MANHATTAN (CN) — Former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty Monday morning to perjury charges related to his testimony in Donald Trump’s civil fraud case.
Weisselberg was led into a Manhattan courtroom just before 10 a.m., sporting a black suit, a surgical mask and a pair of handcuffs. He pleaded guilty to two perjury charges stemming from lies he told the New York Attorney General’s Office during its investigation of the Trump Organization in 2020.
Weisselberg admitted Monday to lying twice during that deposition about the size of Trump’s Manhattan triplex. Trump claimed on yearly financial statements that the unit was roughly three times the size that it actually was.
“Well, we didn’t find out about the error until the Forbes article came out,” Weisselberg told investigators, according to court documents, referencing a 2017 Forbes story that exposed the true size of the triplex.
That was a lie, Weisselberg admitted Monday. He was actually made aware well before 2017, but continued to list the apartment at its enhanced size on subsequent financial statements.
Weisselberg also told investigators that he was never present when Trump described the size of the triplex. This too was untrue, he now admits.
The Manhattan district attorney originally charged Weisselberg with five perjury counts. Despite only pleading guilty to two, prosecutors say that Weisselberg effectively admits to the substance of all five initial counts — including two during his October testimony at Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Prosecutors recommended five months of jail time for Weisselberg, considering the number of false statements he made and the fact that he did so while on probation for previous felonies. They cited Weisselberg’s age as a reason for not pushing for a longer sentence, however.
“It is a crime to lie in depositions and at trial — plain and simple,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “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.”
Weisselberg was released on Monday after signing his plea agreement. His sentencing will take place on April 10.
Last month, the 76-year-old was found liable for fraud alongside Trump, following a lengthy 10-week trial under New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron. Engoron ordered Trump to pay around $355 million, compounded by an ever-growing $100 million in pre-trial interest, for shorting banks and insurers by lying about his net worth on yearly financial statements.
Weisselberg, who helped Trump in the scheme, is on the hook for $1 million. He’s also permanently banned from serving in the financial control function of any New York business.
Prior to his ruling, Engoron caught wind of Weisselberg’s plea negotiations with Manhattan prosecutors. He sent a scathing email to Trump’s defense attorneys on Feb. 6, demanding answers as he mulled the judgment.
“I of course want to know whether Mr. Weisselberg is now changing his tune, and whether he is admitting he lied under oath in my courtroom at this trial,” Engoron wrote in an email.
No additional information was provided, but Trump attorney Clifford Robert called Engoron’s request “unprecedented, inappropriate and troubling,” in a fiery email exchange with the judge.
Trump is appealing Engoron’s ruling, claiming that the state court “abused its discretion, and/or acted in excess of its jurisdiction” in ordering him to pay roughly half a billion dollars in disgorgement.
Trump is expected back in criminal court in just a few weeks to stand trial for a separate criminal case, in which prosecutors claim he falsified business records to cover up hush-money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen had indicated that Weisselberg had a role in the scheme, but the former financial chief hasn’t been charged and likely won’t be called as a witness for either side.
Weisselberg has been to prison before. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to tax fraud and testified against the Trump Organization. For that, he spent about 100 days in the infamous Rikers Island prison.
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