Harvey Weinstein Pleads With Judge to Move Up Trial Date, Citing Declining Health

U.S. film producer Harvey Weinstein attends a court hearing at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Sept. 18, 2024. Jeenah Moon/AFP via Getty Images

Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein is pleading with a New York judge to move up his retrial date, citing his declining health, which includes cancer and other conditions.

On Jan. 29, Judge Curtis Farber set an April 15 trial date for the 72-year-old, however, Weinstein and his legal team objected claiming he “won’t be here” for much longer.

“I’m asking and begging you” to switch court dates, Weinstein told Farber. “I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”

Weinstein, who appeared in a Manhattan criminal court seated in a wheelchair, is currently being held at the Rikers Island jail complex and is being treated for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), diabetes, heart issues, and other ailments.

According to the American Cancer Society, CML is a type of blood cancer that affects the bone marrow. Weinstein was first diagnosed last year, and has received treatment while incarcerated.

While addressing the court, he complained of harsh conditions at Rikers, including a scenario in which he was given the wrong pills and jail officers failed to pick him up for court in a timely manner.

“There are so many people suffering in Rikers Island. They don’t have the same mouthpiece. It’s a medieval situation. This is something that has to be stopped,” Weinstein said. “I speak for all of them.”

His request was made after Farber denied the motion to dismiss, upholding a new charge involving a woman who wasn’t in the original case. The woman alleges Weinstein forced her to perform a sex act at a Manhattan hotel in 2006.

In October 2024, Farber ruled to combine the new indictment and existing charges into one trial.

Weinstein was originally convicted in 2020 of rape and sexual assault charges in New York and was sentenced to 23 years in prison as a result. He began serving his term at Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

He had that conviction overturned last year when the New York Court of Appeals ruled in a 4–3 decision that testimony from women unrelated to the case was permitted, prompting a new trial.

Weinstein was also convicted in California in 2022 on rape charges, where he received a 16-year sentence that still stands. He was moved to Rikers Island where he remains in custody ahead of his retrial.

More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment after initial allegations were first made public in 2017.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.