Trump Organization financial chief expected to plead guilty in New York tax evasion case
Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday in a tax-evasion case that is the only criminal prosecution to arise from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company, three people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was scheduled to be tried in October on allegations that he took more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the company, including rent, car payments and school tuition.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and Weisselberg’s lawyers met Monday with the judge, Juan Manuel Merchan, who is overseeing the case, according to court records. The judge then scheduled a hearing in the matter for 9 a.m. Thursday but did not specify the reason.
The people who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. They said the purpose of Thursday’s hearing was for Weisselberg to enter a guilty plea, but cautioned that plea deals sometimes fall apart before they are finalized in court.
Weisselberg’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr., told the New York Times on Monday that Weisselberg has been engaged in plea negotiations to resolve the case but did not specify terms of a potential deal. Reached by the AP, Gravante declined to comment.
The New York Times, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, said Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month jail sentence, which would make him eligible for release after about 100 days. The deal would not require Weisselberg to testify or cooperate in any way with an ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s business practices.
The former president was questioned under oath in the long-running civil investigation of his dealings as a real estate mogul.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is also charged in the case but did not appear to be involved in the plea agreement talks. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with a lawyer for the Trump Organization.
News of Weisselberg’s plea negotiations came days after the judge denied requests by his lawyers and the Trump Organization to throw out the case. The judge did drop one criminal tax fraud count against the company citing the statute of limitations, but more than a dozen other counts remain.
In seeking dismissal of the case, Weisselberg’s lawyers argued that prosecutors in the Democratic-led district attorney’s office were punishing him because he wouldn’t offer up damaging information against the former president.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg says a criminal investigation into former President Trump and his business practices is continuing “without fear or favor.”
The judge rejected that argument, saying that evidence presented to the grand jury was legally sufficient to support the charges.
Weisselberg, who turned 75 on Monday, is the only Trump executive charged in the years-long criminal investigation started by former Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr., who went to the Supreme Court to secure Trump’s tax records. Vance’s successor, Alvin Bragg, is now overseeing the investigation. Several other Trump executives have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case.
Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization schemed to give off-the-books compensation to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.
The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand larceny, carried a potential penalty of five to 15 years in prison. The tax fraud charges against the company are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.
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Trump has not been charged in the criminal probe, but prosecutors have noted that he signed some of the checks at the center of the case.
Trump, who has called the New York investigations a “witch hunt,” has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate business.
Last week, Trump sat for a deposition in New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked his 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
In the months after Weisselberg’s arrest, the criminal probe appeared to be progressing toward a possible criminal indictment of Trump, but the investigation slowed, a grand jury was disbanded and a top prosecutor left after Bragg took office in January — although Bragg says that the investigation is continuing.
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