Speculation has mounted in recent weeks that Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer (CFO) of the Trump Organization, could cooperate with authorities in New York if he is indicted as part of a probe into former President Donald Trump’s businesses.
That question is winning renewed attention after a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict the Trump Organization and Weisselberg on Wednesday. The specific charges are not yet clear but reports suggest they are connected to tax-related offenses. The company was managed for years by former President Donald Trump.
It’s also not yet clear what charges Weisselberg faces but before the sealed indictments were handed down, the CFO was widely expected to face charges arising from allegations of unpaid taxes on fringe benefits he received from the company.
Prosecutors Close in on Trump With Indictments of His Company and Its CFO
The indictments are expected to be unsealed on Thursday.
Weisselberg has been in charge of the Trump Organization’s finances for decades and if he chooses to cooperate with investigators he could be a hugely important figure in any criminal prosecution.
Prosecutors are trying to convince Weisselberg to work with them, according to a Reuters report citing a source familiar with the investigation.
Weisselberg has chosen to cooperate with New York prosecutors in the past. When Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for hush-money payments to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels, Weisselberg was involved in reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000 payment.exchange for cooperating with the probe and he testified before a grand jury about the matter.
Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign finance violations, and subsequently became a harsh critic of his former boss. He told a committee of the House of Representatives in 2019 that Weisselberg was one of the executives who knew Trump had inflated the value of assets in statements to insurance companies.
“Allen Weisselberg knew every single dollar in, and every single dollar—not even dollar, to the penny,” Cohen told MSNBC in May. “Every single penny in and every penny out went through Allen Weisselberg’s desk, and then reported, before and after, to Donald J. Trump.”
Allen Weisselberg and Donald Trump
Weisselberg surrendered to authorities on Thursday, while the Trump Organization issued a a statement on the CFO’s indictment. That statement was shared on Twitter by Voice of America White House bureau chief Steve Herman.
“Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organization for 48 years,” the statement said.
“He is now being used by the Manhattan District Attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President. The District Attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing.”
“This is not justice; this is politics,” the statement said.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and New York attorney general’s office have reportedly been investigating whether the Trump Organization illegally misstated the value of assets for a variety of purposes, including securing loans and gaining tax benefits.
The AG’s investigation was initially a civil probe but they recently joined the criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan DA. Weisselberg could be the key to the New York investigation. He began working for Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, in 1973, and the former president claimed in 2007 that Weisselberg was the man who could identify the value of his assets.
Donald Trump was suing a journalist for defamation in an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit relating to claims he had inflated the value of his businesses. He was asked who would know the estimated value of the Trump Organization’s assets.
“I think ultimately probably Mr. Weisselberg,” Donald Trump said. “I never got too much involved, other than I would give my opinion.”(Courtesy Newsweek)
