NEW YORK (AP) — Alan Weiselberg, a retired executive in Donald Trump's real estate empire, was sentenced Wednesday to five months in prison for swearing during his testimony. A civil fraud case The suit was brought against the former president by the attorney general of New York.
Weiselberg, 76, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of perjury. He admitted to lying when he testified that he had no idea how Trump's Manhattan penthouse was valued on his financial statements. Almost three times its actual size.
Asked if he wanted to address the court Wednesday, Weiselberg, wearing a black windbreaker and mask, replied, “No, your honor.” He was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs following a brief sentencing that lasted less than five minutes.
This is Weiselberg's second time. The former Trump Organization chief financial officer served 100 days last year for evading taxes on $1.7 million in corporate perks, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.
Now, he's trading life as a Florida retiree to once again reside in New York City's notorious Rikers Island prison complex.
Both events highlight Weiselberg's unwavering loyalty to Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The Trump family employed Weiselberg for nearly 50 years, then gave him a $2 million severance deal when tax bills prompted him to retire. The company continues to pay his legal fees.
Weiselberg has testified twice in trials that went badly for Trump, but each time he suggested his boss did nothing serious wrong. His plea agreement did not require him to testify Investigating Trump's Money CrimesIt is scheduled to begin with the jury selection on Monday.
In agreeing to the five-month sentence, prosecutors cited Weiselberg's age and willingness to plead guilty. In New York, perjury is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors have vowed not to prosecute Weiselberg for other crimes he may have committed in connection with his Trump Organization work.
Weiselberg's sentence mirrors his previous case, in which he was ordered to serve five months in jail but was eligible for release with good behavior for more than three months. Prior to that, he had no criminal record.
While “turning a blind eye” to the perjury charges against ex-Trump Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyers countered Weiselberg's perjury trial, accusing the Manhattan district attorney's office of using “unethical, strong-armed tactics against an innocent man in his late 70s.” The lawyer is now a key government witness in the hush money case.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office and Weiselberg's attorney, Seth Rosenberg, declined to speak in court.
Weiselberg pleaded guilty on March 4. New York Attorney General Letitia James' case against Trump: In depositions filed in July 2020 and May 2023, she admitted to perjury on three occasions while testifying at a hearing last October. However, he pleaded guilty only to charges related to his 2020 deposition testimony to avoid violating his tax arraignment.
The size of Trump's penthouse was a key issue in the civil fraud case.
Trump estimated at least 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters) in his financial statements from 2012 to 2016. A former Trump real estate executive testified that Weiselberg provided the figure. When the former executive asked the size of the apartment in 2012, Weiselberg replied: “It's pretty big. I think it's about 30,000 square feet.
However, prosecutors noted that Weiselberg received an email earlier that year with a 1994 document listing Trump's apartment as 10,996 square feet (1,022 square meters). Weiselberg testified that he remembered the email but not the link and that he “didn't walk around knowing the size” of the apartment.
In 2017, after Forbes magazine published an article disputing the size of Trump's penthouse, the estimated value in his financial statements was reduced from $327 million to about $117 million.
While Weiselberg testified last October, Forbes published an article titled “Trump's Longtime CFO Lies, Under Truth, About Trump Tower Penthouse.”
The civil fraud trial is over Judge Arthur Engoren It ruled that Trump and some of his executives conspired to defraud banks, insurers and others by lying about his wealth in financial statements used to obtain contracts and loans. The judge fined Trump $455 million and ordered Weiselberg to pay $1 million. They both appeal.
In his decision, Engoron said Weiselberg's testimony was “deliberately evasive” and “grossly unreliable.”
Weiselberg could be a factor in Trump's hush money investigation — even if he's in jail and not on the witness stand when it happens.
Trump has been accused of falsifying his company's records To hide payments During his 2016 campaign to bury stories of infidelity. This is the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial. Trump is innocent and has denied wrongdoing.
Cohen has said Weiselberg had a role in the payments. Weiselberg, who lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, has not been charged in the case, and neither prosecutors nor Trump's lawyers have indicated they will call him as a witness.
