This is just the start. I would expect the special grand jury to keep working, and superseding indictments or additional indictments to be handed down in the future.
The Washington Post reports, Trump Organization charged with 15-year ‘scheme to defraud’ government; chief financial officer charged with grand larceny, tax fraud:
Prosecutors charged the Trump Organization [Trump Corporation, dba the Trump Organization, Trump Payroll Corp. dba theTrump Organization], with a 15-year “scheme to defraud” the government and charged its chief financial officer [one of the largest individual beneficiaries of the defendants’ scheme was Allen Weisselberg, who received indirect employee compensation in the approximate amount of $1.76 million] with grand larceny and tax fraud in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday afternoon.
Allen Weisselberg, former president Donald Trump’s longtime CFO, pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment hearing that began about 2:20 p.m. He walked into the courtroom in a dark suit, surrounded by detectives and court officers [and handcuffed behind his back]. He did not respond to questions from reporters in the hallway outside.
Weisselberg, 73, had surrendered at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office early Thursday, the morning after a grand jury filed indictments against him and the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg was released [on his own recognisanse] after the hearing, but he was required to surrender his passport after prosecutors said he was a “flight risk.”
An attorney for the Trump Organization also pleaded not guilty on the company’s behalf. Prosecutors also charged a subsidiary called Trump Payroll Corp., which handles the company’s benefits and payments to employees.
In all, 15 criminal charges were filed against Weisselberg, according to a copy of the “speaking” indictment (.pdf) obtained by The Washington Post. They included counts of conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. In many of the counts, the two Trump entities were charged along with Weisselberg.
Carey Dunne, a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s Office, said in the hearing that the charges were related to an “off-the-books tax fraud scheme” that lasted for 15 years. He said that the scheme allowed Trump Organization executives to get “secret pay raises” while not paying proper taxes.
“To put it bluntly, this was a sweeping and audacious illegal payment scheme,” Dunne said. He rejected an allegation from the Trump Organization that the charges were part of a politically motivated effort to hurt Trump: “It’s not about politics,” Dunne said.
Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas said he would not respond to the allegations in the hearing.
“I appreciate the news release and I don’t think at this point it warrants a response,” he said, referring to Dunne’s comments.
An attorney for Weisselberg, Mary E. Mulligan, said only that her side disputes the facts of the case.
These are the first charges to result from an investigation of Trump’s company by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). Both Vance and James were present in the courtroom for the arraignment, sitting one seat apart to observe social-distancing rules.
The Trump Organization, in a statement, lauded Weisselberg as “a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organization for 48 years.”
What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? (irrelevant).
[A]lthough the indictments could pose trouble for Trump, exposing his company to potential fines and intensifying pressure on Weisselberg, neither the former president nor anyone else in his firm is expected to face charges this week. Prosecutors hope Weisselberg will offer testimony against Trump in exchange for lessening his own legal risk, according to a person familiar with the case.
Brookings Governance Studies released a 57 page report entitled New York State’s Trump Investigation:
An Analysis of the Reported Facts and Applicable Law, by four legal experts, Norman Eisen, E. Danya Perry, Donald B. Ayer, and John R. Cuti. Their ultimate conclusion: “Thus, with all the qualifications we have offered, we think there is serious risk that criminal enforcement action will be taken as a result of the ongoing investigations of the business dealings of Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization.”
Weisselberg, who has worked for Trump since the 1980s, is considered the most important figure in the Trump Organization apart from Trump family members. The Washington Post has previously reported that Weisselberg was a key figure in the investigations by Vance and James. Both have scrutinized whether Trump misled lenders or tax authorities, or evaded taxes on forgiven debts or fringe benefits for employees, according to court papers and people familiar with the cases.
In recent months, both sets of investigators have spoken to Jennifer Weisselberg, the chief financial officer’s former daughter-in-law, who said that Weisselberg’s son Barry had been given a free apartment and a hefty salary while he worked at the Trump Organization’s Central Park ice rink. Prosecutors were looking into whether taxes were paid on the benefits, people close to the investigation said.
The now-merged investigations of Trump’s company appear to be the longest-lasting and most extensive prosecutorial examination ever undertaken of the Trump Organization.
Vance’s office opened an investigation in 2018, responding to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s charges that Trump had directed improper payoffs during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who said they had affairs with Trump.
But Vance’s probe then broadened, encompassing years of business transactions. Vance examined tax breaks that Trump got on an estate in suburban New York, loans Trump took out on his Chicago tower, and statements Trump made to New York tax authorities about the value of his Manhattan towers, according to previous court filings.
Trump and his organization have never faced criminal charges, but Trump has been the target of lawsuits from the office of the New York attorney general.
In one, he was sued for allegedly defrauding students at Trump University, a case that ended with Trump paying a $25 million settlement in 2016 in that and other cases. Two years later, Trump was sued for misusing money in a charity he controlled; a judge ordered Trump to pay damages of $2 million.
This is all relevant evidence to establish a pattern and practice of illegal conduct, and criminal intent.
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After five years of edging, I’m no longer waiting for release on this crime family going down.
The former jerk being shady was known for decades, and he should have gone personally bankrupt at least once, but the banks decided his brand was worth saving, because they had money in the game.
They could lose hundreds of millions, or they could lose a bunch more hundreds of millions.
If the Former Jerk Organization goes under, the King of Debt will have all his markers called in.
I don’t see the banks letting this happen, and since this is all being done in New York, banking capital of the world, and in light of today’s SCOTUS ruling saying I don’t have the right to know who’s pitching me BS, expect some NY pols to get some fat checks in their campaign war chests.
I hope I’m wrong.
You can bank on the fact that the Feds will roll Weisselberg into a witness against Trump in a far-ranging fraud indictment against Trump personally. The hounds of justice are closing in!