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NY fraud case will 'financially destroy' Trump — and may put him in prison: Michael Cohen

Dean Obeidallah, Salon
October 08, 2022



Ivanka and Donald Trump (Photo by Saul Loeb for AFP)


Michael Cohen, the longtime personal attorney and "fixer" for Donald Trump, who went to prison for helping Trump pay hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels, is after "Revenge." Indeed, that's the title of his second book, which is out next week. As I discussed with Cohen on "Salon Talks" this week, that revenge does not stop with Trump. Cohen's takes on the corruption of the Justice Department under Trump and his experiences being investigated for lots of stuff he didn't do (as well as what he did). According to Cohen, the FBI spent time and resources "running around the country ensuring that I was not where the Steele dossier" claimed he was, and looking into "11 allegations raised against me, all of which are false."

This article first appeared on Salon

It's apparent in speaking to Cohen why he was such an effective lawyer and fixer for Trump. The guy is a pitbull — animated, loud, smart and damn persuasive. For starters, he says the media gets it wrong when they say he went to jail "in part" because of his role in paying hush money to Daniels before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about a past alleged affair with Trump. "I didn't go to prison in part because of the hush money with Stormy Daniels," Cohen said. "That's the reason why I went, plain and simple."

But as Cohen laid out, he fully expected to be thrown under the bus by Trump, and believes Trump will do the same to Rudy Giuliani — whom Cohen describes as an "idiot" — as well as former chief of staff Mark Meadows and even members of his own family. "What's he capable of? Anything and everything in order to protect himself, plain and simple," Cohen said.

Cohen believes, however, that the recent civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump and his family members may ultimately lead to Trump going to in prison — and Cohen is undeniably gleeful that he played a role in kicking off that investigation. Even as Cohen insisted that his pursuit of "revenge is not that myopic in terms of just holding Donald Trump" accountable, I also got the sense that no one in America would be happier to see the former president perp-walked than his former lawyer.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

When the New York attorney general announced the massive civil lawsuit for fraud against Donald Trump, three of his adult kids and various others, she said, "I will remind everyone this investigation only started after Michael Cohen, the former lawyer, testified before Congress and shed light on Donald Trump's misconduct." Remind people about what you said before Congress that sparked this investigation?

That was a nine-hour absolute ... I don't even know what to call it. It was a circus. You had the Democrats asking me questions about Donald Trump — Jamie Raskin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, so many of the Democrats wanted to know things about Donald Trump, which I answered. Whereas the Republicans, as I stated openly, not one of them asked me a single question about Trump, which was the purpose of having me there.

Trump said, "The FBI raided one of my attorneys." Whoa, whoa! All of a sudden, this orange-crusted buffoon has forgotten my name. Seriously?

I said, "I know what you are all doing because I was part of the group that created this playbook." Right? They received in advance words that they wanted each and every one of the Republicans to use: liar, tax cheat, criminal, soon-to-be felon. These are all the words that Trump, the RNC and so on had forwarded to them in advance. Therefore, it was going to be each one of them spending five minutes denigrating me to the American people because it falls in line with the Trump Putin-esque playbook, which is to denigrate the other person, repeat the lie over and over and over again until the lie becomes the truth.

That's really what my book "Revenge" is about. It's uncovering the truth and showing that the true liar, which I believe we all know, the true dumpster fire that was formally sitting in the Oval Office, is Donald Trump and his acolytes and inner circle.

In your book you write, "Over the years, Trump screwed people over, manipulated them, and used them, and I helped him do it." When the FBI went through your office, Donald Trump was defending you. Did you think at that time he was going to stick with you?

No. That was actually one of the turning points, when I realized that he was not going to stand by me. When they approached him, meaning the media, and he was sitting at a table with his arms crossed and so on like this, and they said to him, "The FBI just raided ..." He was like, "It's disgusting, right? The FBI raided one of my attorneys." And so on, and when I ... Whoa, whoa, one of your attorneys? Now, all of a sudden, this orange-crusted buffoon has forgotten my name. Seriously?

That's when I realized that this guy is all about himself. And where I thought that I occupied a position whereby I would never be thrown under the bus by him, that's when I realized, no. This guy's all about himself and all about using somebody else to exonerate himself from his own culpability.

Rudy Giuliani has seen the same things you did and he's still sucking up to Donald Trump. John Eastman has taken the Fifth, and I don't think he's going to cooperate with anyone. Is there any doubt that Donald Trump throws those two guys under the bus to help himself, if that's what it comes down to?

