Trump Org CFO Reaches Plea Deal In Criminal Fraud Probe

Petty theft a few times, years to life. Enterprise fraud for decades stealing millions, 5 months. Seems legit.

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Previously on the Adventures of Alvin Bragg, Manhattan DA…
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/nyregion/trump-ny-fraud-investigation.html

When you Care Enough to Buy the Best

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As I understand it, Rikers is a jail, which means it’s a place that people are being held as they await trial (or are temporarily held after being arrested). So after someone is sentenced, they will be sent to a prison (i.e. not Rikers). No idea where they will send Weisselberg, but it would almost certainly be a low-security prison since he’s unlikely to be much of a flight-risk or a dangerous inmate.

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5 months? FIVE MONTHS? FIVE? MONTHS? After three decades of Tax Cheating? Millions upon millions of dollars of ill gotten gains? FIVE MONTHS? And no quid pro quo on the crooked boss in the bargain? Where in hell is the justice? This is why regular people feel betrayed by the system. Pretty much literally a travesty.

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A guilty plea means the government doesn’t have to go through the time and expense of a trial, frees up the court docket. The defendant gets a lighter sentence (or charge) in return for smoothing the process with a guilty plea. Happens all the time. Whether it should happen in a high profile case like this is another thing.

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I thought that he is not willing to testify at all.

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The trial of the Trump organization is still going on so the normal reasons for a plea deal are reduced to ratting out Trump. He isn’t ratting out Trump so why the hell are they doing a deal with him.

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Speaking as a tyro in these matters I none-the-less suspect that nothing prevents someone from pleading the fifth any time they deem it necessary but that, regardless, a company’s CFO pleading guilty makes it harder for that company to successfully plead innocent to essentially the same charge. JMO

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If we thought tfg was paranoid yesterday, I’ll bet he’s in a full on hitler in the bunker apoplexy and delusion now. I’ll bet he starts purging the few loyal rats on the ship next.

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I wonder if they’re setting him up for perjury. Or for taking the 5th if called as a witness, which would not be good for trump org’s case.

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You may be right that W. will serve time at a low-security prison, but most sentences under one year are served in county jails. Rikers is a NYC jail serving all five boroughs, and each borough is a separate county, so I don’t know how you’d categorize its relationship to counties. Anyway, this from the Wikipedia article on Rikers Island: “The Rikers Island complex, which consists of ten jails, holds local offenders who are awaiting trial, serving sentences of one year or less, or are temporarily placed there pending transfer to another facility. Rikers Island is therefore not a prison by US terminology, which typically holds offenders serving longer-term sentences. It holds 10 of the New York City Department of Correction’s 15 facilities and can accommodate up to 15,000 detainees.” I have no idea if one of Rikers’ jails or one of the city’s five other facilities is designated for prisoners like W.

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Why give Weisselberg a plea if he is not going to flip on Trumpy. Throw the book at him, take him to trail and get as much time as possible for him. Let his ass rot in jail. He wasn’t just following Trumpy’s orders, he was helping craft methods.

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DA flip or get twenty years
Weisselberg nope
DA ok how about don’t flip and get three months
WTAF?

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Hey, it’s 5 more months than the DA wanted to give him. Bragg was more on board with proposing an honorary mayorship and key to the city.

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I apologize if this has already been commented upon, but it is going to be interesting to see how this plea goes down. In federal court and in many state courts in instances like this one, a defendant pleading out would be required to give a “plea allocution” or “factual basis plea” in exchange for a deal for less than what he might get after trial, if convicted. That would require the defendant to admit, under oath, the elements of the crime and, in many instances, most of the facts giving rise to the charge(s) against him. At the very least, this protects the government against that defendant later testifying favorably for a co-defendant who proceeds to trial, because the pleading defendant has made statements under oath inconsistent with facts favorable to the co-defendant and would open himself up to a perjury charge if he changed his story later on the stand. Also, if Weisselberg provides a factual basis for his plea, he would in all likelihood be admitting to criminal acts that required the knowledge and assistance of others in Trump Org. In effect, if that happens, he will be on the other side of the case against Trump Org, whether there is a formal agreement to testify or not.

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“the prosecution team thought something Weisselberg could offer was more important than sending him to prison” um how do you know that? It sounds like speculation?

More likely, NYC Comptroller… :roll_eyes:

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Ooof. Good one.

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A full century of dealing with organized crime and the government is still surprised when people refuse to flip on their mob boss. There are worse things than prison time. And a reason why mob bosses speak the way they do.

“Your grandchildren are precious, you know? Be a goddamned shame if something happened to them.”

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Yes.

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