Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was wheeled into a Queens courtroom Thursday morning for a brief appearance before a judge – just days after he was transferred back to Rikers Island from a cushy private room at Bellevue Hospital.
The 72-year-old — who had his 2020 New York sex crimes conviction dropped last month — wore a blue suit with an American flag pin on the left lapel as Judge Joanne Watters quickly sent him back to jail to await further proceedings.
Defense attorneys John Esposito and Diana Fabi Samson declined to waive an extradition hearing that could send Weinstein to California, where he was convicted on separate sex charges in 2023.
“A governor needs to sign such a warrant of extradition and we took the position that the governor, the people need to produce the appropriate documentation for an extradition,” Samson told reporters after the Thursday hearing.
“They are not in a position to extradite Mr. Weinstein right now because they have not done what they need to do.”
Queens Assistant DA George Deluca-Farrugia was also present at the hearing, but did not address reporters afterwards.
Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmeyer previously told The Post that California was “obligated” to request his extradition.
“As he’s not technically a criminal in New York, he’s technically a fugitive of California justice. It’s Gavin Newsome’s way of showing his electorate that he’s ‘doing something’ about Harvey,” Engelmeyer explained.
While Weinstein’s team is set to fight the extradition, New York officials would welcome the opportunity to pass the sex pest to another state.
“We’d be happy if California would just take this guy off our hands already,” one Department of Corrections source told The Post.
When asked about Weinstein’s current condition, Samson said that her high-profile client “has some very serious health issues.”
“He is holding up as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” she explained.
Following the conviction reversal, Weinstein spent a few days in a private room in the intensive care unit of Bellevue Hospital, but was booted back to Rikers earlier this week.
He appeared to be in relatively good health in court Thursday – and even toted a mammoth hardcover version of the new biography of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
“None of us…have any influence over the healthcare that’s provided to Mr. Weinstein,” Craig Rothfield, Weinstein’s prison health advocate, told The Post of the criticism about the former Miramax exec’s cushy digs.
“There have been false narratives about what that room is like. And we just want to make sure that everybody understands – and so does Mr, Weinstein – that these decisions are made by [the hospitals],” he explained.
In February 2023, a Los Angeles judge sentenced Weinstein to 16 years behind bars for the 2013 rape of Italian model Evgeniya Chernyshova.
That sentence was meant to be served consecutively with his 23-year rap for the New York conviction rape and criminal sex acts.
On April 25, however, the New York State Court of Appeals reversed the New York ruling on the grounds that the judge on the case made a series of errors that prevented a fair trial.
Shortly after the court reversal, Engelmayer said that Weinstein’s team expected the ex-Miramax honcho to “have to go out to LA to serve some time there.”
The “Shakespeare in Love” producer’s legal team now views the New York reversal as an asset to their appeal in the Los Angeles case.
“That jury was under the assumption that Mr. Weinstein had been fairly convicted in New York, and that didn’t turn out to be true,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean told The Post late last month.
“So I’m very optimistic about the California case,” she added.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has said that Weinstein’s retrial could come as soon as this fall.