Ex-Trump Organization CFO to plead guilty to perjury – NYT
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty to perjury charges stemming from his testimony in a civil fraud trial against former US President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported on Monday.
His plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors could come as early as Monday, sources familiar with the matter told the Times.
A lawyer for Weisselberg and a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Weisselberg, 76, said on the witness stand in October that he was not involved in an incorrect valuation of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse – one of a series of misleading financial statements that New York State Attorney General Letitia James said amounted to a fraudulent effort to dupe lenders.
Forbes later published a report accusing Weisselberg of lying on the stand. The magazine said a review of old emails and notes showed he sought to convince its reporters over several years that the apartment was worth more than it truly was.
Trump’s 2015 financial statement valued the unit at $327 million based on an estimate that it was 30,000 square feet, nearly three times its actual size. James called the valuation “absurd.”
Weisselberg has not been charged with perjury.
He was ordered last month to pay $1.1 million, including interest as Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was found liable for manipulating his net worth in a civil fraud case brought by New York State’s attorney general.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the trial part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing his third run for the White House.
As part of the agreement, Weisselberg will admit he lied during his testimony and could concede to misleading investigators from the New York attorney general’s office, the Times said. He is not expected to cooperate against the former president.
The expected plea is the latest legal woe for Trump’s longtime loyal deputy, who worked for the former president’s family for half a century.
He spent around three months in New York’s Rikers Island jail in 2023 after pleading guilty to participating in a 15-year tax fraud scheme at the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg had testified at the Trump Organization’s 2022 trial that found the company guilty of all charges and fined $1.6 million. Trump was not charged in that case.