Rudy is an idiot. I mean, there's just no way to describe it. Rudy Collude-y Giuliani. First of all, the guy thought he was going to get paid a quarter of a million dollars a day by the RNC. Obviously this whole BS about Trump and Rudy going back for years and being friends.

First of all, it's not true. I was there for over a decade, and Rudy was never considered a friend nor had he really ever been to the Trump office up on [the 26th floor of Trump Tower]. So I'm not really sure about this newfound friendship. But in some weird way, Rudy actually thought he was going to get paid, which just goes to show you how stupid he is. And then on top of that, he's out there defending the narcissistic sociopath in chief, thinking that Donald is going to protect him.

But let's not forget what Rudy also once said. "Donald won't throw me in the ..." He goes, "I have an insurance card." You may remember that. Well, was that another lie too, to try to prompt Trump to pay him and do the right thing by him?

We've seen that Trump doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself, that Trump weaponized the Justice Department to go against his critics. So the second that Rudy became a semi-critic, that was the end of him. You don't see him anymore. You don't hear from him anymore. Right now he's dealing with his own personal issues. No money, having to pay his ex-wife Judy a quarter of a million dollars or go to jail. I'm sure he's out there hitting the phones and pounding the pavement to borrow money. This is what happens to everyone.

I said it to Mark Meadows, and I said it to Jim Jordan and to all the Republicans at that House Oversight Committee hearing, not to mention the six other hearings that you're not aware of that I did in the SCIF [secure room] behind closed doors. What happened to me can and will happen to you if you put your faith, your confidence and your trust behind a man that doesn't understand the word loyalty.

The title of your book speaks to the idea of how Donald Trump weaponized the Justice Department. Some people might think, well, that's because the DOJ under Trump went after you. But you talk about how it played on pre-existing weaknesses within the Department, and then later you were punished when you were trying to write a book.

Well, the weaponization of the Justice Department did not start with the unconstitutional remand of me back to Otisville [state prison] when they lured me down to 500 Pearl Street [the Manhattan federal courthouse]. You'll read about it in the book. One of the reasons that I wrote "Revenge," and of course the title is like my first book, "Disloyal," in that you're not really sure where the revenge is, who the revengee is, who the revenger is. The revenge is really the American people taking revenge on the Justice Department in order to fix it.

What we have seen with me is that regardless of who you are, regardless of whether you think you're part of this protected political class, when you fall within the ire of someone like Donald Trump — a guy who doesn't want to be president but wants to be a dictator, an autocrat, a fascist monarch — this is what will happen to you and everybody else if we don't fix the system.

My issues with the DOJ didn't start with the unconstitutional remand. It started with the entire investigation. And I begin the book by talking about the fake Steele dossier. Now, as I write in the book, I don't care about any of the other allegations in this ridiculous document by this wannabe 007, right? He's not. If this is the best that England has to offer, it's no wonder they rely on the United States as often as they do for intelligence, because this guy's a freaking idiot. What you end up having is the FBI running around the country ensuring that I was not where the Steele dossier said I was and 11 allegations raised against me, all of which are false. I've never been to Prague. I never paid $10 million to get Paul Manafort out of trouble. I wouldn't pay $3 to get Manafort out of trouble.

[The Steele dossier is] this ridiculous document by this wannabe 007. ... If this is the best England has to offer, it's no wonder they rely on the United States for intelligence, because this guy's a freaking idiot.

It goes on and on: I have a dacha in Sochi directly next door to Putin. My father-in-law is a real estate developer in Moscow, the biggest. My father-in-law's never been to Moscow. In fact, he's not Russian. He's Ukrainian, or the former Soviet Union when they were there. He's never to have returned in over 50 years. The whole thing is pure BS. But what happened? Media fell for it. Why? Because this is Donald Trump's true superpower. He is a master manipulator of the media. He understands people's inner desires to raise their own prestige, their own notoriety. And that's where the Department of Justice showed its first true colors. The unconstitutional remand, making me the first political prisoner in my own country because I wouldn't waive my First Amendment right. That's the subject of the lawsuit that I now have filed.

According to reporting in the Washington Post, Donald Trump personally helped pack up documents in January and then wanted his lawyers to tell the National Archives, "Hey, that's everything." Meanwhile, he had hundreds of pages of documents marked "classified." What do you think? I mean, you know Donald Trump. Why was he holding back these classified documents?

