Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to perjury in a Manhattan court Monday, the Associated Press reported. The 76-year-old is on the hook for statements he made testifying during former President Donald Trump's civil fraud case in New York.
The plea deal means Weisselberg will serve five months in jail after his April sentencing hearing. He's already spent 100 days in prison for failing to pay taxes on gifts from his employer.
The retired CFO had been employed by the Trump family for almost half a century. Weisselberg was respected and treated well, including receiving a $2 million severance upon his retirement.
Trump has continued to pay his legal bills through all of the ordeal. However, Trump's detractors have been after Weisselberg in an attempt to use those connections to get Trump on something significant.
Weisselberg is useful to the courts as Trump is the target of several cases. One of those cases includes prosecution over alleged hush money payments brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
"It is a crime to lie in depositions and at trial — plain and simple," a statement from Bragg's office noted. The trial is set for March 25, but part of the plea deal includes an agreement that Weisselberg won't have to testify further in that case.
The former CFO accepted two counts of perjury for allegedly lying during a lawsuit New York Attorney General Letitia James brought against Trump for allegedly overvaluing his assets. As the CFO, Weisselberg would have known the value and cooperated in the supposed scheme but claimed not to.
The charges come from Weisselberg's testimony given in July 2020 and May 2023. However, he has only copped to the most recent testimony so as not to interfere with the plea bargain on his tax evasion case.
"Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him," a statement from his attorney Seth Rosenberg said. Weisselberg's ordeal may be mostly behind him, but he's only a pawn in a larger game.
Throughout these trials, Trump has maintained his innocence and said it was the work of Bragg, a partisan Democrat. Trump's attorney, Christopher Kise, railed against Weisselberg's prosecution as bait to catch Trump, the bigger fish.
"This plea was no doubt extorted by threatening an elderly and innocent man with immediate and lengthy incarceration. 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," Kise said.
Caught up in the scheme is Weisselberg, who was handcuffed despite his old age and the fact that he surrendered himself. Judge Laurie Petersen questioned him in the Manhattan court about his knowledge of the value of Trump's luxury penthouse in Manhattan.
"You knew that testimony was false?" Petersen asked him. "Yes," Weisselberg responded.
Trump is getting closer to becoming the nominee in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Democrats are scared of the prospect of another Trump presidency, and these cases and the collateral damage they're causing are likely linked to that fact.
