The Manhattan district attorney’s office will charge the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax evasion crimes on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors claim Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, and other employees allegedly evaded taxes on cars, apartments and private-school tuition that they received from the company, sources familiar with the charges told the WSJ.
The defendants are expected to be in court Thursday afternoon, the WSJ reported. Weisselberg has rejected the prosecutor’s attempts at gaining his cooperation, the WSJ reported.
“It’s interesting and not surprising that they would approach the Trump Organization to tell them that they’re considering to charge them because that would be almost a death blow to the Trump Organization” – @danielsgoldman pic.twitter.com/t5FqGC0KDt
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) June 25, 2021
The sources remained anonymous in the WSJ’s reporting of the matter.
Trump himself isn’t expected to be charged, his lawyer said Monday. Trump accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of “searching for a crime” and being “totally biased” in how the attorney is treating him and his organization. (RELATED: ‘A Wonderful Thing To See’: Trump Celebrates Plummeting TV News Ratings Since He Left Office)
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime’ and will do anything to frighten people into making up the stories or lies that they want, but have been totally unable to get,” Trump said onMonday.
“Now they just leaked that we were given one day, today, to make our case about things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime,” Trump said.
The Trump Organization’s lawyers tried Monday to stop New York prosecutors from charging, according to the WSJ.
Ronald Fischetti, Trump’s lawyer, said he has never seen the district attorney’s office charge a company over employee compensation or benefits, according to the WSJ. “Even the financial institutions responsible for causing the 2008 financial crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, were not prosecuted.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Trump Organization have not responded to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
This charge is a part of a more extensive criminal probe into the Trump Organization allegedly overvaluing and undervaluing its assets on loan, tax and insurance documents for financial gain, according to the WSJ.
The Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against New York City in June. They alleged that Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio terminated the contracts for political purposes earlier this year.
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