Former Trump Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury in civil fraud trial

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of perjury in connection with his testimony in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.

“Mr. Weisselberg admits the charges,” attorney Seth Rosenberg told the judge in court.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended Weisselberg be sentenced to five months in prison and agreed to release him before his scheduled sentencing on April 10th.

The complaint accuses Weisselberg of perjury not only in his testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial, but also in his deposition. Bragg’s office said Weisselberg first learned in July 2020 that President Trump’s triplex apartment was dramatically overvalued after Forbes magazine published an article detailing the issue. It is said that he lied.

Mr. Bragg’s office also said that as part of his plea, Mr. Weisselberg admitted to committing other acts that constitute the basis of perjury.

“Lying in a deposition or at trial is, plain and simple, a crime,” a district attorney’s spokesperson said in a statement Monday.

“Allen Weisselberg swore an oath of truth, but he perjured himself both in depositions during the New York State Attorney General’s investigation and proceedings and in a recent trial,” the spokesperson said. “Today, Allen Weisselberg pled guilty to this felony charge and is being held accountable for his actions.”

“The harm he caused cracked our nation’s very justice system,” Assistant District Attorney Gary Fishman said in a statement.

Rosenberg He declined to comment as the hearing ended. But Rosenberg said in a later statement that his client “looks forward to bringing this situation to an end.”

In response to Weisselberg’s plea, Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan criticized Bragg, saying the Manhattan district attorney “violated the federal and state constitutions and Bragg’s actions in Trump’s illegal and desperate pursuit.” He claimed that he had “repeatedly committed prosecutorial misconduct” that violated his “ethical obligations.”

“Today, Bragg is waging a cyclical campaign of retaliatory and repressive pressure that culminates in Allen H. “This is a corrupt and corrupt election interference persecution tactic that will never be tolerated.” Allowed in America. ”

A source said Weisselberg had no plans to enter into a cooperative agreement to testify in a future trial. Mr. Weisselberg turned himself in to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Monday morning, said Daniel Filson, Mr. Bragg’s communications director.

President Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Weisselberg’s plea followed reports that he was negotiating to plead guilty to perjury charges for lying on the stand during Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial last year. During his testimony, Mr. Weisselberg was criticized for various financial statements he had approved.

New York Judge Arthur Engoron also requested comment on Weisselberg’s claim that he lied on the stand during Trump’s trial, but the former president’s lawyers said the request was “unprecedented. The company withheld its submission because it was “inappropriate, inappropriate, and troubling.”

This is Weisselberg’s second guilty plea. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges of tax evasion in a 15-year tax evasion scheme at the Trump Organization. He and his company were prosecuted by Mr. Bragg’s office in this case, and Mr. Bragg was sentenced to five months in prison. Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were found guilty and fined $1.6 million. Mr. Weisselberg agreed to pay $2 million in back taxes for years of concealing his income through off-the-books allowances, including tuition for his grandchildren, a luxury apartment, and two Mercedes-Benz cars.

Weisselberg was given time off for good behavior and released from prison after just over a few months.

Engoron last month ordered Trump, his adult son, business associates and the Trump Organization to pay more than $350 million in damages and banned the former president from operating a business in New York for three years. Mr. Engoron later rejected Mr. Trump’s request to delay enforcement of his damages against him. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling.

In his 92-page judgment in the civil fraud trial, Mr. Engoron said Mr. Weisselberg lacked credibility on the witness stand and that his “testimony in this trial was intentionally evasive and that he did not remember anything”. There was a gap.” The judge added that the testimony was “extremely unreliable” and said “the Trump Organization’s short leash on Mr. Weisselberg shows that.”