Trump Organization CFO pleads guilty to tax fraud as legal cases surround former president

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• Judy Woodruff:

  As we reported former, Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty today to tax fraud. And as part of the plea deal, he is expected to testify against the company later this year.

  To discuss what this means for the former president, I'm joined by Andrea Bernstein, who covers Trump's legal issues for NPR.

  Andrea Bernstein, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

  So we know the former president himself is not charged here. But how unusual is it for the company of a former president to be involved in criminal charges like this?

• Andrea Bernstein, Investigative Journalist:

  Well, I think this is the only time it's ever happened.

  There has never been a post-presidency like Trump's. And I think what was so extraordinary about the plea deal today is here you had a man who was sort of the closest thing you could come to as a physical embodiment of Trump's business saying yes, Your Honor, yes, Your Honor, I committed these crimes, 15 times.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And what exactly — remind us, what exactly is he pleading, did he plead guilty to?

• Andrea Bernstein:

  So, just a little over a year ago, the Manhattan district attorney charged Mr. Weisselberg with 15 felonies.

  Basically, the scheme was, which lasted over 15 years, was for him to lie about his income, to say it was much lower than it actually was, by taking his income in things like a luxury apartment, Mercedes-Benzes for him and his wife and private school tuition for his children, thereby avoiding taxes on millions of dollars.

  And what he pleaded guilty to was everything from scheme to defraud, a scheme that lasted, he admitted today, from 2005 to 2021, during the entire time when his boss Donald Trump was president., of course, Donald Trump never divested from his business. So he was still at the top of the corporate structure at the time that these crimes were committed.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, as we said, former President Trump is not named here. But this took place, as you just said, over 16 years.

  Is it conceivable that the former president didn't know what was going on?

• Andrea Bernstein:

  Well, the district attorney, the Manhattan district attorney was preparing an indictment against Mr. Trump himself.

  That never went forward for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with a changeover in district attorneys. Everybody that I know that has ever worked for Trump — and we saw this in the January 6 hearings. Everybody that seems to work for him makes it clear that he has a very sharp eye on what is going on around him.

  That said, he was not charged. His company has pleaded not guilty. And there's been no evidence introduced of his personal knowledge, except that we did here today in one of the counts that Donald Trump paid — some of the benefits, the private school tuition, from his own personal account, and also kept a record of some of these payments.

  As to whether he knew it was illegal, that's a question that remains unanswered at this point.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, his name — he signed his name to some of the checks, but it's not clear that he knew what was going on. Is that it?

• Andrea Bernstein:

  That's exactly right.

  And I think let's not lose the significance that his business, the business named Trump, is charged with a crime. And that, as we said, has never happened before in the history of the United States, and also very serious crimes.

  And under New York law, when a top executive says, I committed a crime, it's a very short road from there to convicting the company. Now, the company hasn't pleaded guilty. That company is in fact slated to go to trial in October. But now, with the guaranteed testimony of Mr. Weisselberg, who is going to say, I did these things, I defrauded the taxpayers of the money that they deserved to get, so I could personally benefit, there is no clear way, prosecutors have told me, that the company can get out of that.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And is it — can you give us a sense, do we know what kinds of questions Allen Weisselberg is going to be asked this fall at the trial?

• Andrea Bernstein:

  Right.

  So there's no indication that he's going to say, Donald Trump knew any of these things I did. But what he has promised to do, under penalty of getting a much more severe sentence, is to answer questions truthfully. So this will be a chance for the jury and the public to get all sorts of detailed questions about how this scheme worked, how it was played out across the country — the company, who — which other executives were involved.

  This is a very embarrassing, detailed look at a president who was so secretive, he went to the U.S. Supreme Court twice to keep his business records out of the hands of the Manhattan district attorney. So we expect to learn much more about his company if, as expected, this case goes to trial. And that could be very embarrassing, particularly since Mr. Trump is, as we know, considering another run for president.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And just finally, Andrea Bernstein, while all this is going on in New York, down in Florida, having to do with the FBI search of the former president's estate at Mar-a-Lago, a judge ruled today that the Justice Department needs to go back and redact any language it doesn't want made public in the affidavit that ended up being used seeking that search warrant.

  Any — how does that play into any other legal worries the former president has?

• Andrea Bernstein:

  Well, it does seem like it's a very big worry, when you have the U.S. Justice Department investigating you, as we now know, under the Espionage Act and other potential crimes.

  But we — it looks like we may learn more. Now, this has many steps to go through. Obviously, the judge has asked the Justice Department to come back. It can be appealed. It doesn't seem like we will see anything tomorrow.

  But we see a pattern here, which is the president hiding things, the president not revealing things, and a president being investigated from everything to whether — his company being investigated from everything to whether he wrote a check for his CFO's grandchildren's tuition to whether he mishandled classified documents. That is quite a roster for a former president.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Journalist Andrea Bernstein, thank you very much.

• Andrea Bernstein:

  Thanks so much.

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