The ex-Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg has been sentenced to five months in jail for lying under oath in civil fraud case.
The former Trump Organization chief financial officer, 76, was expected to receive this sentence after pleading guilty last month to two counts of perjury in the first degree.
Weisselberg previously spent three months in jail last year after pleading guilty to helping orchestrate a tax fraud scheme at the business.
A longtime lieutenant to Donald Trump, Weisselberg was one of the defendants on the former president’s fraud trial that resulted in a $450m fine. Weisselberg, along with Trump, Trump’s adult sons and Jeff McConney, another former Trump executive, were found guilty of inflating the value of Trump’s assets on government financial documents. Weisselberg was fined $1.1m for his role in the case.
When Weisselberg took the witness stand in October for the trial, he was often evasive of prosecutors’ questions, including ones about his knowledge about the size of Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower. On financial statements, the Trump Organization listed the apartment as being 30,000 sq ft. In reality, the apartment is closer to 11,000 sq ft.
Weisselberg said the matter was “de minimus, in my mind”, brushing off the difference.
Forbes magazine soon refuted his claim, saying they had emails and notes of Weisselberg trying to convince the magazine that the apartment was 30,000 sq ft, despite documents that indicated the apartment was much smaller.
Weisselberg admitted to perjury as part of a deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting a separate Trump trial around the former president’s hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In the deal, the district attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute Weisselberg for any additional crimes relating to his work at the Trump Organization, protecting him from further prosecution relating to the hush-money case.
It is still unclear what role Weisselberg will play in the hush-money trial, which starts 15 April.