
Allen H. Weisselberg, former President Donald J. Trump’s longtime financial caretaker, pleaded guilty Monday to perjury charges in a Manhattan courtroom, the latest twist in a tortured legal odyssey.
Yet Mr. Weisselberg, who remained loyal to Mr. Trump for years despite intense pressure from prosecutors, did not implicate his former boss. This unbroken streak of loyalty has frustrated prosecutors and now, at the age of 76, it will cost Mr. Weisselberg his freedom a second time.
The plea deal with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg comes weeks before the former president is set to go on trial on unrelated criminal charges. That case, also brought by Mr. Bragg, stems from a hush-money payment made on Mr. Trump’s behalf to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr. Weisselberg, who was led into the courtroom in handcuffs, wearing a blue surgical mask and a dark suit, admitted that in recent years he had lied under oath to the then-New York attorney general’s office. that he was investigating Mr. Trump for fraud. Attorney General Letitia James sued Mr. Trump in 2022, accusing him of wildly inflating his net worth to obtain favorable loans and other perks.
That civil case recently ended with a judge imposing a huge financial penalty on the former president – more than $450 million with interest. Mr. Weisselberg, who was also a defendant in the case, was penalized $1 million plus interest and permanently barred from holding any financial position in a New York company.
Even though Mr. Weisselberg neither committed violence nor orchestrated an elaborate scheme, Mr. Bragg’s attorneys argued that perjury undermines the broader goals of justice and cannot be ignored.
Gary Fishman, one of the prosecutors, on Monday highlighted the harm caused by perjury, which he said «rips at the very fabric of our justice system.»
Prosecutors sought a five-month sentence for Mr. Weisselberg, acknowledging his age in reaching their recommendation; his sentencing before the judge overseeing the case, Laurie Peterson, is scheduled for April 10.
Mr. Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury related to his testimony during a July 2020 deposition to Ms. James’s office, stood placidly on Monday as he answered questions from the judge on his plea, often with one-word responses.
He also admitted to lying during the civil fraud trial, but did not plead guilty, which will spare him a harsher sentence.
“Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him,” one of Mr. Weisselberg’s lawyers, Seth L. Rosenberg, said in a statement released by his firm, Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder.
Mr. Weisselberg has often been caught in the middle of Mr. Trump’s legal woes, facing pressure from multiple law enforcement agencies in civil and criminal cases. As the longtime chief financial officer of Mr. Trump’s family business — his trusted financier — Mr. Weisselberg was seen as a pillar of efforts to implicate him.
Mr. Weisselberg was rewarded for his loyalty to the family he served for nearly half a century: When he left the company, the Trump Organization, last year, he received compensation of departure of 2 million dollars which required him not to cooperate with any law. law enforcement investigation, unless required by law.
He also paid the price. In 2022, Mr. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in a tax fraud case in which he admitted to giving himself unofficial perks, including a luxury apartment and a Mercedes-Benz. Although he did not implicate Mr. Trump, he agreed to testify against the Trump Organization during its trial on the same charges.
The company was found guilty and Mr. Weisselberg received a five-month sentence. With good behavior, he served nearly 100 days behind bars at the notorious Rikers Island prison complex.
Mr. Weisselberg now faces another stint at Rikers, a steep fall for a man who spent years in the Trump family business as a financial genius and bulldog dealmaker.
He lived in a Trump building. He helped prepare Mr. Trump’s tax returns. And he helped run Mr. Trump’s business after he was elected president.
Mr. Weisselberg did not respond to reporters’ questions Monday as he left the 100 Center Street courthouse after entering his plea. He piled into the backseat of a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside, surrounded by a phalanx of news photographers and television camera crews.
Mr. Weisselberg’s deal comes at an inopportune time for Mr. Trump, just weeks before his trial on a series of criminal charges accusing him of falsifying business documents related to the secret deal with the star. Stormy Daniels porn. .
The trial, the first criminal prosecution against a former president, is scheduled to begin with jury selection on March 25.
Mr. Bragg accused Mr. Trump of orchestrating a cover-up of a possible sex scandal involving Ms. Daniels that could have influenced the 2016 election.
Monday’s guilty plea could strengthen Mr. Bragg’s hand ahead of trial, dissuading other witnesses in Mr. Trump’s entourage from taking the stand. The perjury charges could also discredit Mr. Weisselberg, who was implicated in the secret affair and has disputed details of the prosecution’s evidence in that case.
For his part, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of persecuting Mr. Weisselberg. Mr. Trump’s allies lamented that Mr. Weisselberg must again serve time behind bars for up to 70 years. They also disputed that he lied in the civil fraud case brought by Ms. James, a fellow Democrat.
“This plea was undoubtedly extorted by threatening an elderly, innocent man with immediate and prolonged incarceration,” Christopher M. Kise, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, said in a statement. “Such alarming, shameful and oppressive tactics have no place in our justice system and expose the citizens of New York to irreparable and life-altering harm.” »
Ms. James filed her suit in 2022, and it led to a trial late last year. In February, the judge presiding over the non-jury case sided with the attorney general, concluding that Mr. Trump had manipulated the values of his properties. The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, imposed a wide range of sanctions, including a judgment of more than $450 million.
A focal point of the case — and of Mr. Weisselberg’s testimony — was Mr. Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower, which measures 10,996 square feet but had been listed for years in his statements annual financial statements as measuring 30,000 square feet.
Before Ms. James filed the lawsuit, in a sworn deposition in 2020, Mr. Weisselberg downplayed his involvement in the triplex’s valuation. He did the same in a second deposition last year, after the complaint was filed. And on the witness stand at trial, Mr. Weisselberg said he “never focused” on unity.
Yet soon afterward, Forbes magazine, which compiles a list of America’s richest people, published an article citing emails and notes showing that Mr. Weisselberg «played a key role in trying to convince Forbes for several years” of the value of the apartment.
In pleading guilty Monday to two counts related to the 2020 deposition, Mr. Weisselberg admitted to lying about when he learned the true size of the triplex and whether he had ever been present when Mr. Trump inflated its area.
He also admitted to lying during his second deposition and at his trial, but was not required to plead guilty.
Because he is pleading guilty only to lies committed in 2020 — before his guilty plea in the tax fraud case — Mr. Weisselberg avoided violating his probation and being labeled a criminal twice, which would have leads to a much longer sentence.
“There’s something for everyone,” said Marc A. Agnifilo, a veteran defense attorney. “The DA’s Office receives prison time and the defendant avoids substantial state prison time.”
Judge Engoron concluded that Mr. Weisselberg was not a credible witness at trial, in part because of his severance agreement, which is paid in installments over time, as if to keep Mr. Weisselberg in thrall of the Trump family.
«His testimony in this trial was intentionally evasive, with large ‘I don’t remember’ gaps,» the judge wrote in his ruling last month, adding that the severance agreement «makes his testimony very unreliable».
“The Trump Organization keeps Weisselberg in check,” the judge wrote. “And it shows.”
Wesley Parnell reports contributed.