Ex-Trump Org. CFO sentenced to 5 months in jail after testifying falsely about size of Trump triplex apartment
By Kara Scannell and Nicki Brown, CNN
(CNN) — Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who admitted to testifying falsely in Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in jail on perjury charges.
Weisselberg was charged with five counts of perjury, but under a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts relating to testimony he gave during a 2020 deposition with the attorney general’s office. Weisselberg also admitted to testifying falsely at the civil fraud trial last fall but that is not among the charges to which he pleaded guilty.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend Weisselberg serve a sentence of five months in jail.
Weisselberg testified falsely about his knowledge of the size of Trump’s apartment triplex and how the value of that apartment was inflated on Trump’s financial statements for years based on the incorrect square footage.
Per his recent agreement with prosecutors, Weisselberg did not plead guilty to perjury at Trump’s civil fraud trial over the triplex, and the parties agreed he wouldn’t be sentenced for that conduct, which could be considered a violation of his parole in connection to his 2022 guilty plea.
After the sentence was handed down Wednesday, Weisselberg was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom. He will serve out his sentence at Rikers Island, the notorious New York City jail.
It is the second guilty plea by Weisselberg, who in 2022 pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud and testified in the trial of two Trump Org. entities. He served roughly four months in prison.
Weisselberg had been in plea talks with Manhattan prosecutors for several weeks relating to his testimony taken during the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the former president in 2020 and when he testified last year, several people familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
As part of the plea talks, Weisselberg was not expected to turn on Trump and will not testify against him at the New York criminal hush money case, the people said.
Trump is indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment and reimbursement before the 2016 presidential election. Weisselberg was central to the financial dealings but neither prosecutors nor Trump’s attorneys said they plan to call him as a witness. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In the hush money case, Weisselberg helped arrange the reimbursement to Michael Cohen, the ex-president’s former lawyer, who advanced $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about an affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.
The payment initially drew scrutiny of federal prosecutors who gave Weisselberg limited immunity for his testimony before a federal grand jury. Prosecutors moved forward with charges against Cohen.
This story has been updated with additional background information.
The-CNN-Wire
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