Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to perjury after weeks of negotiations with Manhattan prosecutors, according to reports.
The Associated Press reports that Weisselberg, a top lieutenant to Donald Trump, admitted to lying during his deposition in the civil fraud case against the former president and his namesake company as well as during his testimony on the witness stand. The former CFO was also a defendant in that matter. Weisselberg surrendered to Manhattan attorney general Alvin Bragg’s office Monday morning and pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury. He faces five months in prison. It’s not expected that he will implicate his former boss with his new plea.
This is not the first time that Weisselberg has taken a plea deal in connection to his work as the Trump Organization’s top accountant. In 2022, the former executive admitted to an involved scheme to avoid paying taxes on luxury perks including rent and car payments, pleading guilty to 15 charges including conspiracy, criminal tax fraud, and falsifying business records. In that case, Weisselberg agreed to testify against his former company but stopped short of involving Trump himself after decades of loyalty. He was ultimately sentenced to five months in prison following his plea but was released early last April from Rikers Island for good behavior.
Last month, Arthur Engoron, the judge in the civil fraud trial, levied a $355 million penalty plus interest against Trump while barring him temporarily from running a New York–based company and applying for financial loans. Trump has already announced his intent to appeal the ruling, including the final sum, which totals about $454 million. As part of the judgment, Weisselberg was also hit with a $1 million fine, including interest, and he was permanently barred from serving as the financial officer of any company in the state.
Weisselberg’s plea comes ahead of the planned March 25 start of Bragg’s hush-money case, the first criminal trial involving a former president. Prosecutors allege that Trump arranged for his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about a pre-politics affair with Trump. They claim that Trump later reimbursed Cohen the money and disguised the payment’s intended purpose in company records. Though Weisselberg is unlikely to be called as a witness in that trial, his position could be useful to the district attorney. The New York Times suggests that the pending charge against Weisselberg could serve as a warning for future witnesses against lying under oath.
