Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg admitted Wednesday to lying under oath in order to shield former President Donald Trump from New York prosecutors, CNBC reported. The judge of a Manhattan criminal court sentenced him to five months in prison after he was convicted of two counts of perjury in the first degree.
Weisselberg, 76, is expected to begin his incarceration on Rikers Island immediately.
The former executive's trip to the infamous jail is his second in two years. In 2023, Weisselberg spent three months there after pleading guilty to charges that he participated in a tax fraud scheme cooked up by Trump Organization executives.
The perjury charges stemmed from a civil business fraud case brought against Trump, his company, family and associates by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The state accused the defendants of inflating Trump's wealth on financial statements so they could make deals with otherwise reluctant lenders and insurers while securing more attractive interest rates. Weisselberg, for his part, falsely claimed last October not to know the value of Trump's Manhattan penthouse, which according to the Associated Press was presented on financial statements as being nearly three times its actual size.
Weisselberg admitted to making false statements in a May 2023 deposition and his testimony during the October trial. "Allen Weisselberg accepted responsibility for his conduct and now looks forward to the end of this life-altering experience and to returning to his family and his retirement," his attorney, Seth Rosenberg, said in a statement.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — who filed the perjury charges against Weisselberg and is prosecuting Trump on charges of falsifying business records to obscure "hush payments" — turned up emails that show Weisselberg's intimate involvement in the penthouse scheme. With Trump's loyal deputy now headed to prison, Bragg is hoping to catch larger quarry in a trial set to begin Monday.
