Allen Weisselberg may be in for a rude awakening

PR1100: Why Weisselberg hasn’t flipped

There are two famous cases of rampant criminal evil that we all know about where defendants, who were unquestionably guilty and faced prison and even death, still refused to admit wrongdoing. The first was at the Nuremberg Trials and the second was during the Watergate investigation. Yet both had their own famous exceptions. In the case of the former it was architect and armaments minister Albert Speer. In the case of the latter it was Nixon White House counsel John W. Dean III.

The third famous case of rampant criminal evil that we all know about where defendants faced with prison refused to admit wrongdoing is the investigation into and now indictment of the Trump Organization by Manhattan D. A. Cyrus Vance Junior. None of the defendants so far have shown any willingness to flip. Have we used up the only famous exception a miserly history permits in the form of former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen? Perhaps.

So far the indictment’s most famous target, Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg, has also refused to flip. I think we can safely dismiss the words of a source close to the defendants who said, “Consider the possibility that Allen has nothing to flip on.” Just as the hindsight of history has properly heaped scorn on such sentiments about Nuremberg and Watergate, so I believe will be the case in the investigation into and indictment of the Trump organization.

Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law Jennifer Weisselberg put it this way, “I really thought he would flip because I thought he would care more about doing the right thing. Then I realized he didn’t have any empathy, there’s a lack of integrity there.” Whatever the case, “He’s not flipping, that’s the truth.”

It is the undeniable truth indeed. Why hasn’t Weisselberg done what most of us think we would do in his shoes? After all, mounting a legal defense can be ruinously expensive. Protecting a monster in the face of a hostile history can be ruinously expensive for the reputation as well. Confession is good for the soul, as they say. What is going on here?

Looking back at the famous examples of history, the common ingredient in defendants at Nuremberg and deponents at the Watergate hearing was arrogance. They lived the lie that was their lives for so long they simply couldn’t bring themselves to admit they’d done anything wrong. In the case of the Trump organization, they have spent so much time litigating in court that they have started believing their own deceptions. As Kurt Vonnegut so aptly put it, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

To Vonnegut, Jennifer Weisselberg adds, “He’s [Allen Weisselberg’s] always gotten away with it, I mean, what they’re getting away with in the civil case is unbelievable … their litigation tactics are far from legal but they’ve always gotten away with it.” There may be no reason for them to think that the lies and charms that worked so well for them in the past won’t work again this time.

As with Nuremberg and its ghastly films of the Holocaust, and as with Watergate and its stunning revelation about the tapes, Weisselberg may be in for a rude awakening. Ms. Weisselberg again: “I think that the day is going to come very soon when there are some things that are still being put forth to the DA’s office that he [Allen Weisselberg] will not be able to answer for because he won’t be prepared.” It may happen before our very eyes. After all, we’ve seen this kind of thing before. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.