You may remember many years ago, Mattel made the mistake of making the Trump Monopoly game and sent it to Donald. And he was very proud of it. It had his various different assets and so on, most of which have gone bankrupt. But that's not part of the game. He's only interested in one thing, the get out of jail free card. And that's exactly what he saw in those documents. "You want to play with me? Really? I was the former president of the United States. I have documents that are so damaging to this country's national security. Go ahead, indict me, try to throw me in prison. See what happens." What happens is he turns over all this classified information, not as if he hasn't already done it, but he turns all his classified information over to our adversaries, right? "You want to play that game? No problem!"

What is Donald Trump capable of? Even now, he's traveling the nation, embracing QAnon, continuing to spew election lies, trying to radicalize people.

Anything and everything in order to protect himself, plain and simple. As they would say, drop the mic on that one. Plain and simple. He doesn't care about this country. He doesn't care about democracy. He doesn't care about QAnon. He doesn't care about the independents. He doesn't care about Republicans or Democrats. He cares about one thing and only one thing and that's Donald J. Trump.

Supposedly he was going to fire his daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, by tweet. That seems so petty, as opposed to throwing them under the bus if it was about criminal charges. Is there some truth to the idea that maybe he was going to fire Ivanka by tweet?

There was no way in the world that he was going to allow Jared Kushner, this sort of weasel, to take the credit for what Trump believes belongs to him and only him.

On more than one occasion. It wasn't just Ivanka. It was Jared as well. Many times it was because of Jared that he wanted to. One of the things that drove Trump nuts is if anybody else gets any positive press. When they had Jared on the front of Time Magazine as the guy who was the reason for Trump becoming president, that sent Trump into an apoplectic fit. There was no way in the world that he was going to allow Jared, this sort of weasel, to take the credit for what Trump believes belongs to him and him only. That was one of the very first fights. Then there were a few other that had to do with policy that went wrong. With Trump, if you make a mistake, your ass is on the line. And he has no qualms about firing anyone, including his own children or son-in-law.

You went to jail in part for helping Donald Trump with the hush money payments. There's no doubt about it. We all know it. You talked about it when you were pleading guilty. What happened with that investigation? Everyone wants to know. Why didn't the Southern District of New York then go after "Individual 1," under whose direction and for whose benefit you did that?

I was also paid back for the money, which he took, by the way, as a tax deduction. I didn't know that you could end up getting your pecker pulled by a porn star and take that as a deduction. Let me tell you, if I had accountants like that, I would never have had the tax issues that I had. One of the things that "Revenge" points out — and I've been fighting to get this truth out there since the very beginning — I didn't go to prison in part because of the hush money with Stormy Daniels. That's the reason why I went, plain and simple. I never committed tax evasion. I never lied or misrepresented myself to a bank.

In fact, I also was forced to plead guilty to the hush money payment of Karen McDougal, the $150,000 payment, which if you Google it yourself now, with the drip-drip-drip of new information that's coming out, David Pecker acknowledged that was his deal. He paid it. I just looked over the agreement after their document was already done to ensure that Trump was protected, at Trump's request. But when I talk about this in "Revenge," I don't talk about it from the standpoint of, oh, Michael Cohen is saying. I'm talking from the standpoint of judges. We have statements by them. By prosecutors, other defense attorneys. We have, you name it, Congress members. I ended up going [to prison] because of the NDA to Stormy Daniels.

The prosecutors went ahead on a Friday night at 5:30, and that was the first time that I ever heard from them. They gave me 48 hours through my lawyer. I wasn't even allowed to be there. "You have 48 hours until Monday to plead guilty or we're filing an 80-page indictment that's going to include your wife and we're perp-walking both of you out of your condo." Now, I don't know about anybody else, but when you get confronted with something like this — I want everyone just to think for a second. If you've ever gotten pulled over by a police officer, and your head is sort of like — it's a menagerie. You feel almost like you got punched in the temple in a fight. You're not sure really where you are. Now put that with the Department of Justice, the Southern District of New York, aka the "Sovereign District" of New York that plays by its own rules. It mirrors what went on during the days of the Untouchables with Al Capone.

They threatened my wife. What was I going to do? I'm going to put her in jeopardy of being perp-walked, fingerprinted, indicted and go through all this? She had no knowledge of any of this. They were making her as a co-conspirator to the hush money payment. Many people who were with me in Otisville who didn't do what I did — which is to protect your wife and your family at all costs — they fought it and their wives ended up at [the women's prison] Danbury. And these people don't care. When they have a high-profile case like this one, which is possibly the highest-profile case in the century, they have to win. You know why? So that they can go to [major law firms like] Guggenheim Partners, McDermott Will & Emery. They can go to Paul White, Lowenstein Sandler, and all these other million-dollar defense jobs that not one of them are competent to have.

