Longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to 2 counts of perjury
NEW YORK CITY -- The former chief financial officer of ex-President Trump's family real estate company pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of perjury that resulted from his testimony during Trump's civil fraud trial.
Sentencing has been set for April 10. Prosecutors have requested a five-month jail term, arguing his perjury undermines justice and cannot be ignored.
This was Weisselberg's second criminal conviction after he pleaded guilty in 2022 to evading taxes on nearly $2 million in off-the-books compensation, including an apartment, a luxury car and his grandchildren's school tuition.
As ABC News reported last month, Weisselberg, 75, had been in plea talks with the Manhattan district attorney's office to resolve charges he lied on the witness stand when he testified in October at the civil trial in which he was also held liable for fraud.
During his testimony, Weisselberg struggled to explain why former President Trump's 5th Av triplex, which is less than 11,000 square feet, was listed on statements of financial condition as 30,000 square feet.
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"It was almost de minimis relative to his net worth, so I didn't really focus on it," Weisselberg said during trial. "I never even thought about the apartment."
But Forbes published an article following Weisselberg's appearance that accused him of lying under oath and suggested Weisselberg did think about the apartment because he played a key role in trying to convince the magazine the apartment was as big a Trump's financial statements represented.
At trial, a lawyer with the New York attorney general's office, Louis Solomon, confronted Weisselberg with emails from a Forbes reporter seeking clarity about the apartment's size and a letter signed by Weisselberg certifying the excessive square footage to the Trump Organization's accountant, Mazars USA.
"Forbes was right, the triplex was actually only 10,996 right?" Solomon asked. "Right," Weisselberg finally conceded.
Weisselberg is not expected to be called as a witness in the criminal trial that starts later this month accusing Trump of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal from voters just before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has said in court filings Weisselberg advised Michael Cohen how to pay off Stormy Daniels and later arranged for Cohen to be paid back in monthly installments.
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