Trump’s ex-finance director pleads guilty to lying in fraud trial against ex-president | International

Alan Weiselberg, the former finance director of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump’s right-hand man for decades, pleaded guilty to perjury charges this Monday, an almost imperceptible setback for the former US president and favorite candidate for the Republican nomination in November’s election. On the same day he got a boost from the Supreme Court by allowing him to contest for the post after Im…

Alan Weiselberg, the former finance director of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump’s right-hand man for decades, pleaded guilty to perjury charges on Monday, an almost imperceptible blow to the former US president and favorite candidate for the Republican nomination in November’s election. The same day he got a boost from the Supreme Court, allowing him to run for office after being challenged by the state of Colorado. Weiselberg was once a mainstay of the family emporium and, in 2022, was the scapegoat to prevent a tax fraud case from affecting his boss: in August of that year, Weiselberg pleaded guilty to achieve a reduced sentence and, at the same time, defended himself. Trump. Now, his admission of lying under oath further tarnishes the name of the organization for which he worked and, even the name of the former president, plunged into an unprecedented judicial onslaught as he advances his party’s priorities.

Weiselberg pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury in Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was led away in handcuffs after surrendering to authorities early Monday morning. According to the judge, a guilty plea would mean a five-month jail sentence. The allegations stem from his testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial, for which he was recently ordered to pay $355 million plus interest. Weiselberg, 76, said under oath in October that he had nothing to do with the false valuation of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse, the famous Trump Tower, one of the magnate’s properties whose value was inflated to gain credit leverage. In this case, New York’s attorney general, Democrat Letitia James, opened a civil case, for which Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, pleaded guilty last September and, last month, the aforementioned million-dollar fine. The fraud allegedly went on for at least a decade.

Following Wesselberg’s October statement, the magazine Forbes Accused him of lying on the stand. Based on a review of old emails and notes, the publication shows that the financier tried to convince his reporters for several years that the Manhattan apartment – Trump’s New York residence – was worth more. Trump’s 2015 financial announcement valued grandeur Penthouse For $327 million, it claims to have 2,780 square meters, almost three times its actual size. Prosecutor James called the assessment “absurd”.

Wesselberg’s confession this Monday comes 20 days before Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan. The Stormy Daniels case (Payment of black money to a porn actress to pacify an extra-marital affair). Accused of falsifying business records — the bribe payments were recorded as “legal expenses” in the organization’s accounts — Trump will appear in court on March 25 in the first of four planned criminal trials. Others are planned in Georgia, Florida and Washington. Manhattan will be the first criminal trial against a former president in US history.

Alan Wesselberg, who was the Trump Organization’s financial director for five decades and one of the dignitaries’ most trusted squires, was found guilty of 15 counts of tax fraud in a Manhattan court after he in turn struck a deal with the prosecutor’s office. for lesser punishment. Weiselberg, who pleaded guilty a year earlier, admitted that he devised a scheme to avoid paying taxes by which he cheated out of $1.76 million in income over 15 years. He also benefited from undisclosed payments in kind, including rent for a luxury apartment and two high-end vehicles, as well as tuition at exclusive schools for his grandchildren. Until then, the executive had refused to implicate Donald Trump in the conspiracy, so his confession was considered a diversionary maneuver by which Trump allowed the sacrifice of his loyal ally to build a firewall. In January 2023, he was sentenced to five months in prison.

Follow all international information on Facebook And xor in Our weekly newsletter.