Former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury in the ex-president’s civil fraud case

Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of lying under oath in the case over allegations that Trump lied about his wealth in financial statements provided to banks and insurance companies.

New York: Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of Donald Trump’s company, pleaded guilty Monday in New York to perjury in connection with his testimony in the ex-president’s civil fraud case. Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and will be sentenced to five months in prison — what would be his second stint behind bars after 100 days last year in an unrelated tax fraud case.

The pleas related to testimony he gave during a July 2020 deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against Trump, but on Monday he also admitted in court, without pleading guilty, that he witness stand had lied during the former president’s civil fraud trial last year. fall.

Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of lying under oath in the case over allegations that Trump lied about his wealth in financial statements provided to banks and insurance companies. “Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him,” his attorney Seth Rosenberg said in a statement.

After The New York Times reported last month that Weisselberg was in negotiations to plead guilty to perjury, Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over the fraud trial, ordered attorneys to provide details related to the Times report.

Trump is appealing Engoron’s judgment, ordering him to pay more than $454 million in fines and interest for providing fraudulent information about the value of his assets based on years of financial data.

Weisselberg’s new criminal case comes just weeks before Trump is set to stand trial on separate charges that he falsified company records. That case involves allegations that Trump falsified company records to cover up hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing.

Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has said Weisselberg played a role in orchestrating the payments, but he has not been charged in that case, and neither prosecutors nor Trump’s lawyers have indicated they will have him as a witness to call to action. That process starts on March 25.

Weisselberg’s case is separate from the criminal case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed against Trump last year.

Weisselberg previously served 100 days in jail last year after pleading guilty to evading taxes on $1.7 million in off-the-book compensation from the Trump Organization. He is still on probation. He had no criminal record before that.

He left New York City’s infamous Rikers Island in April, days after Trump was indicted in his hush-money criminal case in New York.

Under that plea deal, Weisselberg was required to testify as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organization went on trial for helping executives evade taxes. He did so carefully, laying out the facts of his own involvement in tax dodging, but taking care not to implicate Trump and telling jurors that his boss was unaware of the scheme.