Look, what is it like for you? You went to jail for Donald Trump. You're making that clear. You helped him and he's walking free and being celebrated by the right. It's not like he's in hiding. He's spewing the same lies that gave us Jan. 6, and bluntly inciting more violence. Honestly, I don't think he's about politics. I think he's building an army right now. That's my gut feeling.

And you're not wrong, Dean, because this is what every dictator has done to take control. The first thing that you do is you stifle people's First Amendment rights. You create a state-run media. We see that in Russia going on right now. And then what do you do? You empower the army to take control. Now, he doesn't have the U.S. Army, but he's building a paramilitary army that we saw on Jan. 6. QAnon supporters, these gun-toting maniacs willing to do anything in furtherance of their führer. That's what Trump is doing. He failed in my case of me, thanks to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein and my lawyer at the time, Donya Perry. He failed. But that's just a test run. So was Jan. 6. For Trump, it's a test run which is what makes him the most dangerous person in America, not just to our democracy, but to the freedoms that we all have enjoyed.

I believe that the beginning to [Trump's] end started with that incredible statement by [New York Attorney General] Tish James. That case will financially destroy him.

They threatened to perp-walk you and your wife out. Do you see a day where Donald Trump is charged and we see him perp-walked?

I do. I believe that the beginning to his end started with that incredible statement by Tish James. Right now, that case will financially destroy him. Now, a lot of people make the mistake and they say that she's seeking $250 million. That's not accurate. What she said was, "There is a baseline of $250 million." That's because they don't have the full amount. They just don't. In fact, when I was charged with tax evasion from the Southern District of New York, they left that number blank because they didn't even know what I tax evaded or what it really was, was a tax omission.

The story is so intertwined in terms of the accountant, the bank, all these people who lied, including [Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg. Google that too. Allen Weisselberg lied to the Southern District of New York in my case in order to get immunity. The biggest problem is with Trump, he doesn't care about the future of the country and he will continue to grift off all these supporters until they stop giving him money.

I do believe, going back to Tish James, that's going to be the impetus because she's already referred it to the DOJ, which is now under Merrick Garland, who I'm not thrilled with, by the way, under any circumstance. I believe he's operating so slowly, the exact opposite of Bill Barr, that people are getting Trump fatigue, right? Where we're just so tired of it. Indict him or stop this nonsense. But she also referred it to the IRS. And Donald Trump has committed tax evasion, bank fraud, wire fraud, misrepresentation. He will not be able to get past that, and that is criminal.

In tandem to the AG's case is the [Manhattan] district attorney's case. Now everybody's angry at Alvin Bragg, nobody more so than me. Mark Pomerantz, Carey Dunne, the two lawyers that worked on the case for over two years. I provided 15 sessions of information, documentation and so on. They worked in tandem with each other. And there is the case against the Trump Organization. You may remember that Allen Weisselberg said that he will not testify against Donald. That's OK, you're going to testify against the Trump Organization, which is the same thing as testifying against Donald, because it's his autonomous company. He controls every single aspect. Every lever of the Trump Organization is controlled by Donald J. Trump. Therefore, we'll call it ipso facto, he'll be guilty.

Is your "revenge" that Donald Trump is held accountable and brought to justice for his crimes?

So the revenge is not that myopic in terms of just Donald Trump. It is so much more than Donald Trump. Donald Trump was, we'll call it, the denominator. But you have so many numerators in this case that need to be overhauled, need to be fixed. Like Judge Rakoff said, "In a plea deal, you can't have the judge that's sitting on the case uninvolved." You need a third party or someone involved, which they're not. They work every day with the same prosecutors. Deals are cut in the bathroom. You need an independent judge when it comes to plea deals. Otherwise, you're going to see innocent people go to prison.

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-new-york-fraud/

 

Trump loses bid to dodge judge he called 'unbelievably unfair' in NY fraud case

Igor Derysh, Salon
October 20, 2022



Trump speaking at a rally in 2019. (Shutterstock.com)


Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lost his bid to dodge a New York judge he called "unbelievably unfair."

