A Manhattan state court judge on Friday declined to dismiss the criminal case against the family business of Donald J. Trump and his longtime chief financial officer, Alan H. Weiselberg, clearing the way for a trial in the case scheduled for the fall.
Mr. Weisselberg and the business, the Trump Organization, were accused last year by the Manhattan district attorney’s office of participating in a 15-year scheme in which executives were compensated with hidden benefits so they could evade taxes. The charges stem from a lengthy office investigation into the company’s business practices.
In February, Mr. Weisselberg and the company filed motions to dismiss the charges, arguing that the case was politically motivated and that the defendants were charged only because of their connection to former President Donald J. Trump.
The ruling marks the latest legal blow for Mr. Trump in a week full of such.
On Monday, the FBI searched his Florida home in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation. And on Wednesday, the former president invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the New York state attorney general, who is conducting a civil investigation into some of the same practices being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney.
The judge, Juan Murchan, gave a significant victory to the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. His prosecutors argued in May in response to the motion to dismiss that there was nothing unusual about the charges: Mr. Weisselberg broke the law by failing to pay his taxes and was being prosecuted for it, they said.
The Trump investigations
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The Trump investigations
Numerous inquiries. Since Donald J. Trump has left office, the former president facing several different civil and criminal investigations across the country into his business dealings and political activities. Here are some notable cases:
The Trump investigations
Investigations on 6 Jan. In a series of public hearings, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack laid out powerful information about Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. That evidence could allow federal prosecutors, who are conducting a parallel criminal investigation, to bring charges against Mr. Trump.
The Trump investigations
Georgia election interference case. Mr. Trump himself is under scrutiny in Georgia, where the Fulton County district attorney is investigating whether he and others criminally interfered in the state’s 2020 election. This case may represent the most immediate legal danger for the former president and his associates.
“During the period specified in the indictment, Weisselberg avoided paying income taxes totaling $1.7 million,” they wrote in a memo filed with the court. “Such illegal conduct is regularly prosecuted and this office would be remiss not to do so here.”
Judge Murchan dismissed one count of felony tax fraud against the Trump Organization and its related payroll company, upholding 14 of the 15 counts in the indictment against the business and all charges against Mr. Weisslberg. Prosecutors acknowledged in May that the charge should be dismissed because of statute of limitations issues.
Jury selection for the trial was scheduled for October 24.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Mr. Trump and his company since 2018, and Mr. Weiselberg became the focus of prosecutors’ attention in the spring of 2021, just a month after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch effort by Mr. Trump to block the office from receiving his tax returns. The judges’ ruling ended a lengthy legal battle that had significantly slowed the investigation’s progress.
Under the supervision of the district attorney at the time, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., prosecutors investigated whether Mr. Trump and his company fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate to obtain loans and benefits.
But after obtaining Mr. Trump’s tax records, prosecutors’ investigations into Mr. Weiselberg began to focus on perks he received from the company, including several leased Mercedes-Benzes, a rent-free apartment and private tutoring. school for his grandchildren. Mr. Weisselberg, the prosecutor said when he was charged last July, did not pay taxes on those bonuses.
Before Mr. Weisselberg was indicted, prosecutors had put significant pressure on him to cooperate with their investigation into Mr. Trump because of his deep understanding of the inner workings of the Trump Organization.
But Mr. Weisselberg did not take a deal, leading to his indictment. The Trump Organization has since stripped him of his CFO title, though he continues to work at the company.
The indictment describes a scheme coordinated by senior executives in the Trump Organization to understate their incomes by accepting benefits that were not disclosed on tax filings.
Even without Mr. Weisselberg’s cooperation, prosecutors continued to build a case against Mr. Trump, focusing on whether he had falsely inflated the value of his hotels, golf clubs and other assets.
In December, just weeks before he left office, Mr. Vance ordered prosecutors to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury, laying the groundwork for a potential indictment of Mr. Trump.
Mr Vance had decided not to seek re-election and his successor, Mr Bragg, was sworn in on 1 January. Initially, the new district attorney allowed prosecutors to proceed with their grand jury presentation. But after holding a series of meetings about the investigation, he worried about the challenge of showing that Mr. Trump intended to break the law, a requirement to prove the charge at hand.
Soon after, the two senior prosecutors who led the investigation, Kerry Dunn and Mark F. Pomeranz, resigned. In Mr. Pomeranz’s resignation letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, he said that Mr. Trump was “guilty of numerous crimes” and that it was a “serious miscarriage of justice” not to hold him accountable.
Mr Bragg has since defended the investigation and said it was continuing, although its direction was unclear.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
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