Ex-Trump CFO, 75, is out of jail

Weisselberg served 3 months

NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at Donald Trump’s company, got out of jail Wednesday but may not be done with his involvement in cases with the former president.

The 75-year-old emerged from New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex facing the same pressures he was under three months ago, when he started serving time for tax evasion.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office could potentially want Weisselberg as a witness in its historic criminal case against Trump, which involves a scheme to suppress negative stories about the Republican during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Some people close to Weisselberg have advised him to do what it takes to spare himself more legal peril.

The Trump family, meanwhile, may have an interest in keeping Weisselberg loyal. The Trump Organization is making severance payments to Weisselberg and paying his legal bills.

The former executive’s recent decision to switch lawyers, away from the attorneys who represented him in the tax case, has prompted speculation he might be drawing closer to the famous family that employed him for nearly 50 years.

The company has, so far, supported Weisselberg, calling him a victim of a “never ending witch-hunt.” The lawyer who represented Weisselberg during the trial, Nicholas Gravante, said after his former client’s release from jail Wednesday that “anyone who truly knows Allen feels sorry that he had to go through this.”

“I hope he can now retire in peace, spend time with his wonderful family, and leave the circus in the rear-view mirror,” Gravante said.

With his intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial dealings, Weisselberg would be a valuable witness in Trump’s criminal case.

The former president is accused of directing underlings to falsify company business records to disguise payments made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, as reimbursement and reward for his work buying the silence of people with stories about Trump’s alleged marital infidelity.

In court filings, prosecutors said Weisselberg advised Cohen how to pay off two women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump, and later arranged for Cohen to be paid $420,000 for that work in 12 installments.

Trump has pleaded not guilty, saying the charges are politically motivated. Trump also says he didn’t have affairs with the women.