Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg to take plea deal that will require him to TESTIFY against the company

Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump’s longtime financial chief, is expected to plead guilty on Thursday in a deal that will require him to testify against the former president’s company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Weisselberg, who was facing up to 15 years in prison, will spend as little as 100 days behind bars, The New York Times reported.

It does not require Weisselberg to turn on Trump himself.

But the former financial officer at the Trump Organization will have to admit to all 15 felonies he was charged with and will have to testify about his role in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish corporate perks.

That testimony will make Weisselberg a central witness in the October trial of the Trump Organization, where it will face many of the same charges.

He is not expected to implicate the former president nor any Trump family members in his testimony.

But the acknowledgment from one of the Trump Organization’s top executives that he committed the crimes will undercut any effort by the company’s lawyers to argue that no crime was committed.

Donald Trump with Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg at a news conference at Trump Tower in May 2016

Prosecutors are expected to use his testimony as a springboard to broader claims against the Trummp Organization. 

Weisselberg, 75, is the only Trump executive charged in the yearslong criminal investigation started 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 overseeing the investigation. Several other Trump executives have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case.

Weisselberg began working for Trump’s father, Fred Trump, in 1973.

He climbed the ranks at the Trump Organization in the decades that followed. By the late 1980s, he was controller of the company and, in 2000, was named chief financial officer and vice president of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. He also was a board member and treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

He has also handled the household expenses of the Trump family.

On January 11, 2017, shortly before Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States, the Trump Organization announced that Weisselberg would manage the company along with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during Trump’s presidency.

Weisselberg has unprecedented knowledge of the Trump Organization and was under heavy pressure from prosecutors to cooperate in their investigation.

Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization scheme to give off-the-books compensation to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. 

Weisselberg was charged with evading $1.7 million of income, including rent for a Manhattan apartment, lease payments for two Mercedes-Benz vehicles and tuition for family members, with Trump signing checks for the tuition himself.

He also was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds. 

The defendants have pleaded not guilty. Donald Trump has not been charged with any crimes.

Trump, who has decried the New York investigations as a ‘political witch hunt,’ has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate business and in no way a crime.

The trial is scheduled for late October.

If the schedule holds, the Trump Organization will be on trial during the November midterm elections where the former president’s Republican Party could win control of one or both houses of Congress. 

Trump is also considering another presidential bid for 2024. 

Allen Weisselbrg in New York State Supreme Court last month 

Allen Weisselberg managed the Trump Organization, along with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., during Trump’s presidency; above Allen Weisselberg, center, is seen between President-elect Donald Trump, left, and Donald Trump Jr. at a news conference in January 2017

Last week, Trump sat for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. 

Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

In the months after Weisselberg’s arrest, the criminal probe appeared to be progressing toward a possible criminal indictment of Trump himself, but the investigation slowed, a grand jury was disbanded and a top prosecutor left after Bragg took office in January – although he insists it is continuing.