New York Attorney General Letitia James last month filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump, three of his adult children and his company, accusing them of a decade-long fraud scheme following a three-year investigation. James and Trump have battled in court throughout the probe as Trump and his children sought to avoid record requests and interviews with investigators. Judge Arthur Engoron, who heard matters related to the probe, at one point fined Trump $110,000 for defying his order to sit for a deposition, prompting Trump to complain that "we have a judge that frankly has been unbelievably unfair."

"We've given millions and millions of pages and he says give more, give more, always give more," Trump protested in May.

Trump ultimately relented and sat for a deposition, invoking his Fifth Amendment right nearly 450 times.

After James filed her lawsuit last month, Trump requested that the case be transferred from Engoron's court to the court's Commercial Division. An administrative judge on Wednesday denied his motion, meaning that the case will remain before Engoron, according to Bloomberg News.

The ruling leaves Engoron, "who is already VERY knowledgeable about the alleged years-long fraud, in place to hear the NYAG's motion to enjoin the Trump Org. from moving material assets," tweeted NBC News legal analyst Lisa Rubin.

James had asked the court to keep the case before Engoron as a "related matter" and last week filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to bar the Trump Organization from transferring assets.

James in the filing revealed that the Trump Organization registered a new company called "Trump Organization II LLC" in Delaware on the same day that she filed the lawsuit.

"Beyond just the continuation of its prior fraud, the Trump Organization now appears to be taking steps to restructure its business to avoid existing responsibilities under New York law," the filing said.

Trump attorney Alina Habba lashed out over the motion, calling it "nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to keep this case with Justice Engoron rather than have it transferred to the Commercial Division where it belongs."

Habba has repeatedly clashed with Engoron in court. Habba in February pushed Trump's claims that James was biased against him in court, interrupting the judge and drawing a rebuke from his clerk, Allison Greenfield.

"When the judge speaks, you need to stop speaking," Greenfield repeatedly told Habba, according to Insider.

Engoron ultimately ordered Trump and his adult children to comply with the subpoenas.

"The target of a hybrid civil/criminal investigation cannot use the Fifth Amendment as both sword and a shield; a shield against questions and a sword against the investigation itself," he wrote.

Trump refused to comply with the subpoena and James went back to court to hold Trump in contempt. Habba during a May hearing complained about the judge's rulings in the case.

"If you would like a bunch of more affidavits, you can order that," Habba snapped. "You can order anything you like."

Engoron held Trump in contempt and at one point fined him $10,000 per day for refusing to comply with the subpoena.

"I don't understand why we are still in contempt," Habba complained during a June hearing after Engoron refused to lift the order until Trump fully turned over documents in the case. "I think the opinion is based on who my client is," Habba claimed, "and that's concerning to me."

Trump and Habba have repeatedly claimed that he is the victim of political discrimination.

"There's no viewpoint discrimination," Engoron said during a hearing in February after Habba claimed James had "disdain" for Trump and argued that he was a member of a "protected class."

"What protected class is he a member of?" the judge pressed.

"His political speech," Habba replied. "If he was not sitting as a Republican and was not a former president who might run again, this would not be happening. So she is discriminating against him for that."

Engoron noted that protected classes include race, gender, and religion.

"Donald Trump doesn't fit that model. He's not being discriminated against based on race, is he? Or religion, is he? He's not a protected class," Engoron said. "If Ms. James has a thing against him, OK, that's not in my understanding [of] unlawful discrimination. He's just a bad guy she should go after as the chief law enforcement officer of the state."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-court-losses-2658479922/

 

I certainly hope so. I am getting tired of waiting.

 

This is Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco mansion.



She owns another mansion in Napa Valley, California. Nevertheless, she is always asking me for money. I should tell her that if she is having trouble paying the bills she should take in renters.

 

This should be interesting. The only way Allen Weisselbergcan avoid a long prison sentence is to testify truthfully about the Trump organization.

Former longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg expected to be star witness in company's tax fraud trial
Alia Shoaib
Sun, October 23, 2022 at 7:36 AM·2 min read


In this article:

• 
  

• 
  

• Allen Weisselberg
  American businessman and chief financial officer of The Trump Organization

Former president Donald Trump with his former CFO Allen Weisselberg at Trump Tower in 2017.Evan Vucci/AP

• 
  Former Trump Organization CFO will be a star witness in the company's tax fraud trial, Bloomberg reports.
  
  
• Allen Weisselberg, 75, agreed to testify as part of a plea deal for a five-month prison sentence.
  
  
• Jury selection for the trial will begin on Monday in Manhattan.
  

