One of former President Donald Trump's closest associates, the Trump Organization's former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, will soon be headed to prison again to serve more time behind bars.
Weisselberg on Monday pleaded guilty to two felony counts of perjury brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over lies the ex-CFO ostensibly told first to investigators and then later during testimony amid Trump's recently concluded civil fraud trial, the New York Post reported.
As part of a plead deal with prosecutors that reportedly will result in his serving another five months in prison, Weisselberg, 76, admitted that he had previously been dishonest when asked about his knowledge of Trump's false claim on financial documents that his Trump Tower apartment was approximately 30,000 square feet in size when it is only about 11,000 square feet.
Prosecutors from DA Bragg's office accused Weisselberg of twice lying under oath -- first during a May 12, 2023, deposition and again during his October 10, 2023, trial testimony -- about when he first became aware that his former boss, Donald Trump, had falsely tripled the claimed size of his Trump Tower apartment.
Weisselberg had claimed that he only learned of the false claim about the size of the Trump Tower apartment from a 2017 Forbes article, but prosecutors confronted him with an audio tape of him being informed about the discrepancy by a Forbes reporter before the article was published, and provided further evidence which suggested that he may have been aware as far back as 2012.
The former Trump Organization CFO had previously suggested that this and other discrepancies were mere "exaggerations" and minor mistakes that didn't mean much in the broader picture.
Neither he nor his attorneys responded to requests for comment after the guilty plea, and Weisselberg is due back in court on April 10 for a sentencing hearing, in which he is expected to receive another five-month sentence. He previously served part of a five-month sentence in the notorious Rikers Island prison after pleading guilty in 2022 to tax evasion charges related to off-the-books benefits and perks he had received from the company he helped manage for decades.
ABC News reported that a spokesperson for DA Bragg said in a statement following Weisselberg's guilty plea on Monday, "It is a crime to lie in depositions and at trial -- plain and simple."
"Allen Weisselberg took an oath to be truthful, and then committed perjury both at depositions during the New York State Attorney General's Investigation and Proceeding, as well as at their recent trial," the prosecutor's statement added. "Today, Allen Weisselberg is pleading guilty to this felony and being held responsible for his conduct."
Of course, Trump and those representing him saw the situation differently, as Trump's attorney Christopher Kise said, "Alvin Bragg continues to waste public resources in a tyrannical attempt to impede President Trump's ongoing ascent to the White House," and added that the perjury charges "have no place in our justice system."
Likewise, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that Bragg "has been on a crusade of vindictive and oppressive pressure leading, today, to a forced plea by Allen H. Weisselberg," and added that "innocent Americans cannot continue to be harassed, and we have to save our Country."
The Trump Organization also issued a statement that praised Weisselberg as a "loving and devoted husband, father, and grandfather" who had dedicated nearly 50 years of life in service to the company.
"He is now being used as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President," the statement continued. "The District Attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing."
"This is not justice; this is politics," the Trump Organization's statement added.
