Washington – The Trump Organization has been indicted through a grand jury in Manhattan for alleged tax-related crimes, sources close to the case told CBS News, the first criminal fees ed around investigators’ years ago investigation into former President Donald Trump’s eponymous company. The Trump Organization’s longtime leading monetary official, Alan Weisselberg, is also expected to pay taxes and the district attorney’s office.
The fees remained sealed Wednesday night. Weisselberg, whose role in the company has come under scrutiny by prosecutors in recent months, is expected to stop at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office thursday to take his fingerprints and be prosecuted before being brought to new charges. York State criminal court, other people close to the case said early Wednesday, before the indictment was issued. Lawyers for the Trump Organization are also expected to appear in court to be charged with the fees.
The Washington Post first reported that an indictment had been filed against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg through a grand jury.
Ronald Fischetti, an attorney representing Trump, told CBS News on Tuesday that he did foresee fees opposed to the former president himself. At a virtual meeting with prosecutors last week, Fischetti said he had asked Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for the main points. of the rates considered.
“I in particular asked, ‘Are any of those accusations similar to Donald Trump’s?’And not the answer,” Fischetti told CBS News on Tuesday.
The Trump Organization’s legal team expects the company to be charged with tax crimes similar to alleged non-payment of taxes on andArray by adding cars and apartment buildings provided to employees.
“They didn’t use the word ‘benefits’ or anything like that, but they alleged extraordinary benefits that were awarded to some of the other high-ranking people in the Trump organization,” Fischetti said.
At last week’s meeting, prosecutors left it to Trump and his company to have a transparent impression that they had planned to set tariffs in the coming days. the corporate point or impose fines as a component of a negotiated settlement.
According to resources close to the conversations between the legal teams, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office gave defense attorneys until last Monday to dissuade prosecutors from filing fees contrary to the company, which oversees the former president’s genuine estate and business assets.
Attorneys for the Trump organization plan to promptly dismiss the case in court if fees are set through the grand jury, according to those familiar with the defense team’s legal strategy. The legal team believes the risk to the Trump organization represented through the lawsuit. is disproportionate to the alleged misconduct, and believes that prosecutors would not find that the control of the company – the former president added – had express knowledge of the additional benefits that are granted to employees.
“The district attorney has had all those years, all this time to conduct this investigation from the most sensible to the bottom,” Fischetti told CBS News on Tuesday. He then added: “And what they brought this accusation we were told would be beneficial to some anonymous employees. For cars, apartments and I don’t know what else. “
Fischetti added that he believed the district attorney’s workplace “had no evidence” that looked like the Trump Organization cared about what he called “this minimal tax evasion through individuals, which has never been charged and has never been prosecuted by the IRS. “
“We intend to win,” Fischetti said.
Keir Dougall, a CBS News legal associate and former federal prosecutor, said it would be difficult for Trump Organization lawyers to convince a court to dismiss possible fees on the grounds that such prosecutions are rare.
“Let’s say those fees have rarely, if ever, been established, that’s not a defense,” Dougall told CBS News. “This statement in itself is not a defense. You may have a claim if it turns out it was a discriminatory selective prosecution. You may be able to argue that even though a crime was committed, you arrange for the case to close due to legal proceedings, however, this type of request is incredibly difficult to win. “
Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for six years and now a law professor at Pace University, said it’s not typical to sue for alleged non-payment of taxes on benefits and benefits, but said the investigation is unique.
“We’re not talking about his typical case. He’s talking about Donald Trump and the Trump Organization and looking to turn a key witness who so far is reluctant to cooperate,” Gershman told CBS News, referring to Weisselberg. all the means of tension at your disposal, all the ammunition at your disposal. It’s still the beginning of the game, we’re just at the beginning. “
The district attorney received years of tax records from the former president in February after a long legal war that reached the Supreme Court. Investigators from the New York Attorney General’s Office, which works with the Array Attorney General’s Office, received testimony from several high-ranking Supreme Court leaders. the Trump Organization.
At last week’s meeting, according to Fischetti, prosecutors did not call Weisselberg through a call, and no other users stood out. The defense suggestion also noted that there is no mention of the allegations made through M. ‘s former lawyer. Trump, Michael Cohen, or through adult movie star Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had had an affair with Trump before he took office, a claim the former president denied.
Mary Mulligan of Weisselberg declined to comment on CBS News.
According to Fischetti, the defense team kicked off the assembly with Vance’s office, who called prosecutors “very polite,” though the discussion has become heated.
“They listened very carefully, because they are very kind,” Fischetti said. “Sometimes they were given a little bit of competition. Back and forth. But it’s still planned. “
Though no fees have yet been set, Trump issued a lengthy Monday night, denouncing prosecutors as “witch hunters” who are “rude, petty and totally biased in the way they treat lawyers, representatives and some of the glorious workers and others. people within the Trump Organization. “
If the Trump Organization is indicted, Dougall said the company could face negative business consequences from an indictment and that the Trump Organization’s environment could worsen if convicted.
“The threat is that the investigation will continue, that other people will turn around and that prosecutors will resolve the challenge that prosecutors have in organizational matters: they can link wisdom and direct involvement in the crime allegedly opposed to the organization, they can link this Lead directly to the organization, Trump or someone from above,” he said.
Dougall, however, claimed that any grand jury review of fees opposing Trump turns out to be “a way forward, if that happens at all. “
New York’s Attorney General’s Office launched a civil investigation in 2019 after Cohen testified before Congress and detailed allegations of wrongdoing through the Trump Organization. price of other assets to reduce the tax liability. The workplace said in May that it was investigating the Trump Organization as a “criminal. “
Vance has been conducting a criminal investigation since 2018 and first focused on Cohen’s secret cash bills during the 2016 presidential crusade in Daniels. Vance’s workplace has since indicated in court records that the investigation has expanded to read about imaginable crimes as broad as fraud and taxes. evasion.
Jeff Pegues contributed to the report.