The veteran former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization is expected to be a star witness in the upcoming criminal tax fraud trial against the company, reports say.

Allen Weisselberg, 75, who worked for the company for decades, will be called to testify about former President Donald Trump's business, Bloomberg reported.

The complex jury selection for the trial will begin on Monday in Manhattan. Potential jurors will be grilled on their opinion of Trump and if it impedes their ability to fairly evaluate the evidence, per The Washington Post.

Prosecutors allege that the company engaged in a tax fraud scheme by compensating senior executives with perks like apartments and company cars under Weisselberg's supervision. Trump is not personally charged.

Weisselberg, who has long been one of Trump's most loyal deputies, pleaded guilty in August to 15 felony counts, including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, and criminal tax fraud, in exchange for a maximum five-month jail sentence.

Under the plea's conditions, Weisselberg — a loyal, 40-year bookkeeper for Trump and his family —agreed to testify in the upcoming trial.

His attorney Nicholas Gravante told Bloomberg that he is required to testify truthfully or else the deal will be revoked, and he could face up to 15 years in prison.

"The world is about to see just how the Trump Organization ran its business," Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Michigan Law School, told Bloomberg.

"This is a significant case. The criminal charges are against Trump's corporation, a small private company, but Donald Trump is the Trump Organization."

A source familiar with Weisselberg's thinking previously told Insider's Laura Italiano that he has no intention of implicating anyone in the Trump family, either as part of his testimony or in cooperation with the Manhattan District Attorney's ongoing Trump Organization probe.

Weisselberg reportedly received various benefits during his time working for the Trump Organization, including an apartment, a Mercedes-Benz, and tuition payments to a private school for his grandchildren, Bloomberg said. Prosecutors say these should have been taxed like income.

Prosecutors will likely ask him whether other senior executives, including Trump's children, received similar perks, according to Bloomberg.

Manhattan prosecutors had attempted to "flip" the longtime Trump executive as part of its three-year investigation into Trump and his company for possible financial wrongdoing.

If the Trump Organization is found guilty, it would have to pay back taxes and fines totaling about $1.6 million.

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-longtime-trump-organization-cfo-133639188.html

 

tax free
rent free

 

I said it before and I’ll say it again Trump must’ve been one squeaky clean son of a bitch .

 

Oh, Shooter is sure the pompous gas bag has a few skeletons in his closet, but it's been revealing to watch the despicables launch investigation after investigation hoping to get their perp walk.

We're now watching their incompetence in full display, hoping to get their perp walk out of a civil case against him.
Note to despicables; a civil case cannot result in an arrest or a jail sentence.

 

Trump's panic on full display. And his cult followers as well.

Trump: Feds 'tortured' Allen Weisselberg just for 'not paying taxes' on multiple company benefits

Brad Reed
October 24, 2022



President of the United States Donald Trump speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


With longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg due in court this week to testify in a tax fraud trial against the company whose finances he ran for decades, former President Donald Trump decided to lash out at investigators for criminally charging his longtime top financial officer.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump accused law enforcement officials of running a politically motivated investigation that he said was part of a plot to hurt his presidential ambitions.

"The highly partisan Democrat Witch Hunt goes on, this time in New York where, after viewing millions of pages of documents over many years, charges were brought against a long time Trump executive who they 'tortured' & threatened for years," Trump complained.

Trump went on to attack prosecutors for bringing charges against Weisselberg merely "for not paying taxes on the use of company cars, the use of a company apartment, and the education of his grandchildren," all of which does amount to criminal tax evasion under the law.

READ MORE: Former GOP mayor issues a dire warning as he endorses Democrat in New Jersey race

"No such 'fringe benefits' case has ever been brought criminally(?) in the U.S., & right during the important Mid-Term Elections, of course!" he concluded.

Earlier this year, Weisselberg agreed to plead guilty to a 15-year tax fraud scheme that included a cooperation agreement to testify against the Trump Organization itself, although he is not implicating the former president.



https://www.rawstory.com/allen-weisselberg-trump-2658497122/

 

I get a good laugh our of Trump's panic setting in. And its getting worse by the day because no one knows how guilty he is better than he does.


'Communist takeover': Trump rages at 'vicious and mean' judge overseeing NY fraud case

Travis Gettys
October 28, 2022



Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


Donald Trump on Friday slammed a judge overseeing a New York fraud lawsuit filed against him and his family-owned business.

