(New York) Harvey Weinstein is facing new charges of sex crimes ahead of his new trial in New York, Manhattan prosecutors announced at a pretrial hearing Thursday.
The indictment will remain sealed until Weinstein’s formal arraignment, scheduled for September 18.
The 72-year-old Hollywood mogul is recovering from emergency heart surgery Monday at a Manhattan hospital and was not present at Thursday’s hearing.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office revealed in a recent court hearing that prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury on three new allegations against Weinstein, which date back to the mid-2000s.
Prosecutors are seeking a new trial for Weinstein after his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault was thrown out by an appeals court earlier this year. It is unclear whether the new charges will be included in the retrial, as prosecutors hope, or treated as a separate case by the court.
British prosecutors announced last week that they would no longer pursue indecent assault charges against Weinstein because there was “no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction.”
Weinstein became a primary target of the #MeToo movement in 2017, when women began coming forward with accounts of his predatory behavior.
The co-founder of the film and television production company Miramax has always maintained that sexual activity was consensual.
His new trial in Manhattan is tentatively scheduled for November.