In the ongoing criminal investigation by the Manhattan DA and New York AG against former President Donald Trump, prosecutors found the Trump Organization CFO as a key person to cooperate in the case. Trump’s longtime associate Allen Weisselberg now faces pressure to cooperate in the ongoing investigations against the former president.
People familiar with the matter revealed to CNN that both the Manhattan DA and New York AG’s offices are already in the final stages of their probe into Weisselberg. The probes involved a corporate apartment, cars, as well as school tuition for his grandchildren. Last week, Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law Jennifer Weisselberg met again with the prosecutors.
An indictment may be coming for Weisselberg over the coming months, July at the soonest.
Should Weisselberg, a longtime Trump Organization executive, cooperates, it would determine whether he himself would face criminal charges and whether Trump and the Trump Organization in its entirety face state charges in the long-running investigation. Nevertheless, Weisselberg’s cooperation is important to the ongoing probes. To note, the former president does not make use of emails, and Weisselberg is one of the few people in the organization who could explain how the decisions are made in the company and why such decisions were made.
Aside from Weisselberg, prosecutors are also looking into other high-profile Trump Organization employees who received fringe benefits. They are also looking into whether these benefits were the strategy of the Trump Organization to avoid paying payroll taxes. Two of those employees are Trump Organization Chief Operating Office Matthew Calamari and his son.
Meanwhile, the former president denied the reports that he enlisted his DOJ to go after the comedy-sketch show “Saturday Night Live” for its constant depictions of him. This stems from the report by The Daily Beast that revealed in 2019, Trump consulted with lawyers and advisers if the government entities have the authority to probe or mitigate SNL, as well as late-night talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel.
Trump issued a statement calling the report “Fake News.” Once again, the former president also accused the show of leaning in favor of the Democratic Party and claimed that the show may as well have been an “illegal campaign contribution” by the said party. The former president also attacked actor Alec Baldwin, who frequently portrayed him on the show and said that Darrell Hammond was better at imitating him.