Prosecutor: Trump knew about fraud scam
NEW YORK >> Donald Trump “knew exactly what was going on” with top Trump Organization executives who schemed for years to dodge taxes on companypaid perks, a prosecutor said Thursday, challenging defense claims that the former president was unaware of the plot at the heart of the company's tax fraud case.
Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass lobbed the bombshell allegation during closing arguments. He promised to share more details when he resumes today, buoyed by the judge's decision to grant prosecutors permission to veer into territory that had been considered off limits because Trump is on trial.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, overruling a defense objection after the jury had left court, said the company's lawyers opened the door by asserting in their closing arguments that Trump was ignorant of the scheme, hatched by his longtime finance chief just steps from his Trump Tower office.
“It was the defense who invoked the name Donald Trump numerous times,” Merchan said, setting up a potentially explosive final day of arguments.
Prosecutors had given mixed signals about Trump's importance to the case, telling a judge early on, “This case is not about Donald Trump,” but then repeatedly asking witnesses about him; showing a witness copies of Trump's tax returns and, ultimately, seeking to connect the dots to him in closing arguments.
Trump has denied any knowledge of the scheme, writing Tuesday on his Truth Social platform: “There was no gain for `Trump,' and we had no knowledge of it.”
Steinglass said the Trump Organization “cultivated a culture of fraud and deception” by lavishing luxe perks on executives and falsifying records to hide the compensation.
Steinglass' at-times fiery summation followed defense arguments that sought to focus blame for the fraud on Allen Weisselberg, the senior adviser and ex-CFO who has admitted scheming to avoid paying personal income taxes on a company-paid apartment, luxury cars and other goodies
“Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg,” Trump Organization lawyer Michael Van der Veen told jurors.
Steinglass pushed back when it was his turn, telling jurors: “Both halves of that sentence are wrong. It wasn't just Weisselberg doing it and it wasn't just Weisselberg who benefited.”
The Trump Organization, the entity through which Trump manages his real estate holdings and other ventures, is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives avoid paying income taxes on company-paid perks.
Steinglass argued that the Trump Organization — through its subsidiaries Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. — is liable because Weisselberg and an underling he worked with, controller Jeffrey McConney, were “high managerial” agents entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities.