'There are consequences': Expert says Trump and allies put on notice by perjury deal talks
February 02, 2024
Former President Donald Trump has been put on notice that there are serious consequences for lying in court, said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissman on MSNBC Friday.
This comes amid reporting that Allen Weisselberg, the ex-president's former CFO at the Trump Organization, is in talks to take a guilty plea for perjury.
"Andrew, help me understand how this plays out, what you make of this," said anchor Alicia Menendez. "Would a plea take an important chess piece off the board in this case?"
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"Yeah, no question that this would be a very bad development for Donald Trump in two ways directly and in a third way, sort of indirectly," said Weissmann, who previously worked on the Robert Mueller Russia investigation. "So the direct ways is ... this is a very bad development in terms of the civil fraud case that is pending where we're waiting a decision by the judge. I strongly suspect that the reason for the delay in that decision coming out is because the judge is waiting to see what happens with respect to Weisselberg who was, after all, a witness in his trial. In civil court. So we're waiting to see what happens there. So that is sort of — makes it very hard for Donald Trump to use that system as something to exculpate him if he is going to say Weisselberg lied just several weeks before the judge."
"Second, in the Manhattan criminal case, to the extent that Weisselberg was a potential witness for Donald Trump to refute any part of the case, he still might be called by Donald Trump, but his credibility has taken an enormous hit," Weissmann continued. "He will say, not only did I plead guilty to this very lengthy tax fraud, where the Trump Organization ... was convicted, but he pled guilty to that. Even after that, he committed a crime by taking the stand and lying under oath. So his credibility is shot."
"And the third way, which I'm very familiar with, it's very important for prosecutors when they can show that somebody is lying, either in an interview or lied under oath, to bring those cases to vindicate the system," added Weissmann. "Why? That's the bread and butter of cases are made and sends a deterrent message to other witnesses that if you hop on the stand and lie, there are consequences. So there is this sort of intangible way, and in many ways may be the most important that it really prevents people from taking the stand and just willy-nilly thinking they can get away from saying anything the defendant wants to hear."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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