Harvey Weinstein’s graphic explanation for why rape of young model, 19, was ‘physically impossible’

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers claim a former model’s description of how he allegedly raped her ‘doesn’t make sense’ and sounds like ‘Harvey playing Twister.’

Kaja Sokola, now 39, tearfully recounted how she was allegedly raped and molested by the disgraced movie mogul twice under the guise of helping her acting career.

She alleged in her testimony to a New York City jury that Weinstein held her down on a hotel bed and forced oral sex on her days before her 20th birthday in 2006.

‘He forced himself on my vagina – he raped me,’ she declared to the court on Thursday, her voice rising with pent-up disgust and outrage.

But Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s PR consultant, told DailyMail.com after Sokola’s testimony that the movements she described were implausible.

‘His hand’s over here, his other hand’s over there, his mouth is here – all while he’s holding her down – it doesn’t work,’ he said.

‘Imagine Harvey playing Twister, that’s what it’s like. If people get past their disgust of Harvey and think about it, it doesn’t make sense.’

Sokola, who weighed only 125lbs at the time, alleged Weinstein used his much greater mass to hold her down, and she couldn’t push him off.

She described how Weinstein’s left hand was on her stomach, and his right hand was on her left thigh as he allegedly forced the sex act on her. 

‘He pinned me to the bed, I couldn’t move under him… his whole body was pining me to the bed… it was like a rock was on me, it was too heavy,’ she told the jury.

‘My legs were becoming numb, he was so heavy.

‘I felt like I was dead – I was completely numb… my hope had died.’

Sokola earlier broke down on the stand, sobbing uncontrollably, as she told the jury about another time Weinstein allegedly abused her when she was just 16.

She told the jury he groped her vagina under her underwear, and forced her to touch his penis in 2002 after luring her to an apartment.

The naive teen, who had barely even kissed a boy before, was forced to watch the alleged assault in a bathroom mirror, Weinstein’s ‘black and scary’ eyes staring back at her, she told the court.

Weinstein stared at Sokola as she gave her testimony for the first time, sometimes putting his hand over his mouth and constantly chewing cough drops.

At two other points during Thursday’s proceedings, Weinstein appeared to doze off with his head slumped to his right, and had to be prodded awake by his lawyers.

Sokola stared straight at Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey as she testified, refusing to even look at Weinstein when she entered the courtroom.

Weinstein faces a New York Supreme Criminal Court jury in Manhattan for his retrial on rape and sexual assault charges.

The ailing 73-year-old was convicted of sexually assaulting aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and raping production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006.

But last year, the New York Court of Appeals astonishingly ruled that Weinstein did not receive a fair trial – and tossed out his 23-year sentence.

Weinstein is still behind bars at Rikers Island prison in NYC serving 16 years for unrelated sex crimes, but is being held at Bellevue Hospital during the new trial due to his declining health.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is once again accusing Weinstein of these crimes – as well as an additional charge of sexual assault against Sokola.

Weinstein is only criminally charged with forcing oral sex on Sokola in 2006, but she sued him in 2019 over the 2002 incident in a case that was settled.

He maintains his innocence and his lawyers told the court the women consented to sex acts with Weinstein as a ‘quid pro quo’ to further their careers.

Sokola told the court she first met Weinstein at a restaurant in July 2002 on her first of many trips to NYC, about two years into her modeling career.

‘I felt special,’ when Weinstein took an interest in her acting career, she said, as that was always her passion as opposed to modeling.

But she alleged it went horribly wrong when Weinstein took her to an apartment instead of their planned working lunch days later.

As soon as the door closed, Weinstein allegedly demanded the terrified girl take off her clothes.

‘I didn’t want to do that. I was panicking,’ she said.

‘And then he said that if I want to be an actress, that’s what actors do in films, so I should get used to it. If a director says you have you take your clothes off, you have to take your clothes off. 

‘I was scared. I was scared of him.’

Sokola said she had never been in an intimate situation and only kissed and held hands with her high school boyfriend.

Terrified, she took off her top and Weinstein allegedly moved her into the bathroom with his pants and underwear around his ankles.

Then he stood beside her and groped her underneath her underwear, then forced her hand onto his penis, Sokola told the court.

Weinstein the allegedly put his hand on her breast and masturbated until he ejaculated on the floor.

‘See, that wasn’t so bad? You’ve got to work on your stubbornness,’ he allegedly told her afterwards.

Eventually, he let her go and they left. She didn’t tell anyone about what happened for many years.

‘I felt stupid and ashamed and like it’s my fault for putting myself in this position,’ she told the court.

Sokola said she left for a six-week job in Tokyo, and developed eating disorders, anxiety, and depression as a result of the incident with Weinstein.

