On Wednesday, Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, began serving a five-month perjury sentence. Weisselberg had previously admitted to lying in a pretrial deposition and on the witness stand during a civil fraud trial last year. He surrendered himself at Manhattan Criminal Court following a brief sentencing where he pleaded guilty to two felony charges of first-degree perjury.
The judge, Laurie Peterson, ordered Weisselberg to serve the five months he had agreed to during his guilty plea. Court officers then handcuffed Weisselberg and escorted him out of the courtroom without the disgraced CFO looking back. This is Weisselberg’s second stint in a New York City jail, as he previously served 100 days on Rikers Island for running a payroll-tax fraud scheme at the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg’s lawyer, Seth L. Rosenberg, stated that his client had accepted responsibility for his actions and was looking forward to finishing this experience and reuniting with his family in retirement. The charges Weisselberg pleaded guilty to were related to his and Trump’s involvement in a massive fraudulent claim about the size of Trump’s penthouse triplex at Trump Tower. This latest chapter in Weisselberg’s legal saga has brought further scrutiny to the inner workings of the Trump Organization.