An administrative judge ruled last week to keep the case before state Supreme Court justice Arthur Engoron, who has repeatedly ruled against the former president and even held him in contempt of court, and Trump raged on his Truth Social account against the judge and New York attorney general Letitia James, who filed the $250 million fraud suit last month.

"The only person who may be worse than weak on violent crime A.G. Letitia 'Peekaboo' James, is the Judge we have on her ridiculous & highly partisan case against me & my family," Trump posted. "His name is Arthur Engoron, & he is a vicious, biased, and mean 'rubber stamp' for the Communist takeover of the great & prosperous American company that I have built over a long period of years. He was appointed by my worst enemies."

"Case was to go to a new Judge, but he demands to keep it," the ex-president added. "I have no jury or Civil Rights!"

IN OTHER NEWS: 'You reap what you sow': Right-wing trolls waste no time mocking assault on Nancy Pelosi's husband

Administrative judge Adam Silvera ruled Oct. 19 that Engoron should continue hearing the suit in the interest of "judicial economy and expediency," agreeing with the attorney general's office that he already had deep familiarity with the case developed over years of hearings.

Silvera also called out Trump's attorneys for delaying acceptance of the lawsuit for three weeks, even as lawyers for the former president and his two eldest sons, who were also charged in the complaint, filed requests to move the case to the court's commercial division.

In a separate case, Manhattan prosecutors have also charged the Trump Organization, currently run by Trump's two adult sons, Donald Jr and Eric Trump, with hiding compensation it paid to top executives between 2005 and 2021.

Trump, who is not named in that case, previously slammed the charges as a "witch hunt" by rivals, weeks ahead of congressional elections on November 8.

READ: Nancy Pelosi's husband 'violently assaulted' in their home

"The highly partisan Democrat Witch Hunt goes on, this time in New York... right during the important Mid-Term Elections, of course," he said on social media.

The company faces potential fines of over $1.5 million if found guilty.

One of the implicated executives, longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg, has already pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud, and is expected to testify against his former company as part of a plea bargain.

A close friend of the Trump family, the 75-year-old Weisselberg admitted he schemed with the company to receive undeclared benefits such as a rent-free apartment in a posh Manhattan neighborhood, luxury cars for him and his wife and private school tuition for his grandchildren.

According to his plea deal, Weisselberg has agreed to pay nearly $2 million in fines and penalties and complete a five-month prison sentence in exchange for testimony during the trial, for which jury selection began Monday.

"This plea agreement directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial against the corporation," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in August.

https://www.rawstory.com/arthur-engoron-trump/

 

The Democrats have had two years to put Trump into prison. If, as seems likely, the Republicans get majorities in both houses of Congress, the investigations of Trump will come to an end, and there is a good chance he will be our next president.

 

If Trump is re elected he will spend his time in office getting vengeance on his enemies. There is an old saying that is relevant here: If you hit a king you better kill him. Trump's many enemies will wish they got him when they had him down.

 

If Trump is reelected it will be the night of the long knives, when Hitler use the SS to wipe out the leadership of SA .He will make the Proud boys and other thuggish groups Federal law officers a lot of his opponents will die "resisting arrest ".Other will be sacked from there jobs and made unemployable (He will let be known anyone employing will not get Government business in future).....
He probably take a page out of a certain country in the middle east and form a Republican guard out of the extreme groups who support him.

 

That is the way many Trump supporters went him to rule. Despite their raving about the Constitution they are tired of democracy with its restrictions. They want all the people they hate to experience some real suffering.

The only people who will benefit economically from Trump's second presidency will be rich people. Trump's lower income, poorly educated white supporters will not care, as long as the people they hate suffer worse then they do.

 

Despicables don't need to fear Trump getting revenge.
They have to worry about deplorables getting revenge for 7 years of despicable lies, persecutions and corruption.
And that will start in 2023, not 2024.

 

Go ahead. Get it out of your system. Might as well. Nothing you say or do will change the course of the midterm elections. And you know it.

But have fun.

Karma's a bitch, eh?

 

Trump Organization unveils its defense strategy: Keep all the blame away from Trump

Trump Organization unveils its defense strategy: Keep all the blame away from Trump
Laura Italiano,Natalie Musumeci
Mon, October 31, 2022 at 10:41 AM



Former President Donald Trump.Evan Vucci/AP

• 
  Defense attorneys in tax-evasion trial of Donald Trump's business are trying to keep the blame off Trump.
  
  
• Trump's company, the Trump Organization, is facing multiple charges, including scheme to defraud.
  
