Harvey Weinstein Reportedly in Critical Condition After Emergency ...
Days before he is set to appear in New York court, disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein had emergency heart surgery and remains in “critical condition,” a source close to the producer told Deadline. ABC News first reported on Monday that Weinstein had been “rushed to Bellevue Hospital” on Sunday night “due to several medical conditions,” his representatives Craig Rothfeld and Juda Engelmayer said in a statement.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein had a procedure and surgery on his heart [on Monday] however cannot comment any further than that,” the reps’ statement continued. “As we have extensively stated before, Mr. Weinstein suffers a plethora of significant health issues that need ongoing treatment. We are grateful to the executive team at the New York City Department of Correction and Rikers Island for acting swiftly in taking him to Bellevue Hospital.”
According to Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala, his 72-year-old client contacted Rothfeld several times over the weekend to relay that he was not feeling well, as reported by The New York Times. “This guy is going to die on your watch if you don’t do something,” Aidala said he and Mr. Rothfeld had written via email to officials at Rikers and Bellevue before Weinstein’s hospital transfer.
Rothfeld said that Weinstein underwent surgery to “alleviate the massive amount of fluid on his lungs and heart” on Monday morning and is now recovering in the intensive care unit. Weinstein reportedly called Rothfeld after the operation and said he is “grateful to be alive.”
The emergency arrives as Weinstein is due in court for a pretrial hearing on Thursday, September 12, in New York, where prosecutors had been presenting evidence to a grand jury in order to secure a new indictment against Weinstein on sex crimes charges. This April, the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 2020 sexual assault conviction in a shocking 4-3 decision. The court ruled that by allowing women other than those directly involved in the charges against Weinstein to testify about separate allegations, the trial court committed “egregious errors.”
Weinstein, who was also convicted of rape in a separate Los Angeles trial in 2022, was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York and an additional 16 in California, to be served after his New York term ended. Initially imprisoned at New York’s Mohawk Correctional Facility, he has been held in the Bronx’s Rikers Island as he awaits a new trial in November. Weinstein has denied all the allegations against him.
Throughout both trials, Weinstein has experienced multiple health issues and has appeared in court with the help of a walker or in a wheelchair.
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