NEW WOE FOR DON: MONEY MAN HAS IMMUNITY
Deal with feds probing payoffs to porn star and Playboy model
The Trump Organization’s top bookkeeper has cut an immunity deal with federal prosecutors who are investigating hush payments issued to President Trump’s alleged paramours before the 2016 election, according to a report Friday.
Allen Weisselberg, the company’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, testified before a federal grand jury earlier this year as Manhatten federal prosecutors investigated Michael Cohen for paying a pair of women to keep quiet about allegedly having sex with Trump over a decade ago, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Few details are known about Weisselberg’s immunity deal, but experts noted he have been granted it if he didn’t have criminal liability in the pre-election payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy playmate Karen McDougal.
“People who don’t have criminal exposure don’t need immunity,” tweeted Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Illinois specializing in white collar crime. “Prosecutors wouldn’t have given him immunity if the information provided by Weisselberg was not valuable.”
Prosecutors have also granted immunity to David Pecker, a longtime close friend of Trump who runs the company that publishes the National Enquirer, and one of the supermarket tabloid’s top editors, Dylan Howard.
The Enquirer used a tactic known as “catch-and-kill” to buy the rights to potentially damaging stories about Trump, including claims from McDougal, who says she slept with the President in 2006.
Pecker reportedly told prosecutors details about payments that Cohen says Trump directed in the weeks and months before the election to buy the silence of McDougal and Daniels.
Daniels, who also says she had sex with Trump in 2006, was paid $130,000. McDougal was paid $150,000.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now working on Trump’s personal legal team, said the President is not worried about Weisselberg or Pecker being granted immunity.
“They’re only trying to corroborate the fact that Cohen was reimbursed for the payments,” Giuliani told the Daily News. “They’re trying to reconstruct it.”
Giuliani also repeated the President’s assertion that no
campaign finance laws were broken because campaign funds were not used to reimburse Cohen.
However, money doesn't have to come out of the campaign for such laws to be broken. Any unreported payments made to directly benefit political campaigns can constitute illegal donations.
An attorney for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.
Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday to eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance violations relating to the Daniels and McDougal payments.
He admitted in his plea agreement that Trump knew of the arrangements at the time and said the payments were for the purpose of influencing the election.
Trump has denied the affairs with Daniels and McDougal, but has repeatedly altered his account of whether and when he knew of the payments and how Cohen was reimbursed for the underthe-table deals.
Prosecutors said Trump's company — which develops and operates Trumpbranded hotels, condos and golf courses and oversees the licencing of the President's name — was deeply tied to Cohen's malfeasance.
As the company's chief financial officer, Weisselberg's testimony could prove crucial beyond Cohen's hush payments.
“The New York attorney general is investigating whether there were false entries in the Trump Organization financial records,” Mariotti said. “Weisselberg's testimony could be helpful in that investigation. In my view, his value to prosecutors is that he knows how the company runs.”
Weisselberg has worked for the Trump Organization since 2000, reporting directly to the now-President and overseeing all of the company's financial activity. Before joining Trump, Weisselberg worked for decades as a real estate accountant for Trump's father, Fred.
Lanny Davis, Cohen's attorney, has said his client has more information that could be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election meddling and the possibility that people on the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.
Mariotti didn't rule out the possibility that Weisselberg also sits on information pertinent to the special counsel.
“Clearly Weisselberg's testimony helped the case against Cohen, but that doesn't mean he hasn't or won't implicate others,” Mariotti said. “Time will tell whether Weisselberg provides testimony against Trump and others.”
Giuliani, on the other hand, said Trump is not concerned at all about Mueller talking to either Weisselberg or Pecker.
“We're not troubled at all. That investigation is about obstruction and collusion,” he said.