According to a new report from the Daily Beast, Jennifer Weisselberg “has told prosecutors that Donald Trump personally guaranteed he would cover school costs for the family members of two employees in lieu of a raise—directly implicating the former president in an ongoing criminal tax fraud case.” Jennifer Weisselberg is the former daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, and at this point, Allen and the Trump company have been criminally charged for evading tax payments on vast quantities of income. That income was in the form of pricey benefits, like the Weisselberg family school tuition in question. Jennifer’s testimony directly tying Trump himself to the distribution of those benefits helps reveal the breadth of the still ongoing investigation.
According to sources for the Daily Beast, Jennifer shared these details with prosecutors during an interview in Friday, June 25 — the week before prosecutors formally charged Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization with a slew of financial crimes. Apparently, prosecutors themselves asked whether Trump was involved in the company’s scheme to dole out income in the form of high-dollar benefits that went unreported to tax authorities, and Weisselberg confirmed Trump’s involvement.
Jennifer had specifics backing up her claims, telling prosecutors that she’d been at a January 2012 meeting at Trump Tower when Trump went over compensation details with Allen and her then-husband, Barry, where the conclusion was that Barry “wouldn’t be getting a raise, but their children would get their tuition paid for at a top-rated private academy instead,” according to the Daily Beast. At the time, Jennifer says that Trump himself told her: “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.” Her revelations left prosecutors “astonished,” according to the new Daily Beast report.
Top individuals involved with the investigation into the Trump Organization were on the Zoom call where Jennifer made these revelations, including, according to the Daily Beast: “Carey Dunne, the Manhattan DA’s general counsel; Mark F. Pomerantz, a white collar crime specialist brought on for this investigation; and Gary Fishman, an assistant attorney general deputized to work on this joint investigation.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump has lashed out against the investigative efforts that he is facing in New York. Allen and the Trump company have entered pleas of not guilty, suggesting that a trial remains forthcoming, for now. Prosecutors have previously sought to get Allen to cooperate with their investigation, and now, with the threat of prison time looming, he could be more incentivized to strike a deal.
