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A source familiar with high-level executives at the Trump Organization says two company leaders now under close legal scrutiny may turn on former president Donald Trump if faced with criminal charges, which Manhattan prosecutors are angling for.
Sources told the New York Times that criminal charges could be filed against the Trump Organization as early as this week in relation to tax-free perks given to executives — perks the district attorney’s office claims may have amounted to tax, bank, or insurance fraud.
Trump Organization lawyer Ron Fischetti said the company’s lawyers met virtually with prosecutors on Thursday to discuss the case.
“It looks like they are going to come down with charges against the company and that is completely outrageous,” Fischetti said, adding that “The corporate office will plead not guilty and we will make an immediate motion to dismiss the case against the corporation.”
A grand jury was recently empaneled to weigh the evidence in the case.
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According to Business Insider, two of the top employees under scrutiny are the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and chief operating officer Matthew Calamari.
Barbara Res, a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization, told Insider that she believes Weisselberg and Calamari will turn on Donald Trump rather than risk prison time for themselves or their sons, who are also employed at the Trump Organization.
“If you introduce the notion of criminal charges against any one of them, or their children, you change the game completely,” said Res, who oversaw construction projects for the Trump Organization between 1980 and 1998 and put out a book during the 2020 election about what she claimed was Donald Trump’s condescending treatment of his employees.
“It’s a very different thing than just doing a favor for Trump or engendering his admiration,” she continued. “Now you’re asking people to take their loyalty to Trump, and keep it, even though they may have to go to jail for it — or worse, their child may have to go to jail.”
Fischetti said on Friday that Weisselberg was not cooperating with prosecutors, who wanted him to implicate Donald Trump.
“They could not get him to cooperate because he would not say that Donald Trump had knowledge or any information that he may have been not deducting properly the use of cars or an apartment,” Fischetti said.
Yet Trump himself reportedly won’t be charged over the perks, which allegedly included cars and apartments.
“They just said, ‘When this indictment comes down, he won’t be charged. Our investigation is ongoing,’” Fischetti said of a meeting with attorneys working under Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
As Politico notes:
Vance has spent years investigating the Trump Organization. His team went to the Supreme Court to get authorization to seize Trump’s personal tax returns — meaning his investigators know more than just about anyone about the former president’s finances. The Washington Post reported last month that Vance’s office convened a grand jury to decide whether or not to bring charges against the Trump Organization or Trump himself.
While Trump himself has not been charged under the investigations circling around his company, some of his associates have found guilty for what they, the former president, and his supporters ultimately amounts to political targeting.
General Michael Flynn, a Trump ally who briefly served as national security advisor, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI as part of the Robert Mueller probe, though he later requested to withdraw the guilty plea, citing government vindictiveness.
Roger Stone, a close advisor to President Trump, was arrested in 2019 in connection to the Mueller investigation on charges that included witness tampering and making false statements.
Michael Cohen, who served as Trump’s attorney from 2006 to 2018, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the Mueller probe, as did Paul Manafort, who chaired the Trump campaign in 2016.
President Trump signed pardons for Flynn and Manafort, while Stone had his sentence commuted. Cohen, who publicly turned against his old boss, is still serving out his sentence.
In recent days, Trump has called out fellow Republicans whom he claims failed to stand against voter fraud in the 2020 election. That includes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Former Attorney General Bill Barr.
“Had Mitch McConnell fought for the Presidency like he should have, there would right now be Presidential Vetoes on all of the phased Legislation that he has proven to be incapable of stopping,” Trump wrote in a Monday statement.
“He never fought for the White House and blew it for the Country. Too bad I backed him in Kentucky, he would have been primaried and lost! Based on press reports, he convinced his buddy, Bill Barr, to get the corrupt (based on massive amounts of evidence that the Fake News refuses to mention!) election done, over with, and sealed for Biden, ASAP!”
