Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was sentenced to five months in prison on Wednesday after previously making a deal with Manhattan prosecutors on perjury charges.
On March 4, Weisselberg agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts pertaining to testimony he gave during a 2020 deposition with New York Attorney General Lititia James' office related to the size and inflated value of Trump's apartment triplex on years' worth of financial statements.
Appearing in court in a windbreaker, track pants and a face mask, according to reports and images taken in court Wednesday morning, Weisselberg was asked by Judge Laurie Peterson if he had anything he wanted to say before sentencing—even as the five-month sentence was known via his plea deal.
"No, Your Honor," Weisselberg replied as part of proceedings that lasted a couple minutes, according to reporters in the courtroom. He was then handcuffed and led away, presumably to Rikers Island.
He previously served about 100 days at Rikers after pleading guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud in 2022 and agreeing to testify in the trial of two Trump Organization entities, which were later convicted and fined.
Weisselberg was sentenced on those charges in January 2023.
"Once again, someone from Trump's inner circle is going to jail for having covered up for Trump's own misdeeds," attorney Bradley Moss told Newsweek via email. "The bigger question is whether the scope of Weisselberg's admitted deceit has longer criminal tentacles implicating others at the company and the legal team, or if it will all just fall on him."
Weisselberg did not plead guilty, however, to perjury at Trump's civil fraud trial and his actions were not part of the deal and Wednesday's sentencing, according to CNN. In a September 2023 summary judgment, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and The Trump Organization had engaged in civil fraud and in February ordered them to pay $354 million in damages, with the total coming to $464 million once interest was taken into account.
A court has rejected the paperwork for Trump's $175 million bond because it could not verify the financial backing of the insurance company that posted the bond, giving the ex-president and the insurance company, Knight Specialty Insurance, until April 15 to show financial backing for the bond. Trump is appealing the ruling.
Weisselberg's role in the overarching Trump civil fraud case is not complete, according to James.
On Tuesday, her office sent a letter to Engoron, imploring that documents held by the former executive and remaining Trump loyalist should be examined for potential fraud.
"The Court has inherent authority over any actions that would undermine the integrity of its proceedings," reads the letter.
It continues: "Mr. Weisselberg has admitted that he perjured himself during discovery and the trial in this action. The Court is well within its authority to determine if Defendants and their counsel facilitated that perjury by withholding of incriminating documents.
"The potential failure to properly produce documents in a legal proceeding relevant to the valuation of Mr. Trump's triplex plainly falls within the ambit of her authority, and certainly within the power of this Court to safeguard the integrity of its own proceedings," the letter said.
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
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