Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg hit with even more criminal charges
When former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges awhile back, he spent several months in prison for it. He was then also required by law to testify against Donald Trump in certain matters. Even without a cooperation deal, when you plead guilty to a given charge, the Fifth Amendment no longer applies to that charge.
Accordingly, in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, Weisselberg was forced to take the stand for the prosecution. The catch: he lied during his testimony, in an attempt at protecting Trump. At the time, Palmer Report pointed out that he wasn’t “getting away” with anything. Sure enough, the New York Times now says that Weisselberg is pleading guilty to perjury charges.
This presumably means that Weisselberg will have to go back and serve more prison time. He’s still not cutting a deal against Trump. But his guilty plea will now force him to take the stand in future trials and admit that he committed perjury.
What may be more important is whether Weisselberg can stand another round of prison. Last time he was in prison, Trump was reportedly worried that Weisselberg was going to cut a deal against him, and ended up swapping out Weisselberg’s lawyers to try to keep it from happening.
There is also the question of whether Weisselberg will face even more criminal charges in Alvin Bragg’s other Trump-related criminal investigation into insurance fraud and mortgage fraud and such. It’s long been suspected that Bragg has been waiting for Letitia James’ civil trial to conclude so that he can use it as a basis for bringing more criminal charges. The verdict in that civil trial is due any day now.
The timing in all this is interesting, to say the least. Here we have Letitia James forcing Allen Weisselberg to plead guilty to more charges and presumably go back to prison, just as James’ civil trial is wrapping up, and just as we’re pivoting back to Alvin Bragg’s criminal case (Trump’s criminal trial in New York is tentatively set for March). Weisselberg still seems intent on not flipping. But everyone believes they’re not going to flip right up until the minute they reach their breaking point. We’ll see if Weisselberg’s breaking point is yet to come.
It’s also worth noting that Alvin Weisselberg committed perjury and got himself sent back to prison for nothing. Letitia James still overwhelmingly won the case, to the point that the judge summarily ruled in her favor before the trial even began. If Weisselberg thought he was helping Trump, he was really just screwing himself – which is an increasingly recurring theme in Trump world these days.
