Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to 15 tax crime felonies.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to all 15 crimes in exchange for a reduced sentence in a plea deal with prosecutors.
The plea deal also requires that Mr. Weisselberg to testify as a witness.
The trial, which began last month, took a turn on Thursday when Weisselberg testified that Donald Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr. were in the dark about the tax fraud scheme.
Weisselberg said Trump and his sons signed the checks but they had no knowledge of any fraud.
NBC reported:
Former President Donald Trump and his two eldest sons signed the checks the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer used to cheat on his taxes but they didn’t know it was fraud, the ex-CFO testified Thursday.
In his second day on the witness stand in Lower Manhattan, Allen Weisselberg, 75, testified in the criminal trial of Trump’s family business that the only other person in the company who knew about the tax fraud scheme was its controller, Jeffrey McConney.
Asked by Trump lawyer Alan Futerfas in cross examination if Trump or anyone else in the company gave him permission to “commit tax fraud,” Weisselberg said, “No.”
“Did you conspire with the Trump family?” Futerfas asked. “No,” Weisselberg said.
Weisselberg also testified he hadn’t been taking off-the-books perks to benefit the company — he was doing it for himself.
“Your decision not to pay taxes was solely to benefit Allen Weisselberg?” Futerfas asked. “Correct,” Weisselberg answered.
He acknowledged the company benefited financially from his actions, but said, “It was my own personal greed that led to this.”
The Trump Organization last summer was hit with criminal charges by crooked Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s office.
The case was tied to tax-related conduct amid claims Trump Organization employees illegally ‘received tax-free perks such as apartments and car leases.’
These types of cases are almost never pursued, but the witch hunt of Trump and everyone connected to him never ends.
Last July the corrupt DA in Manhattan frog-marched the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg into a New York court to be arraigned on bogus tax charges.
According to the indictment unsealed last summer, Weisselberg was accused of a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme for receiving $1.7 million in illegally ‘received tax-free perks such as apartments and car leases.’
In August Judge Juan Manuel Merchan sentenced Weisselberg to five months in Rikers Island jail.