'Just wait': Legal experts say critics of Bragg's case are forgetting about Weisselberg
April 06, 2023
Former special assistant district attorney in Manhattan, Catherine Christian, said that it's curious that Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Org. ditched his company-funded lawyer for another one. On a panel discussion on MSNBC's Alex Wagner Tonight, she explained that this doesn't mean that he's about to flip, however.
"But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."
It's part of a larger question about whether Weisselberg is willing to flip on Donald Trump in cases where he is also involved, such as the hush money case before a Manhattan court. There's also the matter of a case around the Trump Org. artificially inflating the value of assets for perks and deflating them for other perks. So, there's a larger question of whether he is about to be included in other cases where he could be sent to jail again. Weisselberg has been in Rikers Island Prison for the past four months.
Christian explained that the broader investigation that Cy Vance was conducting hasn't ended under Bragg.
"People don't believe that, but they should," she said. "So, people who were upset yesterday, and I'm not talking about people who are politically upset. Who said that's all there is — this is the entire case! I have said it's not over yet. That the investigation is continuing. Just wait. Just wait there might be another chapter. So, I think there will be another chapter. It's an investigation, Clearly, the DA's office is not going to talk about the pending investigation. I think there will be more to come."
New York Times reporter Suzanne Craig was quick to agree that the information about Weisselberg was important.
"I think you can feel the heat in his cell right now in Rikers," Craig said. "He is not gonna walk out of Rikers and just have this end. I think what prosecutors are looking to do, he's got two more weeks left. He is potentially facing insurance fraud charges that could be brought against him. I think they're using the pressure of that to get him to cooperate."
She went on to say that if he agrees to cooperate, he might be a witness in the hush money case as well.
"We don't know right now where things are at, but the Trump Organization is paying his bills," Craig said, a possible reference to the fact that Weisselberg is still employed at the Trump Org. "He is 75 years old. I just don't think anyone can really, except for him, understand the effect of — he would be doing — if the insurance case goes ahead against him — it's theft over $1 million. It's hard time. I think he's got some decisions to make right now about what he's going to do."
She went on to say that when all is said and done looking back at the cases, the daily debate over the merits of the charges in the Bragg case won't matter because it will be part of a much larger picture of fraud.
The panel then turned to talk about the tax filings piece of the Bragg case.
"That's a crime to file a false instrument. It's a fancy way of saying filing a false document that contains false information," Christian explained. "If you read the statement of facts, and I think D.A. Bragg glossed over it a little bit in his press conference, and then there were miss characterizations of tax. It's not that complicated. The $130,000 that was reimbursed to Michael Cohen that he gave to Stormy Daniels he was paid back double that."
Craig explained that it isn't a straight "tax fraud" allegation that is all that simple.
"With the Trump Organization lawyers, they have said that it wasn't filed. It doesn't, in this case, necessarily matter if it was filed with the tax authority. The reason why, there's a 'books and record violation' that they have. They show that they conspired on the books and records to disguise it as a tax payment. The hope here is — you've got the misdemeanor, the tax falsification business records and then where it goes from there is you can potentially elevate those two felonies, simply because the conspiracy or the intent to defraud is enough that they don't actually need to do it."
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