Michael Cohen, a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, said he believed the Manhattan district attorney would successfully persuade the former president’s accountant to cooperate if prosecutors threatened him or his family with accusations.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., Manhattan, put pressure on Trump’s longtime accountant, Allen Weisselberg, 73, to involve him in the 18-month investigation into whether the former president and Trump Organization committed financial crimes by the value of manipulating assets for loans. tax profit.
In a recent interview with the New York resident, published Friday, Cohen predicted that Weisselberg would eventually cooperate with prosecutors to protect his own family from imprisonment.
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“He’s not going to let his sons go to jail,” Cohen said. “And I do not think he wants to spend his golden years in a correctional institution either.”
Weisselberg’s involvement in the Trump family’s finances dates back to 1973, when he began working for Fred Trump, the father of the former president.
In 2007, Donald Trump testified in a defamation suit against a reporter that he had inflated the value of his properties. Asked by lawyers to disclose who estimates the values for his property empire, he said: ‘I finally think Mr. Weisselberg … I never got too involved, except that I would give my opinion. ‘
A source familiar with the crime investigation told the Associated Press last week that prosecutors were working to persuade Weisselberg to cooperate with the investigation in Manhattan.
“They want him to turn around,” said an unnamed person familiar with the investigation. The source is anonymous because they are not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation in public.
The source also said that prosecutors investigated Weisselberg’s sons.
Jack Weisselberg serves as director of Ladder Capital, a real estate investment firm that lent Trump money for four properties, and Barry Weisselberg previously ran skate banks in New York with ties to the former president.
The Supreme Court earlier upheld Trump’s request to block the summonses for his tax returns twice. But the court ruled against the former president last month. And in late February, a Vance spokesman said the tax records had been transferred to his team.
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into Trump and his company, which also focuses on some of the same issues as the criminal investigation, as well as tax deductions. The Trump organization has written off about $ 1 million in consulting fees, some of which were paid to former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
Newsweek Trump representatives reached out for comment.