Allen H. Weisselberg, the longtime financial lieutenant of former President Donald J. Trump, has been sentenced to five months in jail for perjury. This comes just before Mr. Trump’s trial, where he faces accusations of covering up a sex scandal. Mr. Weisselberg was not charged in the same case as Mr. Trump but found himself in legal trouble after refusing to turn on his former boss. He pleaded guilty to perjury charges related to an investigation into Mr. Trump’s financial statements, which ultimately led to a $454 million judgment against Mr. Trump and a $1 million penalty for Mr. Weisselberg.
Despite Mr. Trump’s lawyers denouncing the prosecution of Mr. Weisselberg due to his age, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization will likely be jailed throughout Mr. Trump’s criminal trial. Mr. Weisselberg, who worked for the Trump family for nearly half a century, had knowledge that could have been valuable to prosecutors but chose not to cooperate with them. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to tax fraud and agreed to testify against the Trump Organization but did not implicate Mr. Trump himself. The company was later convicted of financial crimes, and Mr. Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail.
Mr. Weisselberg’s guilty plea in 2020 stemmed from lies he told about Mr. Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower, specifically regarding its square footage. During the trial, Mr. Weisselberg was painted as a company man who had received a severance agreement worth $2 million, which prevented him from cooperating with law enforcement unless legally required. This agreement led Justice Engoron to deem Mr. Weisselberg’s testimony “highly unreliable.” Despite this, he will likely serve about 100 days with good behavior and be in jail during Mr. Trump’s trial.
Mr. Weisselberg’s allegiance to Mr. Trump at the expense of his own freedom has been a pattern throughout his legal saga. While he pleaded guilty to tax fraud and agreed to testify against the Trump Organization, he did not implicate Mr. Trump himself in any wrongdoing. Prosecutors believed he played a role in a hush-money payment connected to a sexual encounter that could have influenced the 2016 election but are moving forward with their case without his help. The indictment against Mr. Trump includes 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the alleged cover-up.
As Mr. Weisselberg serves his sentence in jail, the legal scrutiny surrounding Mr. Trump continues. The Manhattan district attorney’s office had been investigating Mr. Trump for years, with Mr. Weisselberg’s knowledge of the Trump Organization making him a potentially significant asset for prosecutors. However, his refusal to cooperate with them ultimately led to his own legal troubles. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have pointed to Mr. Weisselberg’s age and argued that he is an innocent victim of the broader legal scrutiny of Mr. Trump and his associates.
