Report: Manhattan District Attorney to Formally Charge the Trump Organization with Crimes
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office will unveil multiple tax-related charges against the Trump Organization in court on Thursday, according to a new report.
The DA’s office has been investigating the Trump Organization for the past three years.
Charges will be filed against both the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, the company’s chief financial officer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ report, which was based on sources the outlet did not name, said Weisselberg has rejected prosecutors’ efforts to make him cooperate with their investigation of former President Donald Trump and his business empire.
The charges will focus around employees’ alleged failure to pay taxes on perks such as cars, apartments and tuition benefits provided by the Trump Organization to high-level staff, WSJ reported.
The outlet’s report is in line with comments offered recently by Trump Organization attorney Ron Fischetti, who said lawyers from the Trump Organization and DA’s office met last week, according to WNBC-TV.
“It looks like they are going to come down with charges against the company and that is completely outrageous,” Fischetti said.
“The meeting was on Zoom for about 9 minutes and there were 8 or 9 prosecutors … the corporate office will plead not guilty and we will make an immediate motion to dismiss the case against the corporation.”
Fischetti said the former president will not be charged on Thursday.
“I asked specifically, ‘Are any of these charges related to Donald Trump?’ And the answer was no,” the attorney said, according to CBS News.
He indicated the charges will relate to not paying taxes on such items as cars and residencies provided to employees.
“They didn’t use the word ‘fringe benefits’ or anything like that, but they alleged improper benefits that were conferred on some of the high-ranking individuals in the Trump Organization,” Fischetti said.
However, Fischetti downplayed the significance of the charges to be filed.
“The district attorney has had all these years, all this time to do this investigation thoroughly from top to bottom,” the attorney said.
“And what they’ve come down with is this indictment which they’ve told us is going to be on fringe benefits for some unnamed employees. For cars, apartments, and I don’t know what else.”
The DA, he said, has “no evidence whatsoever” that the Trump Organization was involved in “this minimal tax evasion by individuals, which was never charged and has never been charged by the IRS.”
“We intend to win,” Fischetti said.
Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor in the DA’s office, said neither the case nor the charges are common.
“We’re not talking about your typical case. You’re talking about Donald Trump and the Trump Organization and trying to turn a key witness who so far appears to be reluctant to cooperate,” Gershman told CBS News, referring to Weisselberg.
“The prosecutors are using whatever leverage they have, all the ammunition they have at their disposal. This is still early in the game, we’re at the beginning,” he said.
On Monday, Trump issued a statement about the expected filing of charges, in which he called the prosecutors “Witch Hunters.”
“Radical Left New York City and State Prosecutors, who have let murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and all other forms of crime skyrocket to record levels, and who have just announced that they will be releasing hundreds of people involved in violent crime back onto the streets without retribution of any kind, are rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization,” Trump wrote.
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime’ and will do anything to frighten people into making up the stories or lies that they want, but have been totally unable to get.”
“They will do anything to stop the MAGA movement (and me), even if it involves prosecutorial misconduct and harassment of a political opponent, which they are using at levels rarely seen before,” Trump wrote.
“Having politically motivated prosecutors, people who actually got elected because they will ‘get Donald Trump,’ is a very dangerous thing for our Country. In the end, people will not stand for it. Remember, if they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone! Why would anyone bring their company to New York, or even stay in New York, knowing these Radical Left Democrats would willingly target their company if viewed as a political opponent? It is devastating for New York!” he wrote.
“These Witch Hunters are relentlessly seeking to destroy a reputation of a President who has done a great job for this Country, including tax and regulation cuts, Border control, rebuilding the Military, and developing the vaccine in record time — thereby saving our Country, and far beyond.”
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