Weisselberg may have perjured himself a second time — and Michael Cohen wants answers
It has been over two years since reports dropped that Donald Trump's chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, was suspected of lying to investigators about former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Now that the longtime Trump CFO is being investigated for another act of perjury, Cohen wants to know about Weisselberg's previous act of perjury.
CNN reported in August 2021 that four people familiar with prosecutors' thinking told them about Weisselberg, who was given a plea deal with the condition that he testified under oath and told the truth. He would only be sent to prison for five months for his role in a decades-long tax scheme at the Trump Organization.
Now, it turns out that Weisselberg lied in the New York fraud trial, too, and he is in negotiations with prosecutors over a perjury charge.
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A New York Times report citing people with knowledge of the matter claimed that Weisselberg, as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, would be forced to admit he lied during the New York fraud trial, which is a different matter from what investigators suspect were previous lies told in 2018 during the Cohen case.
Cohen was sent to prison for his role in Trump's hush money deal with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
During their investigation from 2021, CNN reported, "prosecutors gave limited immunity to Weisselberg, who was involved in the company’s effort to reimburse Cohen for the hush money payments, a matter that has also come under scrutiny by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. But federal prosecutors ended up questioning their decision to give Weisselberg immunity, according to people familiar with the matter."
Prosecutors then weighed whether or not to pursue perjury charges for Weisselberg and whether they could withdraw his immunity, the report said. That was the last the public heard on the topic.
A 2019 court filing revealed that the prosecutors told Cohen's judge that they had “effectively concluded its investigations of (1) who, besides Michael Cohen, was involved in and may be criminally liable for the two campaign finance violations to which Cohen pled guilty” and whether certain people, the details of which were redacted, “made false statements, gave false testimony or otherwise obstructed justice in connection with this investigation.”
According to the CNN report, prosecutors grew skeptical about Weisselberg's testimony about the Cohen reimbursement and how it was categorized in the Trump Organization's books as legal expenses.
"Weisselberg wasn’t the only Trump Organization official whose testimony prosecutors doubted, according to one of these people," the CNN report read without giving any further details.
Fast forward two years to the deal that Weisselberg made for just five months in prison for his role in the Trump Organization tax fraud scheme, where he and others were given perks off the books and untaxed.
Then, in October 2023, Forbes reporters uncovered that Weisselberg "lied in sworn testimony" in the Manhattan fraud trial too.
"Weisselberg was on the stand as part of a $250 million lawsuit that the New York attorney general is waging against Trump and his associates, including Weisselberg, accusing them of lying about Trump’s net worth to financial institutions," Forbes said. "To arrive at inflated figures, the Trump Organization used demonstrably incorrect facts, such as valuing Trump’s penthouse as if it contained 30,000 square feet, when it in fact consisted of 10,996."
While being questioned, Weisselberg confessed that 30,000 square-feet estimate was wrong, but he suggested he didn't have anything to do with such a bogus number.
“I never focused on the triplex, to be honest with you,” Weisselberg said. “It was almost de minimis relative to his net worth, so I really didn’t focus on it.”
“I never focused on the apartment Mr. Trump owned,” Weisselberg said at another point.
He later claimed: “I didn’t correlate the square footage of Donald’s apartment. I never focused on it. It was always in my mind a de minimis asset of the overall of Donald J. Trump’s statement of financial condition. That was never a concern of mine. I never even thought about the apartment. It was de minimis in my mind.”
Forbes has been tracking Trump's wealth since 1982 as part of its "richest Americans" list and they have emails and notes from conversations with Weisselberg where he said the opposite.
According to the information Forbes has, Weisselberg "played a key role in trying to convince Forbes over the course of several years that it was worth more than it really was. Given the fact that these discussions continued for years, and that Weisselberg took a very detailed approach in reviewing Trump’s assets with Forbes, it defies all logic to think he truly believes what he is now saying in court."
The report prompted prosecutors to begin pursuing a perjury investigation into Weisselberg for the fraud trial testimony and now Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case, is demanding to know what is going on given he is supposed to be making a ruling on the Trump Organization.
Engoron has already ruled that the Trump Org. is liable for fraud, but has not yet determined the penalties. Weisselberg being caught in perjury could mean additional delays, which has been a legal strategy for Trump, according to numerous reports.
The judge's email Monday read: “As the presiding magistrate, the trier of fact, and the judge of credibility, 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.”
Cohen, however, wants to know what happened to investigations into the suspected falsehoods Weisselberg told with regards to his own case.
Speaking to Raw Story on Monday, Cohen referred back to the 2021 story, and then alleged that the Southern District of New York used lies against Cohen.
Characterizing what unfolded, Cohen alleged, and later confirmed by four people with knowledge, that the Southern District of New York knew Weisselberg had lied to them, put him before the grand jury to repeat the lie, and then used that lie as a basis for an indictment against Cohen. In exchange for this, Weisselberg received limited immunity.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Roos is the only lawyer still with the Southern District of New York from the existing Cohen case.
Raw Story contacted the Southern District of New York press office to ask what happened to the Weisselberg perjury investigation in that case and whether Cohen's prosecution was contingent on Weisselberg's testimony.
A representative explained they could not comment on any investigation that didn't result in public charges. As for the Cohen case, they won't comment on anything other than what has already been reported previously.
While Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is the law enforcement official behind the case about Trump's role in the hush money scheme, Cohen was charged by the federal Justice Department prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Cohen feels he has been in a "David vs. Goliath" battle between both the Justice Department and the Trump world for the past several years, gaining help from members of Congress.
It's unknown whether it is even on the Merrick Garland Justice Department's radar that Weisselberg potentially lied in their investigation, but Cohen has been pressing for information by going to court and using Freedom of Information Act requests to try to obtain documents related to his case.
As it stands, the government found 480,000 documents that match Cohen's search terms.
"After removing certain search terms, including grand jury document requests, the number of responsive documents was reduced to approximately 49,000," wrote Cohen. "Pursuant to the Court’s directive, processing of said documents was to begin August 23, 2022. Despite more than 14 months since the Court’s directive, not a single FOIA document has been turned over."
As CNN's 2021 report explained, "Weisselberg has denied wrongdoing in the tax fraud investigation and in connection with anything pertaining to the Cohen case."
See the conversation about Weisselberg on MSNBC below or at the link here.
Michael Cohen may bethe only testimony left in fraud trial youtu.be
