Allen Weisselberg likely to claim gross incompetence as prosecutors crank up the pressure in Trump case

Donald Trump's longtime accountant Allen Weisselberg hasn't revealed his legal defense against tax fraud charges but he has previously claimed incompetence and carelessness to avoid accountability.

The Daily Beast obtained through a public records request a complete transcript of Weisselberg's interview in October 2017 with New York prosecutors, who were investigating an illegal political donation the Trump Organization's chief financial officer insisted was a mistake -- but his former daughter-in-law said he's anything but incompetent or negligent.

"He's a liar," said Jennifer Weisselberg, who was married to his son for years. "Allen is controlling. He has to know where every dollar goes. He can't handle not overseeing every dollar, and he's not going to sign something unless he knows what it says. He knows exactly what's going on. He doesn't want any loose ends."

Prosecutors cranked up the pressure on Weisselberg as they probed an illegal donation to former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, whose team sent the Trump Foundation a tax form clearly identifying themselves as a political organization, but the CFO blamed any wrongdoing on his own crew.

"You know, clerks that work in the department, I can't tell you they do things perfectly all the time, whether they keep things, don't keep things, know what's important, what's not important," Weisselberg said. "They pay bills. So I don't know what she determined. I never saw this at the time. Whether she kept it in a file or not, I never saw it."

Weisselberg has been indicted on tax fraud charges, but he may have a harder time feigning ignorance of the luxury apartments, cars and school tuition for his grandchildren that weren't reported to the IRS -- but his former daughter-in-law isn't sure he'll turn on his longtime employer.

"His whole life is Donald," Jennifer Weisselberg said. "He literally thinks the sun rises and sets with him. Allen was the deal guy who made sure that the company and Donald are protected. That was his whole game. He'd cut deals with insurers to save a few bucks on each employee, then he'd go to Donald and say: 'I'm saving you money, I'm saving you, I'm saving you.'"