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During closing arguments Friday, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told a jury in Manhattan Criminal Court: “Donald Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud. That’s what this document shows.”
For nbc newsSteinglass continued: “This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true.”
The 15-year tax evasion scheme, according to the prosecution, was enacted so that the star witness, former CFO Allen Weisselberg, could provide benefits for himself and his family.
for a new NBC Articlethe defense argued that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Weisselberg’s actions were on behalf of the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg, 75, who became a state’s witness in August in exchange for a plea deal that includes prison time, reportedly fought back tears on the stand in November when asked about breaking the trust of the Trump family, whom he worked for nearly 50 years.
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CNN He noted that Weisselberg acknowledged that the tax scheme ended when Donald Trump took office as President of the United States.
The controller of the Trump Organization, Jeffrey. McConney testified about the specific process that resulted in him adding fringe benefits to salaries and bonuses under the direction of high-level company officials.
McConney, who previously implicated the disgraced former CFO, reiterated that Weisselberg and others ordered him to circumvent tax laws.
If convicted, the Trump Organization could face costly fines and other penalties, in addition to consequences in the business world, according to a report by the New York Times.
Although former President Donald Trump is not named in the ongoing criminal trial, he has faced an avalanche of his own legal troubles following the January 6, 2021 riots at the United States Capitol.
The businessman’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida was the subject of a now infamous raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on August 8 and, for Bloombergthe businessman “invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on Wednesday [August 10] to avoid answering deposition questions in a civil investigation of his family’s real estate business by New York Attorney General Letitia James.”
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Trump recently came under fire for falsely accusing former presidents George HW Bush and Barack Obama of also keeping classified documents.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Trump family’s legal troubles right now. Letitia James and her office have officially filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump, and the former president is also the subject of an ongoing 2020 voter fraud investigation in Georgia.
In addition, the Supreme Court recently struck down a temporary hold on Trump’s personal tax records, paving the way for them to be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee.
What do you think the verdict will be in the Trump Organization trial?
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