A New York judge has sentenced former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to five months in jail for perjury charges. Weisselberg, who admitted to testifying falsely in Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, was sentenced on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, to five months in jail on perjury charges.
Prosecutors charged him with five counts of perjury. However, under a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts. He pleaded guilty to charges relating to testimony he gave during a 2020 deposition with the attorney general’s office.
In addition, Allen Weisselberg admitted to testifying falsely at the civil fraud trial in 2023 but didn’t plead guilty. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend Weisselberg serve a five-month jail sentence. The former Trump Organization CFO, 76, arrived at New York criminal court dressed for prison.
He appeared in jogging pants and a zip-up jacket. “The promise is five months of incarceration,” Judge Laurie Peterson said during sentencing. “Mr. Weisselberg, is there anything you’d like to say?” the judge asked. “No, your honor,” Weisselberg replied before court officers handcuffed him and took him into custody.
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Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in March 2024 to two felony counts of perjury that charged him with lying under oath. Prosecutors said he lied about his role in valuing Trump’s Fifth Avenue triplex apartment at three times its actual size. During his trial testimony, Weisselberg struggled to explain the incorrect square footage of Trump’s apartment.
They listed the apartment, which is less than 11,000 square feet, on Trump’s statements of financial condition as 30,000. “It was almost relative to his net worth, so l didn’t really focus on it,” Allen Weisselberg said during the trial. “I never even thought about the apartment.”
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However, Forbes published an article after Weisselberg’s appearance, accusing him of lying under oath. The magazine also said he played a crucial role in convincing them the apartment was as big as Trump’s financial statements.
At the trial, a New York AG’s office lawyer, Louis Solomon, confronted Weisselberg with emails from a Forbes reporter. He also presented a letter signed by Weisselberg certifying the excessive square footage to the Trump Organization’s accountant, Mazars USA.
“Forbes was right; the triplex was actually only 10,996, right?” Solomon asked. “Right,” Weisselberg finally conceded.
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Following Weisselberg’s guilty plea, defense lawyers for Trump have claimed it was an act of legal coercion. They claim Trump and his sons “have no knowledge” of Weisselberg’s actions. Furthermore, they say he only made such admissions because they “threatened” him with life in prison.
In February, New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $464 million after finding the former president guilty. Engoron found Trump liable for using “numerous acts of fraud” to inflate his value to get more favorable loan terms.
However, Trump has denied all wrongdoing and appealed the case’s decision. Allen Weisselberg, on the other hand, served three months in jail in 2023 for tax fraud. He pleaded guilty to 15 felony charges related to his compensation while working for Trump.
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