Ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury in civil fraud trial

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury Monday in connection with testimony he gave during former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial.

“Mr. Weisselberg pleads guilty to the charges," his attorney, Seth Rosenberg, told a judge in court.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended Weisselberg be sentenced to five months in jail and agreed to his release before sentencing, which is scheduled for April 10.

The charges accuse Weisselberg of committing perjury in a deposition as well as in testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial. Bragg's office alleged Weisselberg lied in July of 2020 in claiming he only learned Trump’s triplex apartment had been dramatically overvalued after Forbes published an article detailing the issue, when in fact he had known about the overvaluation before then.

Bragg's office also said that as part of the plea, Weisselberg admitted that he committed conduct underlying other instances of perjury.

In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for the district attorney said, "It is a crime to lie in depositions and at trial — plain and simple."

"Allen Weisselberg took an oath to be truthful, and then committed perjury both at depositions during the New York State Attorney General’s Investigation and Proceeding, as well as at their recent trial," the spokesperson said. "Today, Allen Weisselberg is pleading guilty to this felony and being held responsible for his conduct.”

Gary Fishman, an assistant district attorney, said in a statement, “The harm he caused tears at the very fabric of our justice system."

Rosenberg declined to comment on the way out of the hearing. But in a statement afterward, Rosenberg said his client "looks forward to putting this situation behind him."

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung slammed Bragg in response to Weisselberg's plea, alleging the Manhattan district attorney “committed repeated prosecutorial misconduct in his illegal, desperate pursuit” of Trump that violated federal and state constitutions and “Bragg’s ethical obligations.”

Bragg "has been on a crusade of vindictive and oppressive pressure leading, today, to a forced plea by Allen H. Weisselberg,” Cheung said. “These are corrupt, election interference persecution tactics ripped from the playbook of Joseph Stalin, which cannot be allowed in America."

Weisselberg was not expected to enter into a cooperation agreement with the plea that would require his testimony at any future trial, one source familiar with the matter said. Weisselberg surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney's office Monday morning, Danielle Filson, the communications director for Bragg, said.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York state Judge Arthur Engoron also requested comment on claims that Weisselberg had lied on the stand during Trump's trial, which prompted an attorney for the former president to push back in a filing, saying the request was “unprecedented, inappropriate and troubling.”

This is Weisselberg's second guilty plea. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to multiple tax fraud charges in a 15-year tax fraud scheme at the Trump Organization. He and the company were charged by Bragg's office in that case, and he was sentenced to five months in jail. Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were convicted and hit with $1.6 million in fines. Weisselberg agreed to pay $2 million in back taxes for concealing his income for years with off-the-books benefits such as tuition for his grandkids, a luxury apartment and two Mercedes Benz vehicles.

Weisselberg was released from jail after a little over few months with time off for good behavior.

Engoron last month ordered Trump, his adult sons, business associates and the Trump Organization to pay more than $350 million in damages and prohibited the former president from running businesses in New York for three years. Engoron later rejected Trump's request to delay the enforcement of the damages against him. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling.

In his 92-page ruling in the civil fraud trial, Engoron wrote that Weisselberg lacked credibility on the stand, saying that "his testimony in this trial was intentionally evasive, with large gaps of 'I don’t remember.'” That rendered Weisselberg's testimony "highly unreliable," the judge added. "The Trump Organization keeps Weisselberg on a short leash, and it shows.”