Former Trump accountant Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury for lying at fraud trial:- Allen Weisselberg, who used to be the Trump Organization’s CFO, admitted on Monday that he lied at the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump. He was charged with perjury.
Former Trump accountant Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury for lying at fraud trial
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Weisselberg of lying under oath when he answered questions about claims that Trump lied about his wealth on financial documents given to banks and insurance companies in May and at the trial in October.
The judge said that Weisselberg would spend five months in jail. The sentencing date is April 10.
He said, “Allen Weisselberg is looking forward to putting this behind him.” This was said by his lawyer, Seth Rosenberg.
For a different crime, Weisselberg has already been in jail for tax theft and making false business records. And he got a $2 million settlement when he quit the Trump Organisation. He also hasn’t worked with the government’s lawyers while appearing in Trump’s fraud trial.
Get ready for the election by reading our Voter Guide, which lists the candidates for president and lets you compare how they stand on important topics.
Trump was found guilty of civil fraud and was fined $454 million because he lied about the value of his property to get better deals from lenders, like lower interest rates.
If someone is found guilty of fraud, it could serve as a warning to other witnesses in Bragg’s trial against Trump on March 25 for allegedly lying about business records. Trump has said he is not guilty.
Also Read:-Haiti in state of emergency as gangs overtake prisons, PM struggles to get UN peacekeepers
Weisselberg on ‘short leash’ at Trump Organization: judge
Trump was charged with civil theft in October, and Weisselberg said in court that he “never focused” on how big Trump’s penthouse apartment in Trump Tower was. Trump’s financial documents showed the flat as being almost three times as big as it really was—only 10,996 square feet. This led to a $200 million value error.
But Forbes magazine had talked to Weisselberg for years about how much the flat was worth while figuring out how much Trump was worth.
Weisselberg’s testimony was “intentionally evasive, with large gaps of ‘I don’t remember.'” This is what New York Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his decision about the case.
Engoron wrote, “The Trump organisation keeps Weisselberg on a short leash, and it shows.”
Weisselberg has already been jailed for work at Trump Organization
Weisselberg was the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer from 2002 to 2022. That’s when he pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud for not telling the government about $1.7 million in benefits and for making up business records.
He got five months in jail and was let out after 100 days. According to New York Judge Juan Merchan, Weisselberg’s criminal trial testimony made him feel bad about agreeing to a five-month jail sentence. He said that if the plea deal hadn’t happened, he “would be imposing a sentence much greater than that.”
Merchan will also be in charge of Trump’s criminal hearing. People say that Trump lied on business records to hide the fact that he paid hush money to an adult film star and a former Playboy model.
A person who works for Trump said that Bragg was ignoring the fact that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and a key witness in both the fraud case and the upcoming criminal case, was lying. Cohen agreed to the hush money payments that were at the centre of the criminal case. He then admitted to lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Russia and went to jail.
“They didn’t care that their star witness, Michael Cohen, admitted to lying over and over again,” said spokesperson Steven Cheung. “They have been on a crusade of unfair and oppressive pressure that led to Allen H. Weisselberg’s forced plea today.” “These are dishonest, anti-American ways to interfere with elections that come straight from Joseph Stalin’s playbook and can’t happen in the United States.”