NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselbergformer long-time executive of Donald TrumpNew York real estate empire, is expected to be sentenced Wednesday for lying under oath in the ex-president’s New York civil fraud case.
He is expected to be sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty last month to two counts of perjury. Weisselberg admitted he lied when he said he didn’t know much about how Trump’s Manhattan penthouse was valued in his financial statements at nearly three times its actual size.
This will be the second time the 76-year-old has been behind bars. Last year, he served 100 days in prison for evading taxes on $1.7 million in employee benefits, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.
Today, he is once again trading his retired life in Florida for another stay in the notorious Rikers Island prison complex in New York.
Both cases highlight Weisselberg’s unwavering loyalty to Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump’s family employed Weisselberg for nearly 50 years, then gave him a $2 million severance package when tax liabilities prompted him to retire. The company continues to pay its legal fees.
Weisselberg twice testified in trials that went poorly for Trump, but each time he went out of his way to suggest that his boss had committed no serious wrongdoing. His plea deal does not require him to testify in Trump’s secret criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.
In agreeing to a five-month sentence, prosecutors cited Weisselberg’s age and his willingness to admit wrongdoing. In New York, perjury is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors have vowed not to prosecute Weisselberg for other crimes he may have committed in connection with his employment at the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg’s expected sentence would mirror his previous case in which he was sentenced to five months in prison but could be released after just over three months for good behavior. Before that, he had no criminal record.
Trump’s lawyers challenged Weisselberg’s perjury prosecution, accusing the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of deploying “unethical and heavy-handed tactics against an innocent man in his mid-70s” while shutting down ” eyes” on perjury allegations against Michael Cohen, the former Trump. lawyer who is now a key prosecution witness in the hush money case.
A message seeking comment was left with Weisselberg’s attorney, Seth Rosenberg.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty on March 4. He admitted to lying under oath three times during his testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ trial against Trump: in depositions in July 2020 and May 2023 and on the witness stand during the trial in October last. However, to avoid violating his tax probation, he agreed to plead guilty only to charges related to his 2020 deposition testimony.
The size of Trump’s penthouse was a key issue in the civil fraud case.
Trump valued the apartment in his financial statements from at least 2012 to 2016 as if it measured 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters). A former Trump real estate official said Weisselberg provided the figure. The former executive said that when he asked the size of the apartment in 2012, Weisselberg responded, “It’s pretty big.” I think it’s about 30,000 square feet.
However, state lawyers noted, Weisselberg received an email early that year with attached a 1994 document that pegged Trump’s apartment at 10,996 square feet (1,022 square meters) . Weisselberg testified that he remembered the email but not the attachment and that he didn’t “walk around knowing the size” of the apartment.
After Forbes magazine published an article in 2017 disputing the size of Trump’s penthouse, its estimated value in its financial statements was reduced from $327 million to approximately $117 million.
While Weisselberg was testifying last October, Forbes published an article titled “Trump’s Longtime CFO Lied, Under Oath, About Trump Tower Penthouse.”
The civil fraud trial ended with Judge Arthur Engoron ruling that Trump and some of his executives conspired to deceive banks, insurers and others by lying about his wealth in financial statements used to enter into transactions and guarantee loans. The judge fined Trump $455 million and ordered Weisselberg to pay $1 million. They are both attractive.
In his ruling, Engoron said he found Weisselberg’s testimony “intentionally evasive” and “highly unreliable.”
Weisselberg is likely to be factored into Trump’s secret trial — even though he is in jail and not on the witness stand while it plays out.
Trump is accused of falsifying his company records to conceal payments during his 2016 campaign to bury stories of marital infidelity. This is the first of four Trump criminal cases set to go to trial. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.
Cohen said Weisselberg played a role in orchestrating the payments. Weisselberg has not been charged in the case and neither prosecutors nor Trump’s lawyers have indicated they will call him as a witness.
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