The Weisselberg indictment poses potential risks to Trump

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But this does not mean that the case does not include some potentially serious legal ramifications for the former president.

Court files filed by prosecutors alleged a widespread scheme within the company to funnel unrecorded income to Weisselberg and other executives, implicating other leaders in the Trump Organization.

But the allegations disclosed this week represent only a small slice of the behavior that prosecutors are said to be investigating, raising the question of whether they would secure Weisselberg’s cooperation in order to turn their sights on Trump himself.

If Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (Democrat) was thinking of something bigger, Weisselberg would have to balance his loyalty to the former president against the possibility of an indictment and a possible prison sentence.

“In any other investigation of a company, the CFO is a prime target,” said Daniel R. Alonso, a former assistant attorney general and federal prosecutor. “If the CFO is orchestrating the kind of financial fraud alleged in the indictment, that’s a big deal. The only question then is, who else was involved in that? And here because of who the head of the company is, that question looms large.”

E Dania Berry, a former federal prosecutor and deputy attorney general for New York, says Weisselberg was a natural first target for Vance’s office because of his role in the company, his connection to Trump and the evidence prosecutors appear to have amassed.

“The DA office loves to flip Weisselberg, there’s no doubt about that,” said Berry. He has described himself as the eyes and ears of the Trump Organization. He is the first lieutenant. He got his fingerprints all over the organization’s finances. The other man in the room was with Donald Trump. So there is no doubt that they would have scrutinized him intensely to try to persuade them as much as possible, we shall say, to encourage his cooperation.”

Vance’s office has filed 15 criminal charges against Weiselberg and the Trump Organization, including fraud, conspiracy and falsification of business records. If convicted, the CEO could face up to 15 years in prison, although several sentencing factors are likely to lower that number, according to legal experts.

Wesselberg and the company pleaded not guilty on Thursday and denied any wrongdoing.

“Today in New York City, violent crime continues to rise steadily to levels not seen in decades. Subway killings, gun violence and hate crimes are becoming a daily occurrence, with even random shootings happening in the middle of Times Square. However, instead of Focusing on protecting the people of New York, the attorney general has instead devoted countless resources to the sole purpose of targeting the former president,” a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in a statement this week.

Trump added in his own statement, “The political witch-hunt by Radical Left Democrats continues, with New York now taking over. It is dividing our country like never before!”

According to prosecutors’ court files, Weiselberg was engaged in a scheme to transfer unrecorded income for him to himself and other company executives. The Trump Organization allegedly funded Weiselberg’s luxurious lifestyle, paying his Manhattan apartment rent, living expenses, car rental payments, and a relative’s private school tuition.

Prosecutors say Wesselberg received more than $1.7 million over a 15-year period that he never reported in taxable income and collected nearly $140,000 in tax refunds for which he was not eligible.

Adam Kaufman, the former assistant attorney general in Manhattan who oversaw the bureau’s criminal investigations, says the type of charges against Weisselberg and the company are not uncommon for a local attorney general in New York City, but he was shocked by the level of regulation that went into the behavior the Trump Organization is allegedly involved in.

“It was really very systematic the way they did it, the way it was a lot of different mechanisms,” Kaufman said. “It wasn’t just cash under the table, which would be more common.”

“To me, it almost seems like arrogance,” he added. “Like the rules don’t apply.

Trump has not been charged with anything and there are still no indications whether he will face a criminal case. But Vance’s office and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) have spent significant resources over the past several years investigating the president and his business, and his fight in court for his personal and business records.

The attorney general’s office obtained the former president’s tax returns earlier this year after a protracted legal battle over Trump’s lawsuit to block Vance’s subpoena.

Court filings and media reports indicated that the two offices were investigating large-scale fraud and other financial crimes at the company, but the contours of the investigation remain unknown.

Some of the behavior that is said to be under investigation is whether Trump and his companies have inflated the value of assets in order to win suitable loans or attract investors.

Legal experts say it’s usually important for white-collar litigation to have a collaborator within a scheme who can help connect the dots for investigators and jurors.

Perry, the former deputy state attorney general, said the matter could be more important to Vance’s office in a potential case against Trump in part because he hates using email or other written electronic communications that leave a paper trail that prosecutors can do. Build a case and prove intent.

“It’s a well-meaning defense to say, ‘Well, they told me I could do it, they said that’s how it’s done,'” Berry said. , but it gets easier as you are a little further away from those transactions. And I must believe that Trump is at least one step away from them, which is why to create this link and prove the specific intent, it’s very helpful, if not entirely decisive, to have a live witness. “

The fact that prosecutors have indicted Weiselberg indicates that he was not prepared to cooperate in the investigation. Perry says it’s hard to predict whether people will turn on the alleged conspirators, but added that being under indictment adds much more pressure than simply being threatened with indictment.

“He may have a different calculus now than he did before Thursday,” Berry said. “It’s hard to guess what any individual would do. I’ll just say from experience, I’ve seen a lot more hardened criminals than a 73-year-old accountant tie under and then start cooperating once the charges are actually filed.”

Kaufman added that another question looming over Vance’s investigation is how much and how much evidence prosecutors have collected so far.

“Of course the DA wants Weisselberg to collaborate,” Kaufmann said. “The question I keep asking is, do they need Weisselberg’s cooperation? We just don’t know.”

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