Allen Weisselberg just took the stand and gave damning testimony against Donald Trump in civil fraud trial
When Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to financial fraud crimes, it didn’t just send him to prison. It also meant that Weisselberg was required to testify against Donald Trump and others when it came to those same crimes. After all, once you’ve been convicted, the Fifth Amendment goes out the window. You can’t argue that you’re afraid of incriminating yourself on things you’ve already been convicted on.
Accordingly, even though Weisselberg never cut any sort of cooperation deal, he still ended up having to testify today at Trump’s New York civil fraud trial. This was always pretty much inevitable, given that if Weisselberg had refused to testify, he’d have gone to prison for obstruction.
Sure enough, Weisselberg admitted on the stand today that Donald Trump knowingly made false claims about the size of his Trump Tower apartment, along with other lies, on financial statements. These lies are crimes because Trump used these lies to secure loans and such.
Weisselberg is also claiming that he can’t recall certain details of how things went down. That’ll get a lot of media attention, but it misses the point. It’s not about what Weisselberg didn’t say today. It’s about what Weisselberg did say. Weisselberg’s testimony today is a huge blow to Trump, as it’ll help ensure that the judge hands out massive financial penalties at the end of this trial.
