Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, is expected to plead guilty Thursday in a deal that would require him to testify against the former president’s firm.
Under the terms of the agreement, Weisselberg, who faced up to 15 years in prison, will spend just 100 days behind bars, the New York Times reported.
It is not necessary for Weisselberg to turn on Trump himself.
But the former Trump Organization Treasury official must admit to all 15 crimes he is accused of and testify about his role in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish corporate perks.
That testimony will make Weisselberg a key witness at the Trump Organization trial in October, where she will face many of the same charges.
He is not expected to implicate the former President or any of Trump’s family members in his testimony.
But the acknowledgment by one of the Trump Organization’s top executives that he committed the crimes will nullify any efforts by the company’s lawyers to argue that no crime was committed.
Law enforcement officials escort former Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization Allen Weisselberg, center, as he exits courthouse Friday, August 12, 2022 in New York
Donald Trump with Allen Weisselberg, Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, at a press conference in Trump Tower in May 2016
The guilty plea is just the latest event to undermine Trump’s campaign assertion that “Surround[s] me only with the best and most serious people.’
Prosecutors are expected to use Weisselberg’s testimony as a springboard for broader claims against the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg, 75, is the only Trump executive charged in the year-long criminal investigation launched by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who went to the Supreme Court to secure Trump’s tax records.
Vance’s successor Alvin Bragg is now leading the investigation. Several other Trump executives have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case.
Weisselberg began working for Trump’s father, Fred Trump, in 1973.
In the decades that followed, he rose through the ranks at the Trump Organization. He was the company’s controller in the late 1980’s and was appointed chief financial officer and vice president of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts in 2000. He was also a board member and treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
He has also taken on the household expenses of the Trump family.
On January 11, 2017, just prior to Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States, the Trump Organization announced that Weisselberg would lead the company alongside Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during Trump’s presidency.
That responsibility came despite public pressure at the time for Trump to divest himself entirely of the company when he was governing the country.
Weisselberg has unmatched knowledge of the internal financial workings of the Trump Organization and has been under intense pressure from prosecutors to cooperate in their investigation.
Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization planned to issue unofficial compensation to senior employees, including Weisselberg, for 15 years.
Weisselberg was accused of evading $1.7 million in income, including rent for a Manhattan apartment, lease payments for two Mercedes-Benz vehicles and college tuition for family members, with Trump himself signing tuition checks .
Prosecutors obtained tuition information by subpoenaing Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School for documents.
The children’s mother, Jennifer Weisselberg, told the Wall Street Journal that payments totaled $500,000 from 2012 to 2019.
He was also accused of defrauding the federal, state and city of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unearned tax refunds.
The Trump Organization itself is under scrutiny for its own tax practices: including inflating ratings when seeking credit while keeping scores low with the tax authorities, according to James’ office.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty. Donald Trump has not been charged with any crime.
He has described the New York investigations as a “political witch hunt” and that his company’s actions are standard practice in the real estate business and are in no way punishable.
The trial is scheduled for the end of October.
If the schedule goes ahead, the Trump organization will face trial during November’s midterm elections, which could see the former president’s Republican Party gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
Already some Republican leaders have been furious that Trump’s vote-fraud allegations may have cost him party control in the Senate in two Georgia runoffs in 2020.
Trump is also considering another presidential bid for 2024 and remains a potential rush following the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in connection with another probe related to the removal of classified White House material on him raised Florida Country Club.
Allen Weisselberg in the New York State Supreme Court last month
Allen Weisselberg ran the Trump Organization along with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during Trump’s presidency; above Allen Weisselberg, center, is seen at a press conference between President-elect Donald Trump (left) and Donald Trump Jr. in January 2017
Donald Trump Jr. testified in New York AG’s investigation into the finances of the Trump Organization
Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump are seen attending Ivana Trump’s funeral on July 20, 2022 in New York City. Ivanka’s testimony was delayed by the event
New York Attorney General Letitia James has spent months investigating the Trump Organization. Trump has repeatedly attacked their probe
Last week, Trump sat for testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about assets.
Trump has invoked his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination more than 400 times. This development was in sharp contrast to Trump’s earlier public statement on the constitutional right against self-incrimination. “See, the mob takes the fifth. If you’re innocent, why accept the Fifth Amendment?’
In the months following Weisselberg’s arrest, the criminal investigation appeared to be working towards a possible criminal charge against Trump himself, but investigations slowed, a grand jury was dissolved and a senior prosecutor left the country after Bragg took office in January — though he did continues to insist.
Weisselberg’s plea is just the latest development in an investigation also involving three of Trump’s adult children.
Son Eric Trump, an executive at the Trump Organization, also testified, repeatedly invoking himself on the Fifth Amendment.
Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. also testified after a court battle in recent weeks and came to a delayed appearance following the death of their mother Ivana. A New York appeals court ruled in May that Trump and his adult children must testify in James’ investigation.
Donald Trump Jr. is an executive who helped govern the country while his father was in the White House.
Don Jr. reportedly did not invoke the Fifth and answered investigators’ questions.
Ivana Trump was an unpaid White House Assistant at the Trump White House. She acted as a contact at Deutsche Bank, which acted as the company’s main lender.