Prosecutors weigh perjury charge for ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg over civil fraud trial testimony
NEW YORK — Prosecutors in Manhattan are considering a possible perjury charge against Donald Trump’s former chief financial officer in connection with testimony he gave in October during the ex-president’s civil fraud trial in New York, two people familiar with the matter said to the Associated Press.
Allen Weisselberg, who had been the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, testified for two days at the trial, answering questions about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth in financial statements provided to banks and insurance companies.
It was not clear what part of Weisselberg’s testimony caught the attention of prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
A decision on whether to charge Weisselberg did not appear imminent. Bragg’s office was in the preliminary stages of discussions both internally and with Weisselberg’s legal team, the people said. They do not necessarily lead to criminal charges. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
News of a possible perjury charge was first reported by The New York Times. Messages seeking comment were left for Weisselberg’s attorneys. Bragg’s office declined comment. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which filed the civil lawsuit, also declined comment.
Weisselberg served 100 days in jail last year for evading taxes on $1.7 million in compensation off the Trump Organization’s books and remains on probation.
A new indictment, with the threat of more prison time, would upend the 76-year-old’s Florida retirement and could weigh on his fierce loyalty to his old boss, who continues to pay his $2 million severance and legal bills .
The investigation into the veracity of Weisselberg’s testimony in the civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal case Bragg filed against Trump last year over allegations that he falsified company records to cover up hush money payments. That process will begin at the end of March.
Both Bragg and James are Democrats.
As a witness in the civil case, Weisselberg downplayed his involvement in preparing Trump’s financial statements, which state attorneys say inflated the former president’s wealth by as much as $3.6 billion. He often failed to answer questions clearly, uttering variations of “I don’t remember” or “I can’t remember” more than 100 times, according to transcripts.
But Weisselberg was firm in his response on Oct. 10 when a state attorney asked him how Trump’s Trump Tower penthouse was overvalued based on figures that stated it was three times its actual size, at 1,022 square feet.
Weisselberg testified that he did not pay much attention to the size of the apartment because its value was a fraction of Trump’s wealth.
“I never even thought about the apartment. In my eyes it was de minimis,” Weisselberg said, using a Latin term that essentially means too small to care. “It wasn’t something that was that important to me when I was looking at a net worth of $6 billion, $5 billion,” Weisselberg added.
Weisselberg said he only learned of the difference in size of the Trump Tower penthouse when a reporter from Forbes magazine pointed it out to him in 2016. He testified that he initially disputed the magazine’s findings, but said he could not remember whether he instructed anyone to investigate the matter. .
“You can’t remember if you did anything to confirm who was right?” asked State’s Attorney Louis Solomon.
Weisselberg said no.
He was still on the witness stand when Forbes, whose reporters had discussed the size discrepancy with Weisselberg and publicly revealed it in 2017, published an article on its website suggesting he had committed perjury.
“Trump’s CFO Lied Under Oath for Years About the Trump Tower Penthouse,” the article’s headline read. Old emails and notes showed that Weisselberg had had extensive conversations with the magazine, trying to convince the writers that the penthouse was worth much more than they thought.
The Penthouse Gambit was one of several tricks that state attorneys say were used to exaggerate Trump’s net worth. A judge ruled in September that the financial statements were fraudulent, but he has yet to rule on other issues that were the subject of the two-and-a-half-month trial in which Weisselberg testified.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August 2022 to charges that he failed to pay taxes on $1.7 million in company benefits, including a Manhattan apartment, Mercedes-Benz cars for him and his wife, and his grandchildren’s college tuition.
He left New York City’s infamous Rikers Island in April, days after Trump was indicted in his hush-money criminal case in New York.
Under that plea deal, Weisselberg was required to testify as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organization went on trial for helping executives evade taxes. He did so carefully, laying out the facts of his own involvement in tax dodging, but taking care not to implicate Trump and telling jurors that his boss was unaware of the scheme.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Susan Necheles, told the AP last year that “Weisselberg’s testimony at trial was extremely helpful to the defense and damaged the prosecution.”
During last year’s grand jury investigation that led to Trump’s indictment, Bragg’s office raised the possibility of charging Weisselberg with more crimes stemming from his decades-long management of the Trump Organization’s finances.
Prosecutors suggested this could mean new charges related to his involvement in securing sureties and property valuations for the Trump Organization, alleged conduct that is the subject of James’ civil lawsuit.