Since being charged with more than a dozen crimes connected to an alleged 15-year tax fraud scheme, the Trump Organization has steadfastly insisted it is 100% innocent. Unfortunately for the company, Allen Weisselberg, the long-running CFO who was
indicted at the same time, has not, instead pleading guilty to all the charges and agreeing in August to testify against the business. That testimony kicked off this week when he linked Donald Trump in the illegal activity, and continued on Thursday,
when he implicated the ex-president’s two eldest sons too.

ABC News reports that Weisselberg told jurors that, in addition to Trump himself, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. would sign checks for as much as $100,000 to pay for his grandchildren’s private school tuition. While that might sound like a kind and generous
gesture—look at these Trumps, wanting the best education possible for the grandchildren of their employees!—the tuition checks were just one of the many off-the-books fringe benefits Weisselberg has said he received from the Trump Organization that
were not recorded as income, thus allowing both him and the company to avoid paying taxes. (When pleading guilty, Weisselberg also admitted that the company paid for his apartment on the Upper West Side, as well as a pair of leased Mercedes-Benzes, among
other perks. The long-running executive also allegedly received cash at Christmas that he would then use to dole out “personal holiday gratuities,” according to the indictment.)

Weisselberg said Thursday that the first time Trump cut him a tuition check, the CFO told his boss, “Don’t forget, I’m going to pay you back for this.” How did Weisselberg pay Trump back? According to the longtime executive, the ex-president
would deduct the cost of these various payments from his salary. That way it was a—very illegal—win-win: Weisselberg wouldn’t have to pay income tax on the perks, and the company had less to pay in taxes too. Furthermore, Weisselberg noted on
Tuesday, if the Trump Org had told Weisselberg to pay for the apartment out of his own pocket, they “would have had to give me double the amount” to account for those expenses. On Thursday, he also said that he and other executives received large
bonuses paid as though they were independent contractors, and not full-time employees, noting that “Trump always wanted to sign the bonus checks” before he became president.

Later, when defense attorney Alan Futerfas asked Weisselberg directly if Trump had authorized him to commit tax fraud, Weisselberg responded that Trump had not. Of course, it’s important to note that Trump has a long history of speaking in code when he�
��s doing something that could be illegal, in order to be able to later claim innocence. As his former attorney Michael Cohen told Congress in 2019: “He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders. He speaks in a code. And I understand
the code, because I’ve been around him for a decade.” Trump’s first impeachment trial centered around his coded, but obvious demand that the president of Ukraine dig up dirt on the Bidens or risk being cut off by the United States, which, as The
Washington Post noted, “is also the way that Mafia bosses like to talk. They don’t want to say things directly when those things could be used against them, by eavesdropping law enforcement agencies.” Obviously, Trump never called Weisselberg into
his office and said, “Allen, I’d like you to commit tax fraud for me,” because he didn’t have to.

Also notable? That Weisselberg still works for the Trump Organization! And shows up at the office! And earns his annual salary of $640,000! And, perhaps most crucially, testified this week that he still expects to receive his full bonus of $500,000!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)