As multiple civil and criminal cases and investigations proceed against corrupt con man and seditionist demagogue Donald "Don The Con" Trump, one that may bring down his grifting Trump Organization and crime family is being handled by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Operating on the prosecutorial practice of "flipping" subordinates in a crime organization, the DA's office is focusing their investigation on the Trump Organization's long time chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, of whom it's said nothing involving finances in that organization was approved without Weisselberg's knowledge and approval. According to the Washington Post:
"Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D), Manhattan’s top prosecutor, has not formally accused anyone of wrongdoing, including Trump, Weisselberg or the latter’s family. But the focus on Weisselberg underscores the depth and ambition of Vance’s inquiry, a criminal investigation broader than any Trump’s company is known to have faced before.
Vance’s focus on Weisselberg has included questions related to two of his adult children, a tactic that could be an effort to increase pressure on the elder Weisselberg. One of Weisselberg’s sons also works for the Trump Organization, where he manages the company’s Central Park ice rinks. Another Weisselberg son works for a company that has extended loans to the Trump Organization.
Vance recently obtained millions of pages of Trump’s tax and financial records. Now he appears to be focused on their human equivalent: a man who has paid Trump’s bills and kept his books since the 1980s.
Weisselberg has been CFO since 2000 and has said he handles nearly all the company’s financial transactions. He once described himself in a deposition as Trump’s 'eyes and ears . . . from an economic standpoint.'” (our emphasis)
According to former Trump fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, Weisselberg also was involved in the transactions to pay off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal before the 2016 election to keep them silent about affairs they had with Don The Con. That was a violation of campaign finance laws and something Cohen served time in prison for.
Now that Trump's pardon power is gone, we'll see if Weisselberg will fall on his sword for his notoriously disloyal boss. Vance has a long record in prosecuting organized crime figures, so this case is certainly in his wheelhouse, and his assistant Mark Pomerantz is an expert in prosecuting financial fraud cases. Time will tell.
(photo: Weisselberg, rear center, with Trump and Greasy Don, Jr. / Evan Vucci /AP)
