Charges against Trump Organization and its CFO Alan Weisselberg expected Thursday



Charges against the Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Alan Weisselberg from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. are expected to be filed on Thursday, according to Fox Business.

The charges are the result of a 5-year investigation by Vance into the business practices of the family company of former President Donald Trump.

Many on the left were hopeful that Weisselberg might testify against Trump as a result. He is expected to be charged with avoiding taxes by paying employees off the books, according to NPR. The benefits the Trump Organization is said to have paid for are cars, apartments and private school tuition, NPR reported.

On Monday, Trump's personal lawyer mocked the investigation after a team from their office indicated to him that Trump would not be charged, but that they would only target some employees for prosecution.

"We asked, 'Is there anything else?'" recalled attorney Ronald Fischetti. "They said, 'No.'"

He added, "It's crazy that that's all they had."

Fischetti claimed that the team confirmed that Trump would not be charged.

"This is so small that I can't believe I'm going to have to try a case like this," Fischetti said.

On Wednesday, Fox Business reported that neither of Trump's sons were expected to be charged either.

Fischetti had also previously called the expected charges "outrageous" and said the company would fight to have them dismissed.

"The corporate office will plead not guilty and we will make an immediate motion to dismiss the case against the corporation," Fischetti said. "Mr. Trump is outraged that they are still going after him by going after his company where he has loyal employees for decades."

He went on to say that the district attorney was proceeding with charges against Weisselberg because they couldn't persuade him to turn against the former president.

Trump has denied wrongdoing. He has decried the investigation as "the greatest Witch Hunt in American history."

Here's more about the expected charges against Trump Org:

Prosecutors set to file charges against the Trump Organization Thursdaywww.youtube.com

Trump attorney says Manhattan district attorney will not charge Trump



After months of speculation that the Manhattan district attorney would criminally charge former President Donald Trump, a personal attorney for Trump said Monday that the DA office indicated they would not be charging him.

Attorney Ronald Fischetti told Politico that a meeting with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s team pointed to a very narrow scope in the investigation.

Fischetti said that Vance's team indicated that they would charge some Trump Organization employees with failing to pay taxes on benefits and perks they allegedly received. But there was nothing related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

"We asked, 'Is there anything else?'" Fischetti told Politico. "They said, 'No.'"

"It's crazy that that's all they had," he said.

Critics of Trump pounced on reports last week that the district attorney was getting ready to press charges based on their investigation. Many expected Trump to be charged in relation to the Daniels payoff, but Fischetti said they told him he would not be charged.

"They just said, 'When this indictment comes down, he won't be charged. Our investigation is ongoing,'" he said of Trump.

He went on to deride the investigation.

"This is so small that I can't believe I'm going to have to try a case like this," Fischetti concluded.

The attorney had expressed outrage previously that the DA appeared to be getting ready to charge some employees of the Trump Organization.

"It looks like they are going to come down with charges against the company, and that is completely outrageous," he said to NBC News on Friday.

"The corporate office will plead not guilty and we will make an immediate motion to dismiss the case against the corporation," Fischetti added.

Daniels was ordered in 2018 to pay legal fees to the former president after her attorney, Michael Avenatti, failed to persuade a judge that she had been defamed by Trump denying publicly that he ever paid her hush money. Avenatti was later convicted of trying to extort money from the Nike corporation.

In May, Trump called the investigation a "continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history."

Here's more about the Manhattan D.A. probe:

Trump organization expecting criminal charges by Manhattan DA: Sourceswww.youtube.com

Manhattan prosecutors consider 'highly unusual' criminal charges against Trump Organization



Former President Donald Trump's lawyers were informed Friday that the Manhattan district attorney's office is considering criminal charges against the Trump Organization related to fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, the New York Times reported.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who has led a three-year probe into Trump's business dealings with assistance from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office, could file the charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg as early as next week, if he chooses to seek an indictment.

The potential charges would include whether Trump's company properly recorded and paid taxes on benefits Weisselberg and other executives received, like tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for one of his grandchildren, rents on apartments, and car leases.

According to the Times, prosecutors have been building a case against Weisselberg for months in an attempt to pressure him to cooperate with the investigation into the former president. As a longtime Trump Organization employee, Weisselberg is assumed to have inside knowledge about Trump's dealings that could prove useful to investigators seeking to prove that the former president or his employees committed a crime.

If Vance proceeds, these would be the first criminal charges filed against Trump's company in the course of the Southern District of New York's highly publicized investigation into Trump and his business dealings.

Trump's lawyers reportedly met with prosecutors Thursday in an attempt to persuade them to abandon plans to drag the Trump Organization to court over what may be a trivial matter. Legal experts specializing in tax law told the Times that it would be "highly unusual to indict a company just for failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits." None of the experts could cite a recent example of another company facing similar charges over perks like company cars.

"Still, an indictment of Mr. Trump's company could deal a significant blow to the former president just as he has flirted with a return to politics," the Times acknowledged, a point Trump will doubtlessly use in his longstanding and ongoing complaints that the investigation into his businesses led by Vance, a Democrat, is a partisan "witch hunt."

After the Times published its report, Trump's lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, blasted the potential charges in a statement to NBC News after noting that "there are no charges that are going to be leveled against Mr. Trump himself."

"The corporate office will plead not guilty and we will make an immediate motion to dismiss the case against the corporation," Fischetti said. "Mr. Trump is outraged that they are still going after him by going after his company where he has loyal employees for decades.

"It looks like they are going to come down with charges against the company and that is completely outrageous," Fischetti said. "I've been practicing for over 50 years and I've never seen a case like this where they would indict or charge an individual or a company on tax evasion for using a company car or company apartment and then tie it to the company that he is working for without any evidence that what he did benefited the company."

Fischetti said New York prosecutors were persecuting Weisselberg because he would not turn on Trump.

"They could not get Allen Weisselberg to cooperate and tell them what they wanted to hear and that's why they are going forward with these charges," Fischetti said. "And they could not get him to cooperate because he would not say that Donald Trump had knowledge or any information that he may have been not deducting properly the use of cars or an apartment."

Last month, District Attorney Vance convened a grand jury to review the evidence from his investigation into Trump's business dealings and decide whether to indict the former president. It is unclear if more potential criminal charges will be announced against the Trump Organization or the former president.