Trump CFO Weisselberg surrenders to authorities

Donald Trump's longtime finance chief surrendered early Thursday to New York authorities for arraignment in the first criminal indictment arising from a two-year investigation into the former president's company.

Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was photographed walking into a building that houses both the criminal courts and the Manhattan district attorney's office around 6:20 a.m.

Weisselberg, 73, was due to be arraigned in the afternoon on a grand jury indictment charging him and Trump's namesake company with tax crimes related to fringe benefits given to employees, like the use of apartments, cars and school tuition, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The indictment, returned Wednesday, will remain under seal until Weisselberg's court appearance, the people said. They were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity.

Weisselberg's lawyers, Mary

Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said in a statement that the executive will plead not guilty and "fight these charges in court."

A lieutenant to generations of Trumps, Weisselberg has intimate knowledge of the former president's business dealings and the case could give prosecutors the means to pressure him into cooperating with an ongoing probe into other aspects of the company's business.

So far, though, there's no sign that the man regarded by Trump's daughter Ivanka as a "fiercely loyal" deputy who's "stood alongside my father and our family" for decades will suddenly turn on them.

In a statement Thursday, the Trump Organization defended Weisselberg, saying the 48-year employee was being used by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office as "a pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president."

"This is not justice; this is politics," the Trump Organization said, arguing that neither the IRS nor any other district attorney would ever think of bringing such charges over employee benefits.