the charge related to Sokola, he was convicted of one count of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree, based on allegations by former TV production assistant Miriam Haley. The judge declared a mistrial in the rape case involving Jessica Mann.
'I was hoping for something else, but it still didn't change the whole scenario for me — because the whole point is to put this man in jail,' Sokola said. 'It's not my story. I'm not on trial. It's not about me. It's about him and him being accountable for what he did.'
Outside the courthouse, following the declaration of a mistrial on Weinstein's remaining count, Aidala referenced Sokola, who had made a statement the previous day about the initial partial verdict. He criticized her response, saying she 'took some kind of a victory lap after 12 jurors said, 'We don't believe you.'' Aidala also claimed that Sokola's case had received the jury's 'fastest and quickest verdict,' citing conversations with several jurors.
'It just shows you how really bastardized the whole MeToo movement has become now,' Aidala said. 'She comes here and says, 'It's a great victory,' when 12 people told her, 'You lied.''
Goldbrum described Aidala's comments as 'interesting,' noting that they were 'not consistent' with what their team had heard about the jury's deliberations regarding Kaja.
'I think that he has an incentive to say what he has to say about Kaja, as Harvey Weinstein's attorney,' Goldbrum said. 'I also think that he is distorting what is truly the jury's verdict, which is not that they don't believe her. It's not that they think she lied. The standard is truth beyond a reasonable doubt. It's not she's lying or she's telling the truth. It is whether or not there is reasonable that is the hardest standard to meet — the hardest threshold to cross — and that is the way it is for a reason, right?'
Weinstein now faces up to 25 years in prison following his conviction in Haley's case. Prosecutors have said they are prepared to retry him on the rape charge, which carries a potential sentence of up to four years.
Sokola had a message for Weinstein and his legal team: 'I want to tell them that we won. We won. Don't try to split women apart and tear them down individually, because that's what they were trying to do in the courthouse throughout the trial — and it did not succeed.'
Best of Variety
New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar