Harvey Weinstein diagnosed with chronic leukemia as disgraced mogul, 72, receives treatment behind bars

Harvey Weinstein has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in the latest health setback for the disgraced movie mogul. 

The convicted rapist, 72, has been receiving treatment behind bars at Rikers Island for chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare bone marrow cancer, NBC News reported.

Weinstein spent most of the summer hospitalized with various maladies, from Covid and double pneumonia to needing fluid on his heart and lungs removed.

A representative for Weinstein declined comment in a statement. 

Weinstein is currently serving a sentence for rape at Rikers Island prison and was rushed to Bellevue late Sunday due to ‘severe medical conditions’. 

The convicted rapist, 72, spent most of the summer hospitalized with various maladies, from Covid and double pneumonia to needing fluid on his heart and lungs removed

His lawyer Arthur Aidala says he warned jail officials: ‘This guy is going to die on your watch if you don’t do something.’

Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone. 

He remains in custody in New York while awaiting a retrial in Manhattan that’s tentatively scheduled to begin November 12. He is due back in court for a pretrial hearing this Thursday. 

Weinstein has been in and out of Bellevue Hospital since returning to Rikers Island from state prison in April after an appeals court overturned his 2020 rape and sexual assault convictions and ordered a new trial. 

He underwent pericardiocentesis surgery at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in September after having suffered chest pains.

In July, he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said.

He had also spent 10 days in Bellevue in April, with Aidala saying that the time that Weinstein has ‘a lot of problems’ and was ‘somewhat of a train wreck health-wise’.

After his February 2020 conviction, Weinstein left court in an ambulance and detoured to Bellevue, complaining of chest pains and high blood pressure. He later had a stent inserted to unblock an artery.

Weinstein is currently serving a sentence for rape at Rikers Island prison and was rushed to Bellevue late Sunday due to ‘severe medical conditions’

Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone

After his sentencing a few weeks later, he returned to the hospital with more chest pains. He later tested positive for COVID-19 just days after being transferred to a state prison near Buffalo.

In 2021, when Weinstein was being extradited to California for prosecution on rape charges there, his lawyers disclosed a litany of afflictions, including: diabetes, coronary artery disease, anemia, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic lower back pain, sciatica, chronic leg pain, arthritis, and eye ailments that had severely degraded his vision. At recent court hearings, he has used a wheelchair.

The state’s Court of Appeals found that the judge in the 2020 trial unfairly allowed testimony from women whose claims against Weinstein weren’t part of the case.

In September, prosecutors disclosed that they’ve begun taking steps to potentially charge him with up to three additional sex assaults.

They said they’ve started presenting evidence to a grand jury of up to three previously uncharged allegations against Weinstein – two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.

A vote on a potential new indictment was expected soon.

At the same time, British prosecutors said last week they were dropping two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein in 2022 because there was ‘no longer a realistic prospect of conviction’.

Weinstein became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his behavior. 

Weinstein was convicted in New York and Los Angeles for a string of sex offences and had been serving a 23 year sentence on the east coast. Pictured: Weinstein with (L-R)Taylor Swift,  Este Haim, actress Jaime King and Lorde in 2015

At the original trial, Weinstein was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actor in 2013. Those allegations will be part of his retrial. 

Weinstein’s acquittals on charges of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape still stand.

After the retrial, Weinstein is due to start serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities said. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022.

Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company film studios, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, producing such Oscar winners as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love.