Ex-Trump Executive Gets 5 Months on Perjury Charges

(RepublicanView.org) – A former Trump executive has been sent to jail for five months for perjury. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed charges against Allen Weisselberg, saying he lied under oath during testimony in a New York civil fraud trial. The former chief financial officer pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and will serve his sentence in New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison. New York Attorney General Letitia James initiated the civil case against Trump and his associates in 2022, resulting in a $454 million fine for the former President.

Weisselberg’s attorney said he accepts responsibility for his role in inflating the value of Donald Trump’s real estate assets and looks forward to retiring at the end of the sentence. Mr. Weisselberg spent three months at Rikers last year after pleading guilty to orchestrating a separate tax fraud scheme.

The fraud case centers around the size of the former President’s Manhattan penthouse. Last October, Weisselberg testified that he had no knowledge of why Trump’s 5th Avenue apartment had been valued as a 30,000-square-foot residence when, in reality, it measured just over 10,000 square feet. When asked why he signed financial statements with the wrong measurement and valuation, Weisselberg testified that he had “never thought” about the size of the building.

However, Forbes Magazine later wrote that a review of email exchanges with the former Trump Organization executive confirmed he was well aware of the apartment’s size and was instrumental in persuading Forbes of its inflated value.

The Weiselberg plea deal concludes that he was present during a 2015 meeting between Trump and Forbes reporters, during which the former President claimed his apartment was larger than it is, and that Weisselberg knew the actual size of the building before signing off on a financial statement in 2017.

During a brief appearance in court on April 10, Mr. Weisselberg told Judge Laurie Peterson he had nothing further to say before being led away in handcuffs to Rikers Island.