  
• The fraud scheme "started with" ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg and "ended" with him, a Trump Organization lawyer said.
  

Defense attorneys in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company unveiled their strategy in the case on Monday — keep all blame off the former president and anyone else with the Trump name.

Prosecutors in the high-profile trial playing out in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan allege that the Trump Organization ran a 15-year scheme to trick tax authorities by giving top executives significant compensation in the form of untaxed "perks" like luxury cars and rent-free Trump-branded apartments.



Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles told the jury during opening statements on Monday that the fraud scheme "started with" former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "and it ended with Allen Weisselberg."

Weisselberg pleaded guilty to the tax-dodge scheme over the summer. He agreed to testify truthfully about his own role as part of a plea deal. Under the deal, Weisselberg must serve five months jail and pay back $2 million.

But he and two other key prosecution witnesses are still on the Trump payroll and have been coordinating with Trump attorneys.

All three can be expected to support the Trump line of defense on the witness stand: that the tax-dodge scheme was a conspiracy by rogue Trump Organization executives who kept the very top of the company, including Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and the former president — its owner and sole beneficiary — in the dark.

"Donald Trump didn't know that Allen Weisselberg was cheating on Allen Weisselberg's personal tax returns," Necheles told the jury's four women and eight men. "The evidence will be crystal clear on that."

"Allen Weisselberg does not own the Trump Organization," she stressed.

Another Trump Organization attorney, Michael van der Veen, turned it into something of a mantra.

"Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg," he repeated no fewer than four times in his own openings.

Van der Veen likened Weisselberg to a "prodigal son" whose greedy scheming betrayed his "family" — the Trump family.

Weisselberg the "son" was nonetheless kept in the family fold, van der Veen said, using a Biblical analogy to explain away a sticky circumstance: Weisselberg and other prosecution witnesses are still being paid salaries and even have their legal defenses covered by Trump.

It was out of charity and forgiveness that Weisselberg was kept on the payroll, van der Veen suggested.

"He made mistakes," the lawyer said.

"Serious mistakes that have put his liberty at jeopardy ... crimes that have hurt his company," he added, countering prosecutors' insistence that the Trump Organization clearly benefitted from a scheme that kept their top executives happy and saved them in Medicaid deductions.

"He has been removed from his position as chief financial officer," van der Veen continued. "But his ability to financially support his [own] family has not been stripped from him."

He added: "The meat of our defense is that Allen Weisselberg did not act at all with the intent to benefit the Trump Payroll Corporation."

The Trump Corporation is the Trump Organization subsidiary that directly employs its top executives, including Weisselberg. The Trump Payroll Corporation is the subsidiary that manages the payroll. Both do business as the Trump Organization, and both are defendants in the case.

Weisselberg has admitted to pocketing $1.7 million in tax-free perks over 15 years, including Mercedes-Benz luxury cars for him and his wife, free use of Trump-branded apartments on Manhattan's Hudson River and tuition for his grandkids' private schools.

The scheme saved him nearly a million dollars in taxes over 15 years, prosecutors have said.

But while "Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg" was the defense mantra, the prosecution's mantra — that Weisselberg was a "high managerial agent," a three-word phrase repeated in prosecutors' openings — was a bit less catchy.

Prosecutors must show that Weisselberg and a second executive who answered to him, former controller Jeff McConney, took actions on the company's behalf and were both "high managerial agents" under the law, meaning they were so high up in the company they can be equated with the company itself.

"The scheme was conducted and authorized ... at the highest level," said Susan Hoffinger, the Manhattan district attorney's investigations chief, during opening statements. She promised jurors entries in Donald Trump's personal financial ledger and a check he signed linking him to the scheme.

"This case is about greed and cheating," she told jurors. "Cheating on taxes."

Trump's company paid some $1.76 million in perks to Weisselberg over the last 15 years, Hoffinger told them, "and even paid him cash for his personal holiday gifts."3

"We're going to focus in on the paper trail," she promised, including W2 forms and other tax documents she said were falsified to hide the perks from taxing authorities.

"Why not just give Allen Weisselberg a raise?" she asked rhetorically, before answering, "because doing it legally would have cost the Trump Organization more."

That included Weisselberg paying more in income taxes, and the company paying more in withholding taxes and Medicare taxes, she said.

The company was also able to "keep their trusted chief financial officer happy by paying him more," she said.

"Everybody wins here," she said. "Allen Weisselberg and the company … The problem with doing it this way is that it is not legal."



Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-organization-unveils-defense-strategy-164140542.html