Harvey Weinstein “Almost Died”, Producer’s Lawyer Says As New Grand Jury Indictment Revealed

Harvey Weinstein has been indicted by a new grand jury on additional charges, prosecutors said in a New York courtroom Thursday.

“We informed the defense just prior to being present in court this morning … the grand jury has indicted Mr. Weinstein,“ Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said. 

His lawyer Arthur Aidala told Deadline there may be three new criminal complaints against his client from 2005, 2006 and 2016 based on what prosecutors have told him, but he did not have details.

Weinstein was not in court as he did not receive medical clearance following emergency heart surgery just days ago.

Aidala today told Judge Curtis Farber that his client “almost died” before his emergency heart surgery on Sunday. Earlier this week a producer told Deadline reported that the producer was in “very rough shape”. Additionally, Weinstein was said to be in “critical condition”, Deadline was told. 

The new indictment remains sealed for now, Blumberg said, and the DA plans to file a motion to consolidate all the charges into a new superseding indictment.

Weinstein’s next court hearing is set for September 18. There is no arraignment date yet for the new indictment.

Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison after a jury in Manhattan found the former studio chief guilty in 2020 of raping actress Jessica Mann and sexually assaulting production assistant Miriam Haley. A panel of New York appeals court judges threw out his conviction in April, ruling 4-3 that prosecutors had erred by allowing the testimony of other Weinstein accusers whose claims were not being tried.

The Manhattan DA was reportedly seeking to have a grand jury indict Weinstein for crimes against other women in addition to Mann and Haley. Weinstein is also appealing his criminal sexual assault conviction and 16-year prison sentence in a separate case in Los Angeles. 

An ailing Weinstein was moved from an upstate prison after the appeals win, and he has shuttled between the city’s Rikers Island jail, Bellevue Hospital and a courtroom in lower Manhattan as District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has prepared to retry him. 

Judge Farber today also ordered that Weinstein remain at Bellevue Hospital prison ward, and not be transferred back to Rikers Island, citing defense complaints about his care at the jail’s hospital facilities. 

“He’s not doing great,” Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer told reporters this morning. 

More than 80 women working at all levels of the film industry have come forward to accuse Weinstein of rape and assault during and after the height of the MeToo movement that called out powerful men in entertainment, politics and business for exploitive behavior.

Weinstein reached settlements with dozens of accusers during his movie company’s bankruptcy proceedings. He still faces a handful of lawsuits including one brought last year by actress Julia Ormond under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which extended the statute of limitations for alleged victims of sexual assault to sue. Weinstein has denied wrongdoing in all of the civil and criminal cases against him.