This week, the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were hit with a slew of charges over an apparent far-reaching scheme to evade taxes on high-dollar and largely off-the-books compensation. The Weisselberg family received perks like hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of private school tuition for at least one of Allen’s grandchildren, apartment space, two Mercedes cars — and the required taxes were not paid on these benefits, although internal Trump company documents confirmed them as part of Allen’s compensation. On CNN, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen called the Weisselberg charges the “tip of the iceberg.”
Weisselberg is accused of personally owing over $900,000 in taxes. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. As Cohen put it on CNN:
‘I don’t want people to think that this case is about Allen Weisselberg and an apartment and a free car and so on. It is substantially larger in scope than just that aspect. That is but the tip, it’s the tip of the iceberg, and there is so much more that’s going to be coming.’
Cohen also said that prosecutors could tie Trump to the fraud. As Cohen put it:
‘There are a multitude of documents that are in the possession of the prosecutors that tie Donald Trump to everything, because everything went through Donald… The documentary evidence that’s in the hands of the prosecutors is so significant, and it’s so spot-on, that there’s no way anybody’s getting out of it.’
Check out Cohen’s comments below:
Michael Cohen: Allen Weisselberg's head is "on the chopping block" https://t.co/XGWmEOknmd pic.twitter.com/FpRfDrdKQe
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) July 1, 2021
In reactions to the proceedings, Trump has focused a lot on the optics and hardly at all on the substance. In one statement, the former president asserted that the “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats, with New York now taking over the assignment, continues,” and in that same statement, he accused the so-called “Witch Hunt” of “dividing our Country like never before!” Meanwhile, ex-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara shared on Twitter that he is “optimistic” that Weisselberg will be convicted, explaining that the “law is fairly clear on what is income & what is taxable.”
I’m not optimistic that Weisselberg will flip but I am optimistic he’ll be convicted. The law is fairly clear on what is income & what is taxable. He’s a sophisticated executive; mistake is implausible. The company booked much of it as income. And juries hate rich tax cheats.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) July 1, 2021
