Trump Organisation CFO Allen Weisselberg surrenders to face tax charges
- A Trump executive for four decades, Weisselberg has unique insight into the former president’s finances and business deals
- The charges are expected to involve unpaid taxes on benefits extended to the 73-year-old
Allen Weisselberg, 73, went through a freight entrance to avoid cameras awaiting his arrival in lower Manhattan on Thursday, one day after a grand jury indicted him and the company in an extraordinary challenge to the former president.
The exact charges he is facing will be unsealed later in the day, but are expected to involve unpaid taxes on benefits extended to Weisselberg, according to a person familiar with the issue who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. Trump isn’t expected to be named in the charges, but they ratchet up the pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate against his boss.
“Mr. Weisselberg intends to plead not guilty and he will fight these charges in court,” the CFO’s lawyers, Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said in a statement issued after their client surrendered.
“Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organisation for 48 years,” the company said in a statement. “He is now being used by the Manhattan district attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former president. The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other district attorney would ever think of bringing. This is not justice; this is politics.”
Weisselberg’s cooperation could lead to a more expansive case against the company and raise the prospect of a historic and politically charged prosecution of a former president. With a trial unlikely before next year, Weisselberg will have months to decide whether to fight the charges or plead guilty and possibly strike a deal with prosecutors.