Allen Weisselberg just had another disastrous day on the stand in Donald Trump New York civil fraud trial
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is in a tricky situation. Because he’s already pleaded guilty to certain crimes he and Donald Trump committed together, the Fifth Amendment doesn’t apply, and he’s thus legally required to testify about those crimes. Failure to do so would send him back to prison.
So Weisselberg has indeed taken the stand at this week’s New York civil fraud trial against Donald Trump. Weisselberg keeps trying to figure out how to remain loyal to Trump during his testimony, but he also knows that if he gets caught lying to protect Trump, he’ll just go back to prison.
Not surprisingly, Weisselberg’s testimony has been pretty much a disaster for him. On Tuesday, Weisselberg gave some answers incriminating Donald Trump on financial fraud, even while pretending he couldn’t remember the answers to other questions. That was bad enough. When Weisselberg took the stand again on Thursday, things went far worse for him.
While on the stand today, Weisselberg was confronted with the fact that Trump paid him $2 million not to testify against him except as required by law. Prosecutors then went on to accuse Weisselberg of refusing to cooperate even as required under the law – which sounds to us like they’re teeing up Weisselberg for additional criminal charges.
To that end, Forbes is now reporting that Weisselberg did in fact lie during his testimony on Tuesday. This may explain why, after prosecutors called out Weisselberg to his face today for having essentially taken a bribe from Trump in exchange for not cooperating, they pulled him from the stand seemingly before his testimony was over.
At this point I expect prosecutors will inform Allen Weisselberg that he has two choices. He can either get criminally charged along the lines of perjury and obstruction, and end up back in prison for a lot longer than his original five months. Or he can immediately agree to cooperate in exchange for non-prosecution.
Wherever the Weisselberg thing goes from here, keep three things in mind. First, despite his best effort to remain loyal, Weisselberg has already incriminated Trump in this trial. The damage to Trump has been done. Second, prosecutors have already won this case and have more than enough evidence to secure massive penalties against Trump whether Weisselberg returns to the stand or not. Third, Weisselberg has screwed this up so badly, he’s managed to incriminate Trump and incriminate himself.
It’s enough to make you wonder if NY AG Letitia James and her team put Allen Weisselberg on the stand specifically so they could bust him for perjury and obstruction, and ensure that he goes down alongside Trump. It’s not like they needed to put Weisselberg on the stand in order to take Trump down. They seemingly put Weisselberg on the stand in order to take Weisselberg down.