The 2006 incident occurred when her sister Ewa Sokola, who was 12 years older than her, visited her apartment on 12th Street for her 20th birthday in April and May.

Sokola craved the approval of her family, who were furious she decided to pursue an acting career instead of go to university and her mother wasn’t speaking to her.

She set up a lunch with Weinstein and her sister in the hope that she ‘wouldn’t treat me like a joke’ and would tell their mother ‘she’s not a joke, she actually has a chance’.

Weinstein, who recently got Sokola a role as an extra on The Nanny Diaries, met the sisters at the Tribeca Grand, which is now the Roxy Hotel.

After some conversation, Weinstein told Kaja Sokola he had a script for her to read and she should come with him upstairs.

Weinstein led her to a hotel room, and once they got inside he allegedly grabbed her by the left shoulder and pushed her onto the bed.

Kaja Sokola testified that Weinstein ripped off her boots, stockings, and underwear and pushed up her dress, then pinned her to the bed and forcibly gave her oral sex.

‘I kept saying please stop, I don’t want this – but he didn’t listen,’ she told the court.

Weinstein allegedly kept going until he was finished, then told her: ‘That wasn’t so difficult, was it?’

‘I wish I could forget [what he said], but I can’t,’ Sokola told the court.

Weinstein then let her leave and he left the hotel and she went back to her sister, not telling her anything about what allegedly happened, as she still desperately craved her family’s approval.

‘I blamed myself, my stupidity for putting myself in that situation… it changed the course of my life,’ Sokola said. 

The court also heard from Ewa, who testified about meeting Weinstein at a restaurant with her sister in 2006.

She told the jury that they had a friendly chat with the movie mogul before he and Kaja left to, Weinstein claimed, read some scripts.

When Kaja returned alone, she was very quiet and said nothing at the table until her sister asked if anything was wrong, but she brushed her off.

Ewa said her sister was ‘extremely tense’ and likened her mood to waiting for the results of a university exam, where you are dreading a bad result.

Sokola also alleged that Weinstein also molested her in 2004 after they bumped into each other at a fashion show.

She told the court he offered her a ride to the gym, where she was going next, and he put his hand on her breast as they sat in his car during the drive.

‘I pushed his hand away and told him “this is not what I want”,’ she told the court. 

ADA Lucey last month told jurors in her opening statement that the once-renowned movie and television producer preyed on the teen’s desire to be in the movies.

‘This changed Kaja in ways she’s still dealing with today,’ she said. 

The allegations were previously detailed in a civil suit settled with Disney, Bob Weinstein and Miramax for $3 million, but Sokola was not identified in the lawsuit.

In the weeks after, Sokola was photographed with Weinstein and a third person at an event, and his company wrote her a recommendation to the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

The court earlier heard from an official at the school that it had no record of Sokola attending. Kaja told the court that was because she couldn’t afford the fees.

Lucey told jurors that power imbalances often ’cause victims to behave in ways that laypersons possibly might not expect’.

Sokola kept quiet about Weinstein allegedly abusing her until after other allegations emerged against Weinstein in 2017, and sued him over the 2002 incident in 2019.

Weinstein’s defense attorney Arthur Aidala in her opening statement countered by portraying Weinstein’s accusers as willing partners in a showbiz quid pro quo.

‘The casting couch is not a crime scene,’ Aidala told the majority-female jury. He then compared prosecutors´ allegations to the preview of a movie that ‘falls flat on its face.’

He conceded that Weinstein did ‘fool around’ with the alleged victims, but argued they did so ‘consensually’ in an effort to ‘cut the line’.

The attorney argued that each of the three alleged victims were ‘flirtatious’ in their interactions with Weinstein because he ‘could change the trajectory of their lives and make dreams come true.’ 

Addressing Sokola’s allegations directly, Aidala claimed they were ‘based on a lie’ as he argued that the young model has a ‘lot of problems’ including an alleged eating disorder and alcohol addiction.

The attorney then went on to praise the disgraced movie mogul, speaking to his notoriety in Hollywood and describing him as ‘generous’ and ‘the greatest movie executive, at the very least of his generation.’

Aidala then asked the jury to look at the full picture, calling the alleged incidents ‘minutes’ of the former producer’s larger story.

Weinstein pleaded not guilty to the two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act and one count of third-degree rape. 

The new trial, presided over by state Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber, is expected to last roughly six weeks.

If he were to be convicted, Weinstein could see decades tacked onto his already lengthy prison sentence.

He is serving 16 years for a separate conviction in Los Angeles in 2022 – though his attorneys are also appealing that conviction.