“> Sooner or later, it all flows through the CFO.”
I hate to use a vulgarity, but it looks like shit just got real.
> Weisselberg has shied away from publicity, eschewing the bright lights of the campaign trial and the White House for a family-centered, quiet life in the Long Island suburbs.
There is no way this guy is going to spend the rest of his life in jail, protecting Donnie 2 Scoops.
The walls are closing in on Spankee. His blood pressure must be through the roof.
Expect more irrational bizarro rants as Spankee’s internal Krakatoa blows its top.
As @plebeian says: shit just got real.
‘Weisselberg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury as part of the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s criminal investigation into Cohen’s finances’
Well this is simply fantastic news for at least two reasons: A) Weisselberg almost certainly has direct knowledge of every shady financial deal ever undertaken by the Drumpf Empire and B) this is a SDNY inquiry and NOT part of the Mueller probe. President Shitgibbon can rage tweet all he wants at unfair witch hunts but this is not Mueller’s work, firing Mueller will do f*ck-all to affect this investigation, and even Nunes / Jordan et al would have a hard time finding support for linking the two. Not that they will not try. I assume fruit of the poisoned tree argument will be made.
McDougal & Stormy payouts, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, and every other dodgy financial transaction are about to get some well-needed scrutiny by Justice Dept. accountants and lawyers.
This is the best news in a long time.
Yes. This shit just got realz ya’ll.
Weisselberg is definitely exposed. The big question for me is document production and the slightly tricky question of whether and to what extent he can be compelled to produce Trump Org papers. If Mueller gets extensive access to all that, things will get very hot for all the Trumps. Recall that Trump identified his business papers as his ‘red line.’ I also think that the optimal moment to fire Mueller has now passed from Trump’s point of view. It could all take however.
Sooner or later Trump will get taught in his lies.
‘If Mueller gets extensive access to all that, things will get very hot for all the Trumps.’
This is not Mueller crew or his investigation but the SDNY’s investigation. This is why Mueller handed it off, to insulate himself and protect the investigation. Drumpf would have to fire a whole new set of lawyers 
Firing Mueller will not touch this at all.
I use ‘Mueller’ in the broadest, most mythic sense.
His responses previously have shown sudden onset Alzheimer’s disease as he spewed a shit ton of "I don’t recall"s in recent testimony.
They’ll need something solid on him to get him to start remembering things more clearly.
My guess is that they have got more than enough to make him sing.
Weisselberg has to have known - even before Trump ran for president - that something like this could or would come along some day. When you work with crooks for such a long time, every day is a day there could be a knock on the door and someone wanting to talk to you. Up to now, the reporting has been sort of ‘he’s the long-time trusted accountant and financial officer for the Trump Org and Trump Foundation and Trump personally’ - almost just an old guy just doing his job. However, I wonder if he’s just as crooked as the rest of them? If he’s signed his oath of loyalty and omerta? He certainly must have a quite extensive NDA.
It sounds like he has led a quiet cushy life. He probably won’t hold up if he sees the possibility of jail in his future. I would also think that the state of NY would be interested in his dealings.
Understood but I think you are making a semantic and conceptual mistake in conflating the two under ‘Mueller’ (in the broadest, most mythic sense) and this, unintentionally, gives supports to what will be the effective GOP / Drumpf’s base counter attack and narrative.
These are two separate cases and two separate offices. Mueller handed it off because it was not in his mandate.
The counter narrative on Faux will almost certainly be to make them one again and thus stir up outrage. Mueller was charged to look into obstruction and collusion – how do porn star payoffs fit into this? They do not. Mueller is out of control. Grumble grumble, gov’t over reach – fire him.
I think it is incumbent upon all in the media to make the firm and repeated case that this is NOT Muller but an entirely separate and legitimate investigation by the SDNY of fraud, campaign violations, tax evasion, bank fraud … whatever. This is a separate beast and should be discussed and argued as such.
No need to provide support for the false Trump TV counter narrative IMHO
“In a quoted deposition, [Weisselberg] admitted to not knowing he served as the [trump] foundation’s treasurer.”
Why do these guys always seem to pick the dumbest lies possible? I mean, I get that they’re all compulsive liars, but really? I didn’t know I was even the treasurer??! That’s just so… dumb.
Quiet, yes. And comfortable.
And even at work he keeps a low profile: not the sort of modern-day executive who gives his boss candid advice. He takes direction.
Got married right out of college fifty years ago and is still married to the same woman. Worked for Trump’s father before signing on with the son. Nothing if not loyal.
“It doesn’t open the door all the way, but it gives them a foot in the door.”
For @tiowally and @littlegirlblue
A loyal lieutenant, sure, but does he want to die in jail? It’s his signature on a lot of documents and a lot of checks, and claiming not to have known there was something sketchy isn’t a sufficient defense. I hope he has a good lawyer, because anyone he gets through his trump connections will not be acting in his best interest.
On the positive side, Donnie may finally get some better fitting suits.
Yeah, that’s Bernie Madoff there waiting to die in prison.
I’ve been a bookkeeper on and off for 25 years. If he makes up the checks, balances the accounts, provides statements to some board, etc., then he’s just a bookkeeper.
If he signs the checks, makes decisions about financial strategies, holds meetings about financial plans, name is on new bank accounts, then he is a CFO.
There is no WAY Trump himself was doing all that (no time for golf!!!), so my guess is Allen’s in deep shit, and knows EVERYTHING.
The revelations last night, by Trump, are retaliation against Cohen for opening the door to Weisselberg with that tape, I think.
If he was, as Trump Organization attorney Futerfas put it, simply a “bookkeeper” with no intimate knowledge of the company’s more unorthodox dealings, he likely faces little legal exposure.
calling the CFO “a bookkeeper who simply carries out directions from others about monetary payments and transfers.”
Yeah, that’s got to sting.