Allen Weisselberg, who served as the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, has reportedly reached a plea deal in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal tax fraud investigation into the Trump Organization.
(not worthy of being first).
5 months seems very light. I won’t say the fix is in, but I’m sad.
“Therefore, Weisselberg’s guilty plea (which he’s likely to enter on Thursday, though the timing hasn’t been confirmed) isn’t expected to expose alleged wrongdoing by Trump or members of his family, according to the Times.”
Maybe not, but depending on what Weisselberg pleads to, and what he’s willing to testify to with respect to the Trump Organization, it’ll be really hard for the Organization to escape liability, and that could possibly put it out of business, which will impact Trump and the familia.
You legal people out there: I understand all the words in this article, but I don’t understand the “Why?” The (expected) sentence seems lenient to me, which makes me wonder if Weisselberg has been useful to the prosecution in ways that aren’t public. Is that possible, or is this an instance of the prosecution saying, in effect, “This is as good as we can get and still have this guy cool his heels in jail for a little while”?
Five months for, what, 40 years of cooking the books? Sickening. The chasm between rich and poor is never larger - and more clear - than when it comes to crime and punishment.
I hope those months are hard time served in some place like Rikers.
IANAL but as I understand this, it removes the ability for him to plead the fifth on any lawsuit related to this. Which means he could be called in on another case and would have to answer any and all questions. It looks bad, but maybe there is some 4D chess play going on behind the scenes?
This is why white collar crime sentences are kept ridiculously low while Tyrone gets 5-10 years for smoking a joint on school grounds: nobody wants the white collar criminals incentivized to squeel.
Plea deals are always difficult to stomach. The bottom line is: the prosecution team thought something Weisselberg could offer was more important than sending him to prison. If he’s carving out the family from his cooperation, then the only thing more important than Weisselberg is the Organization itself. NYState has already put the Trump Foundation out of business. It’s likely (to me) that the Trump Organization will be convicted, forced to pay enormous fines and penalties, and will also be put out of business.
The Trump Organization has to drag its trial out as long as possible to delay becoming liable for a need to pay crippling taxes and penalties, effectively bankrupting the business. When the forensic accountants access the accounts, they will find all assets have disappeared or are encumbered by liens.
If the prosecutor doesn’t get something in return and the broader trial is expected to go forward why did the prosecutor make the deal? There has to be something more going on.
“Weisselberg, having stubbornly resisted prosecutors’ efforts to get him to flip on ex-President Donald Trump all throughout the criminal case, will reportedly not cooperate with the Manhattan DA’s investigation into the former president.”
Guilty of “a years-long tax fraud scheme”…
While “stubbornly resisting prosecutors’ efforts”…
And “not cooperating with the Manhattan DA”…
For what, exactly, is his five-month sentence a reward?
Well, once the plea is done and he is sentenced, he would lose the right to decline to testify under the 5th Amendment unless he has other criminal liability associated with his actions with Trump Org.
A conviction.
Including the prosecutors apparently.
Maybe this is what’s going on, then: he would then be compelled to testify in the criminal trial.
Bah! Deals like this seem to encourage wrongdoing, as long as you don’t mind the skant few weeks in the pokey.
Of course. Prosecutors are people with political ambitions. Their ability to do favors for the oligarchy is key to realizing them.
Yep, that is the part that people are ignoring. Also, by pleading guilty, he can’t plead the 5th in the Civil case against the Org. Given this is over a 10 or 15 year period, the NY Corporate Death Penalty could be invoked. No more buildings, or golf courses. Imagine Trump evicted from Mar a Lago.
For a long time now, it has appeared that the Manhattan DA’s office is not at all on board with the self-evident truths that Trump must be destroyed, that the Trump spawn must all be ruined, that the Trump Organization must be liquidated, and that Trumpism must be extirpated. That is truly unfortunate.