New York Times reporters, including so-called Trump whisperer Maggie Haberman, wrote on Monday that no case is as "vexing" to Donald Trump as the one happening now in Manhattan involving free perks given to CFO Allen Weisselberg.
"Of all the legal challenges that Mr. Trump is facing — including several criminal investigations related to his final days in the White House — none has been as vexing for him as the investigation into his family business. And no other provides such a window into a world he has tried to keep out of the public eye," the piece explained.
Trump has long attempted to hide the truth about his businesses and inflate their worth —and in some cases, size.
Lead prosecutor Susan Hoffinger mentioned Donald Trump's name more than a dozen times, the report cited. At no point did she even say that he personally broke the law.
“This scheme,” she told the jury, “was conducted and authorized at the highest levels of the Trump Organization working out of offices at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.”
It's a business owned and operated by Donald Trump personally and he personally handed over untaxed items like a car, swank apartment and private school tuition for Weisselberg's grandchildren. Weisselberg has refused to cooperate with the prosecutors, but now the Trump family is saying that all of it was Weisselberg's fault.
After the opening arguments, the report explained that Trump Org. controller Jeffrey McConney was called to the stand. The questioning made it clear that the case was complex. As Weisselberg's deputy, McConney had a lot of information but was uncooperative enough that one of the prosecutors, Joshua Steinglass, asked he be considered a hostile witness. The judge denied it.
"It soon became clear why Mr. Steinglass had made the request, which would have allowed him to more directly signal to jurors the purpose of his questions," said the Times. "Without that ability, he and Mr. McConney spent long stretches of time quibbling over fine distinctions in the Trump Organization’s accounting practices."
It made it clear why prosecutors and defense used their openings to talk about Trump and Weisselberg as McConney focused on tax forms, spreadsheets and numbers.
“Normally, I try to work through the afternoon,” the judge said during a break. “But I noticed that a couple of the jurors appear to be getting a little tired.”
