The high-profile criminal trial against the Trump Organization, the former president’s family-run business that helped make him well-known, is due to start with opening statements on Monday.
In the New York trial, where the prosecution will claim that the business he oversaw for years engaged in a 15-year plan to pay top executives “off the books” in order to help them and the business avoid paying taxes, Donald Trump is mentioned as a potential witness.
Trump has denounced the probe into the business he has led for decades as a politically driven “witch hunt” despite not being accused of any crime.
Last week, prospective jurors were informed by the case’s acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that the former president’s three eldest children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, could also be summoned as witnesses. At the business, all three have held significant positions.
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On Friday, jury selection came to an end. For what is anticipated to be a month-long trial, the panel consists of four women and eight men, with six alternates.
Allen Weisselberg, the organization’s longtime top financial officer who is presently on paid leave from the Trump Organization, will be the key witness for the prosecution. After a lengthy investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial operations by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, he was indicted alongside the Trump Organization last year. In August, Weisselberg, 75, entered a guilty plea to 15 criminal charges.
In this case, no additional people have been accused.
As part of his plea agreement, Weisselberg agreed to testify “truthfully at the upcoming trial of the Trump Organization” and pay roughly $2 million in taxes, interest, and penalties. Prosecutors warned that if he does not, he may receive a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison, which is more or less the same as what he would have received if found guilty at trial.
Weisselberg is anticipated to testify the following week.
The corporation allegedly “devised and executed a long-term strategy to refuse to record income on tax forms,” the judge said to prospective jurors.
