Ex-Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in jail for perjury after he lied under oath during his testimony in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial and during the investigation that preceded it. Weisselberg, 76, was ordered to serve his sentence at New York’s Riker’s Island after reaching a plea agreement last month. The hearing lasted only about two minutes.
Judge Laurie Peterson said during sentencing: “The promise is five months of incarceration. Mr. Weisselberg is there anything you’d like to say?” Weisselberg replied, “No your honor,” before he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom into custody.
Weisselberg was accused of committing perjury in a deposition and during testimony in Trump’s trial, including allegedly lying when he said in July 2020 that he learned Trump’s triplex apartment had been overvalued from a Forbes report, though he actually knew about it well beforehand. During his trial testimony, Weisselberg struggled to explain why the apartment, which is less than 11,000 square feet, was listed on Trump’s statements of financial condition as 30,000 square feet. Weisselberg pleaded guilty last month to two felony counts of perjury that charged him with lying under oath.
In a statement after the sentencing, Weisselberg’s attorney, Seth L. Rosenberg, said his client “accepted responsibility for his conduct and now looks forward to the end of this life-altering experience and to returning to his family and his retirement.” (per NBC News)
Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com
