Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive of the Trump Organization who pleaded guilty to tax-related charges in 2022, is reportedly negotiating a plea deal on a pending perjury charge. This case stemmed from Donald Trump’s fraud trial in Manhattan.
The potential deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office allegedly requires Weisselberg to admit that he lied in his testimony in Trump’s other trial and in his meetings with the New York Attorney General.
The deal, first reported by the New York Times, came after Weisselberg was convicted in 2022 on 15 counts of violating New York’s tax law after prosecutors alleged that he participated in a years-long “systematic” fraud scheme. The case involved an “extensive and audacious illegal payment” arrangement in which Trump’s companies provided Weisselberg with generous benefits not reported for tax purposes, including free apartments, luxury car leases and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
Another possible plea deal comes after years of parallel criminal and civil litigation by the New York Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney, who allegedly sought Weisselberg’s cooperation in a criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged financial crimes. That case is expected to go to trial on March 25. Trump denies the accusation.
According to the Times, Weisselberg is not expected to testify against his former boss in this case.
The Independent contacted Weisselberg’s lawyer and a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for comment but has not yet received a response.
If he reaches a deal with prosecutors, it would be the second time in recent years that Weisselberg has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a series of fraud and tax evasion allegations in New York civil and criminal courts.
Last year, Trump’s former top financial aide spent 100 days in Rikers Island Prison and testified in a fraud case targeting Trump’s family-owned real estate empire.
He was also implicated in a tax fraud case involving two Trump Organization subsidiaries, among the first Trump-linked entities to be convicted. A jury in New York found Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation guilty on more than a dozen legal charges and fined them $1.6 million.
It remains unclear which statements Weisselberg will admit were false. Weisselberg is also a defendant in a fraud case against Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and a number of Trump-linked entities.
During Weisselberg’s time on the witness stand, state attorneys grilled him about what he knew about the preparation of the financial statements, the documents at the center of the case.
According to the lawsuit, these documents contained grossly inflated valuations of Trump’s net worth and assets in order to obtain favorable financing terms for some of his branding properties.
The Attorney General’s Office is seeking to recover $370 million in so-called “ill-gotten gains” that the defendants would not have received had the documents in question been accurate assessments of Trump’s wealth.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also wants Trump and Weisselberg banned from the state’s real estate industry for the rest of their lives.
After 11 weeks of hearings, the presiding judge is expected to make a final decision by mid-February.
