Harvey Weinstein was extradited Tuesday to California — where he could make a court appearance involving sex-assault charges there as early as Wednesday.
The convicted sexual predator was whisked in the morning from the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York’s Erie County, where he had been serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault after his conviction in Manhattan in February 2020.
Weinstein, dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants, was taken out of the prison in a wheelchair, said a source familiar with the situation. The 69-year-old con’s walker was brought along for the journey.
“This morning at approximately 9:25 custody of Mr. Harvey Weinstein was handed over to the appropriate officials for transport to the state of California per a court order,’’ said a spokesman for the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in an e-mail.
Weinstein was then flown to the Million Air facility at Bob Hope Airport, arriving around 3 p.m. New York time, outside of downtown LA, according to Shutterstock. A photo showed Weinstein, now with a brown sweater over his shirt, getting help as he walked down the jet’s stairs to exit the plane.
The fallen movie mogul could end up in a Los Angeles courtroom as soon as Wednesday on 11 counts of rape, sexual battery and other charges involving five women in Los Angeles, his LA lawyer told the Los Angeles Times.
The raps could land Weinstein another 140 years to life behind bars if convicted.
One of Weinstein’s New York lawyers, Norman Effman, told The Post that LA authorities still have to arraign his client and will likely unseal the indictment against him. Under an interstate agreement, LA prosecutors have 120 days after Weinstein’s arrival to begin trial proceedings, he said.
“There won’t be a trial for four to six months,” Effman noted.
“We are confident about success at the trial,” he added.
Effman had tried arguing to an Erie judge last month that his client shouldn’t be extradited, saying the disgraced former Hollywood powerhouse had multiple medical issues that couldn’t get the proper sustained attention if he were imprisoned in LA, as opposed to at Wende.
Prosecutors vehemently denied the claim — and the judge ultimately rejected the attempt to block Weinstein’s extradition.
But Effman insisted Tuesday, “There’s a big difference between a jail and a prison,” noting that prisons are for long-term inmates, while jails are for short-term stays, affecting the quality of medical care their respective inmates get.
He said Weinstein, who suffers from issues including diabetes and cardiac and eye problems, “isn’t going anywhere,” meaning his client would have been secure waiting at Wende till trial in LA.
“He doesn’t need to be in LA until they pick a jury,” the lawyer said of Weinstein.