Breaking! Harvey Weinstein Battles COVID-19 & Double Pneumonia in NY Hospital!

Harvey Weinstein, the once-powerful Hollywood producer currently facing a rape retrial in New York, has once again been admitted to the hospital.

According to records from the New York Corrections Department, the 72-year-old Weinstein was moved from the Rikers Island jail complex to a secure ward at Bellevue Hospital.

Weinstein is receiving treatment at Bellevue for COVID-19, double pneumonia and various other health issues, including diabetes, hypertension, spinal stenosis, and fluid accumulation in his heart and lungs, his representative informed the Associated Press on Thursday.

“Our thanks go out to the officers, doctors, and nurses” in the city’s corrections and public hospital systems “who ensured Mr. Weinstein was promptly transferred to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward,” stated his publicist, Juda Engelmayer. He credited Weinstein’s health information to his prison consultant, Craig Rothfeld.

Engelmayer did not immediately return a request for comment from The Times on Friday.

Weinstein was previously hospitalized at Bellevue in late April after a court of appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction.

In May, during a hearing at a Manhattan courthouse, prosecutors requested a September retrial. Weinstein, who had previously been seen in court using a walker, attended the May preliminary hearing in a wheelchair pushed by a court officer. Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala stated that Weinstein was present at the hearing despite his hospitalization and was undergoing unspecified medical tests due to health concerns.

Aidala also noted that he had no worries about his client’s mental sharpness, describing Weinstein as “sharp as a tack. As sharp as he ever was,” as reported by the AP.

Later, allegations emerged that the producer of “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction” was receiving preferential treatment at Bellevue, leading to his removal from the medical center.

In 2020, Weinstein was initially sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York for allegedly assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann. However, the state appellate court overturned this conviction last spring, ruling that the judge who oversaw Weinstein’s 2020 trial had prejudiced his case by allowing four women who accused Weinstein of assault to testify, despite their allegations not being part of the case.

The court also found that the trial judge had erred by deciding that prosecutors could question Weinstein about uncharged and decades-old allegations if he chose to testify.

Weinstein’s retrial in New York depends on the willingness of the women who accused him of assault to testify once more. While Haley has stated she is still contemplating it, prosecutors have indicated Mann is ready to testify, proposing a retrial date after Labor Day.

Weinstein is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 7, according to jail records.

The fallen studio head was found guilty of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and continues to serve a 16-year prison sentence in California.