Manhattan prosecutors are putting new legal pressure on Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who is currently serving a sentence in jail for tax fraud.
The district attorney's office has warned that Weisselberg could face new fraud charges as prosecutors begin presenting evidence to a grand jury about Donald Trump's involvement in a scheme to pay off porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign, and former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin told MSNBC's Katie Phang that his testimony is crucial.
"They need his testimony to make their case," Zeldin said. "They have documents, and they have Michael Cohen, and the two together really don't add up to a very secure prosecution. Weisselberg is really the person who can be their shepherd through the documents, and have Michael Cohen support his testimony, or vice versa. Without him, it really is a much more tenuous case. Hence the offer. "
Cohen, the former president's longtime attorney, was convicted for his own role in the hush money scheme and has been cooperating with district attorney Alvin Bragg's office, but his testimony is not nearly as valuable.
"If you have a witness like Cohen, who has pled guilty to perjury, essentially, and you have documents that are not all that clear on their face, then in my view, as a prosecutor, I'd want someone who's a more substantial witness, one who's really not easily impeached on cross examination, and that's Weisselberg," Zeldin said. "So I'm going to do everything I can to try and get Weisselberg. He's yet to cooperate, except as to the organization, but now that he's spent some time on Rikers Island, and with the prospect that he may spend more time there, he may be more vulnerable to the pressure campaign."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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