Harvey Weinstein was “rushed” Sunday night to Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he underwent a procedure and heart surgery on Monday, his representatives said.
The former Hollywood movie mogul, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence for his rape case in California and is being held in New York while awaiting a new trial on rape charges there, was taken to the hospital “due to several medical issues,” according to his publicist Juda Engelmayer and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein underwent surgery and heart surgery today. He is out of surgery and recovering,” Rothfeld said in a statement to the Times on Monday. “As we have said at length before, Mr. Weinstein suffers from a plethora of significant health issues that require ongoing treatment. We are grateful to the executive team at the New York City Department of Corrections and Rikers Island for acting quickly and transporting him to Bellevue Hospital.”
Engelmayer declined to share further details about Weinstein's medical procedure.
In July, the 72-year-old was taken to the medical center for treatment for COVID-19, double pneumonia and other health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid in his heart and lungs.
The “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction” producer was previously admitted to Bellevue in late April after a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 rape conviction.
In May, prosecutors asked for a new trial during a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom. Weinstein had previously appeared in court using a walker, but he attended the May preliminary hearing in a wheelchair pushed by a court officer.
The allegations made about the disgraced studio chief in investigations by The New Yorker and The New York Times sparked the 2017 #MeToo movement, and Weinstein became one of the most high-profile men to be legally charged in its wake. Though he has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone, he was initially sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison in New York after allegedly assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley and onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann. The state appeals court overturned the verdict last spring, ruling that the judge presiding over Weinstein’s 2020 trial harmed his case by allowing four women who accused Weinstein of assault to act as witnesses even though their allegations were not part of the case.
The appeals court ruled that the trial judge also erred in ruling that prosecutors could question Weinstein about uncharged, decades-old allegations if he chose to testify.
Last week, prosecutors revealed they have begun taking steps to potentially charge Weinstein with up to three additional sexual assaults, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors said they have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury of up to three prior, unindicted allegations against the embattled mogul: two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.
A vote on a possible new indictment is expected soon, AP said. Weinstein's new trial is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12 and the defendant was due back in court for a pretrial hearing Sept. 12, according to jail records.
Also last week, the UK Crown Prosecution Service said it was dropping two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.” In 2022, he was charged with two counts of indecent assault against a woman in London for alleged offences from 1996, the BBC said.
