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Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has pleaded guilty to perjury.
The two charges stem from testimony in the civil fraud trial against former President Donald Trump.
Weisselberg, 76, made the plea Monday in an agreement with Manhattan prosecutors.
He will return to New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison to serve a five-month sentence.
Mr. Weisselberg admitted that he lied in May and October testimony when he claimed he was not involved in the false assessment of Mr. Trump’s Manhattan penthouse.
Trump Tower’s penthouse was valued at $327m (£258m) in 2015 financial statements, and at an estimated 30,000 square feet, it was nearly three times that amount.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the false valuation “absurd” and an attempt to mislead lenders about the true value of Trump’s assets.
The former Trump Organization executive’s false testimony was first reported by Forbes magazine, which exposed emails between Weisselberg and the magazine’s reporters in which he tried to convince them the Penthouse was worth more.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Weisselberg “swore an oath to tell the truth and then perjured himself both in depositions during the New York State Attorney General’s investigation and proceedings and in a recent trial.” Stated.
“Lying in a deposition or at trial is a crime, plain and simple,” the spokesperson said.
This is Weisselberg’s second guilty plea in recent years on charges related to his time as chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
A longtime Trump aide also pleaded guilty in 2022 to concealing more than $1.7 million in off-the-record income while with the organization.
Therefore, he served a three-month prison sentence.
Mr. Weisselberg is scheduled to be formally sentenced on April 10 for his latest guilty plea.
After Monday’s plea, a lawyer for Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for 50 years, said the former CFO “looks forward to bringing this situation to an end.”
Last month, Mr. Trump and other members of the Trump Organization were found responsible for manipulating Mr. Trump’s net worth in a lawsuit brought by Mr. James, a Democrat, in Manhattan civil court and ordered to pay a $454 million fine. It was done.
Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, has appealed the ban. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and called the incident a political witch hunt.
The former president is scheduled to appear in court again later this month in a criminal case in which he is accused of falsifying business records after paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He also faces other charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and allegations of mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
