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| AP |
Allen Weisselberg, former CFO of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty this Monday in New York to perjury in relation to the testimony he gave in the civil fraud case of the former president.
Weisselberg, 76, surrendered to the Manhattan prosecutor's office early this Monday and entered the state court handcuffed and wearing a mask, before pleading guilty to perjury. Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of lying under oath when he answered questions in a case about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth in financial statements given to banks and insurance companies.
Weisselberg will be sentenced to five months in jail, the judge said.
"Allen Weisselberg hopes to put this situation behind him," said his lawyer Seth Rosenberg in a statement.
After The New York Times reported last month that Weisselberg was in negotiations to plead guilty to perjury, Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over the fraud trial, ordered the lawyers to provide details related to the newspaper's report.
Trump appealed Engoron's ruling ordering him to pay more than $454 million in fines plus interest for including false information about the value of his assets in his financial statements for years.
The new criminal case against Weisselberg comes just a few weeks before another trial against Trump on charges of falsifying business documents. That case revolves around allegations that Trump falsified business records to cover up payments he made during the 2016 election campaign to silence reports that he had extramarital affairs. Trump has pleaded innocent and denies having committed any illegality.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and manager, has said that Weisselberg played a role in those payments, but has not been charged in that case and neither the prosecution nor Trump's lawyers have indicated that they will call him as a witness. That trial is scheduled to begin on March 25.
The Weisselberg case is separate from the criminal case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought against Trump last year.
Weisselberg spent 100 days in jail last year after pleading guilty to evading taxes on an under-the-table payment of $1.7 million made by the Trump Organization. He remains on probation. Before that, he had no criminal record.
Weisselberg was released from Rikers Island jail in New York City in April, a few days after Trump was charged in that city on accusations of making payments to silence unfavorable reports.
According to that agreement with the prosecutor's office, Weisselberg must testify as a witness in the trial against the Trump Organization on charges of helping executives evade taxes. He did so carefully, detailing his involvement in the crime, but being careful not to implicate Trump and insisting that his boss was unaware of the plot.