Ex-Trump finance chief reportedly in talks over guilty perjury plea
A longtime Trump Organization executive is said to be negotiating with Manhattan prosecutors over a potential guilty plea for lying on the witness stand in Donald Trump’s fraud trial.
Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s former chief financial officer, who oversaw the company’s finances, is in the early stages of working on a perjury plea with the office of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The potential deal would intermingle Trump’s separate New York trials: a fraud trial over inflated financial statements, and a second case over a hush-money payment. Although Bragg’s office did not oversee the fraud trial, which is being prosecuted by the office of the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, Bragg’s office has been investigating a criminal case against Trump over an alleged hush-money payment made during his 2016 campaign.
Bragg’s office has charged Trump with falsifying business records. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, said “legal fees” that were reported on records were actually reimbursements for a payment Cohen made on Trump’s behalf to the former adult film star Stormy Daniels. Weisselberg helped coordinate Cohen’s reimbursement, Cohen has said.
In exchange for pleading guilty to perjury – a crime punishable with prison time – Weisselberg may not be called to the witness stand during the hush-money trial, according to the newspaper. That trial is scheduled to start in March.
Prosecutors are probably hoping that if Weisselberg admits to perjury it would dissuade other Trump allies from lying on the stand. Weisselberg, a decades-long employee of the Trump Organization and staunchly loyal ally of Trump, has also disputed that Trump was involved with the hush-money payment. Discrediting Weisselberg as a witness, even if prosecutors not end up calling him to the stand, could strengthen their case.
Lawyers for Weisselberg did not respond to requests for comment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the potential deal.
If Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury, it would be the second guilty plea deal the former Trump Organization executive has made with prosecutors. Weisselberg spent 100 days at Rikers jail in New York City after pleading guilty to tax fraud for dishing out off-the-table benefits to himself and other Trump executives.
Along with the former president, Weisselberg is a defendant in Trump’s civil fraud trial. Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and former Trump Organization executive Jeff McConney are also defendants. Trump is being sued for $370m for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements over the course of a decade.
Weisselberg testified early on in the trial, in October, and was often evasive on the stand, saying he did not recall much about what prosecutors were asking him.
A key moment of his testimony came when Weisselberg was asked about Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower. In financial documents, Trump reported that the triplex was 30,000 sq ft. In reality, the apartment is closer to 11,000 sq ft.
On the stand, Weisselberg said he did not notice the discrepancy on financial documents as he “never even thought” about the apartment. “It was de minimis, in my mind,” he said.
Forbes disputed this statement, though, saying it had emails and notes showing that Weisselberg for years tried to convince the magazine that the triplex was worth more than it actually was. Weisselberg abruptly ended his testimony after the article was published.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the fraud trial, has signaled that a verdict for the $370m will be filed by mid-February.