NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s longtime financial chief is expected to plead guilty starting Thursday in a tax evasion case that is the only criminal charge resulting from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company, three known people with the case told The Associated Press.
Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, was set to face trial in October on charges that he received more than $1.7 million in unofficial compensation from the company, including rent, car payments and school fees.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and Weisselberg’s attorneys met Monday with the judge overseeing the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, according to court records. The judge then scheduled a hearing in the case for Thursday at 9 a.m. but did not specify the reason.
The people who spoke to the AP did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly. They said the goal of Thursday’s hearing was for Weisselberg to plead guilty, but warned that plea deals sometimes fall apart before finalizing in court.
Weisselberg’s attorney Nicholas Gravante Jr. told The New York Times Monday that Weisselberg is in plea negotiations to resolve the case, but did not specify terms for a possible plea deal. Reached by the AP, Gravante declined to comment.
The Times quoted two people with knowledge of the case as saying that Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month prison sentence, which would qualify him for release after about 100 days. The deal would not require Weisselberg to testify or in any way cooperate with an ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s business practices.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is also being charged in the case, but did not appear to be involved in the plea negotiations. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded innocent.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to comment. A message requesting comment was left with a Trump organization attorney.
News of Weisselberg’s plea negotiations came days after the judge rejected requests from his lawyers and the Trump Organization to drop the case. The judge did drop one tax fraud charge citing the statute of limitations, but there are more than a dozen other counts.
In seeking dismissal from the case, Weisselberg’s attorneys argued that prosecutors in the Democrat-led district attorney are punishing him for failing to offer harmful information about the former president.
The judge rejected that argument, saying the evidence presented to the grand jury was legally sufficient to substantiate the charges.
Weisselberg, who turned 75 Monday, is the only Trump executive to be charged in the year-long criminal investigation launched by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who went to the Supreme Court to secure Trump’s tax records. . Vance’s successor, Alvin Bragg, is now leading the investigation. Several other Trump executives have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case.
Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization had plans to give unofficial compensation to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was charged with defrauding the federal, state and city of over $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unearned tax refunds.
The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand theft, was facing a possible prison sentence of five to 15 years. The tax fraud charge against the company is punishable by a fine of double the amount in unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is greater.
Trump has not been charged in the criminal investigation, but prosecutors have noted that he signed some of the checks in the middle of the case. Trump, who has labeled the New York investigations a “political witch hunt,” has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate industry and were not a crime in any way.
Last week, Trump sat for a statement in the parallel civil investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked the protection of his Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
In the months following Weisselberg’s arrest, the criminal investigation appeared to be progressing toward a possible criminal charge against Trump himself, but the investigation slowed, a grand jury was dissolved and a top prosecutor left after Bragg took office in January — though he insists that it’s continued.
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