NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jurors within the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial are set to begin deliberating on Monday, following 4 weeks of testimony and arguments about executive pay practices at Donald Trump’s real estate company that prosecutors say amounted to a years-long criminal scheme.
The previous U.S. president’s company was charged in 2021 with paying personal expenses for some executives without reporting the income, and compensating them as in the event that they were independent contractors. Its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution.
Trump, who last month announced a 3rd run for the presidency in 2024, was not charged within the case. But prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in his closing argument on Friday that Trump was aware of the scheme, a part of an effort to counter the defense’s argument that Weisselberg, 75, sought only to learn himself and hid his wrongdoing from the Trump family.
“He will not be on trial here, but that doesn’t mean that it’s best to consider the defense’s narrative that Allen Weisselberg…went rogue,” Steinglass told the jury.
Trump, a Republican, has called the costs politically motivated. Alvin Bragg, the present Manhattan district attorney, is a Democrat, as is the DA who brought the costs last 12 months, Cyrus Vance.
The Trump Organization has pleaded not guilty. The corporate faces as much as $1.6 million in fines if convicted.
Its lawyers have argued that an outdoor accountant from Mazars USA who prepared tax returns for the corporate, Donald Bender, must have caught Weisselberg’s fraud and blown the whistle.
Bender “turned a blind eye to Allen Weisselberg’s wrongdoing,” defense lawyer Susan Necheles said in her closing argument on Thursday. “President Trump relied on Mazars, he relied on Donald Bender to be the watchdog.
Bender, who has been given immunity from prosecution, was the fundamental witness called by the defense. He testified that he trusted that Weisselberg gave him accurate financial information to incorporate in the corporate’s tax returns and was under no obligation to analyze further.
Mazars cut ties with the Trump Organization earlier this 12 months.
The case is one in every of several legal troubles facing the 76-year-old Trump. He also faces Department of Justice probes into his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election and his removal of presidency documents from the White House after leaving office, in addition to a state probe in Georgia over a push to reverse his election loss in that state.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in Latest York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Alistair Bell)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
