NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim Tuesday against New York City, alleging that he is receiving substandard medical treatment in unhygienic conditions while in custody at the notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
The notice of claim, which is the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city, accuses the facility of failing to manage the former movie mogul's medical conditions, which include chronic myeloid leukemia and diabetes, and negligence ranging from “freezing” conditions to a lack of clean clothes.
The city's law department and Department of Correction did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IV’s, clothes that had not been washed for weeks, and he had not even been provided clean underwear – hardly sanitary conditions for someone with severe medical conditions,” Weinstein's attorney, Imran H. Ansari, said in a statement, comparing the facility to a “gulag."
Weinstein, 72, has been in city custody since earlier this year, after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction in the state. The case is set to be retried in 2025. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing.
Weinstein was briefly hospitalized in April and again in July for health problems. His team has said he's been treated for diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, COVID-19, and fluid on his heart and lungs.
The legal claim, which seeks $5 million in damages, argues he’d been returned to Rikers each time before he had fully recovered.
Weinstein's film production company went into bankruptcy proceedings after his convictions, setting up a $17 million fund for a sexual misconduct claims fund.
The Rikers Island jail is slated to be closed in 2027, but the city has pushed back deadlines to do so.
FILE - Harvey Weinstein, center, appears in criminal court in New York, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool, File)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team.
Trump on Tuesday announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council.
While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy.
The president-elect also announced a number of other key personnel choices, including Vince Haley, who led Trump's speechwriting department in his first term, as director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.”
Greer previously served as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, Trump's former trade representative who is deeply skeptical of free trade. Greer is currently a partner at the King & Spalding law firm in Washington. He was not immediately available for comment.
If confirmed as trade representative, Greer would be responsible for negotiating directly with foreign governments on trade deals and disputes, as well as memberships in international trade bodies such as the World Trade Organization.
He told The New York Times in June that the view of Trump officials was that tariffs “can help support U.S. manufacturing jobs in particular, especially to the extent that they’re remediating an unfair trade practice.”
His nomination comes a day after Trump promised to slap huge new tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States — including a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China — as one of his first executive orders.
As director of the White House National Economic Council, Hassett brings into Trump's administration a major advocate for tax cuts.
Trump said Hassett “will play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation that was unleashed by the Biden Administration” and that together they would “renew and improve” the 2017 tax cuts, many of which are set to expire after 2025.
Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017.
As part of Hassett’s farewell announcement in 2019, Trump called him a “true friend” who did a “great job.” Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is located at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help deal with the pandemic.
In Trump's second term, Hassett would join a White House seeking to preserve and expand its 2017 tax cuts at a time when deficit pressures are weighing on federal borrowing costs.
He has argued that the tax cuts helped to meaningfully boost household incomes. Inflation-adjusted median household incomes jumped more than $5,400 in 2019 to $81,210. But the tax cuts also came with higher budget deficits as any economic gains failed to offset lost revenues, setting up a challenge for the incoming Trump administration to manage the debt even as it cuts taxes and seeks to hold down inflation.
Also included in Tuesday's nomination announcements was private investor, campaign donor and art collector John Phelan, chosen to serve as Navy secretary. Phelan co-founded MSD Capital, the private investment firm for Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. It is unclear whether Phelan served in the Navy or military.
Boak reported from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - White House senior adviser Kevin Hassett speaks with reporters at the White House, June 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - White House senior adviser Kevin Hassett speaks as President Donald Trump and others listen during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 5, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
