Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is in legal peril again after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury.
The guilty pleas came out of Weisselberg’s testimony in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, NBC News reported. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended Weisselberg receive five months in jail; sentencing is set for April 10.
Bragg’s office alleged Weisselberg perjured himself in both a deposition and testimony for Trump’s civil fraud trial. Weisselberg is accused of lying in July 2020, when he said he only learned of the overvalued nature of Trump’s triplex apartment after reading about it in Forbes.
An article by the outlet in October revealed a paper trail contradicting Weisselberg’s claims made on the stand just days earlier regarding his knowledge of the Fifth Avenue apartment.
As part of his plea deal, Weisselberg also confessed to committing conduct underlying further perjury, which isn’t included in the charges he’s facing.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign said Bragg “committed repeated prosecutorial misconduct in his illegal, desperate pursuit” of the former president.
The ex-CFO didn’t enter into a cooperation agreement to testify against Trump at future trials, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Weisselberg previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges of tax fraud in connection with a long-running tax fraud scheme at the Trump Organization and was sentenced in Jan. 2023 to five months in jail. He also agreed to pay $2 million in back taxes.
Weisselberg was wrapped into Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling last month regarding liabilities in Trump’s civil fraud trial. Engoron ordered Weisselberg to pay $1 million plus interest after finding the former CFO liable for fraud, according to CNN.
The former president and his associates, meanwhile, were hit with a ruling to pay more than $350 million in damages from the case. Trump was also barred from running a business in New York for three years and recently had an argument to delay enforcement of the damages rejected, leading to an appeal.
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