Should Donald Trump Be Worried About Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg In DA Investigation?

The spotlight of the investigations into former President Donald Trump has fallen on Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. Weisselberg has been under scrutiny for years, but the recent addition of a criminal inquiry from the New York attorney general has some wondering whether he will finally reach his breaking point.

Weisselberg, 73, has been an integral part of Trump’s operations for decades, reaping massive fringe benefits that are now being picked apart by investigators on suspicion of tax evasion.

His children also raked in the rewards, and are now implicated in the same inquiry.

Allen Weisselberg's son, Jack Weisselberg, works for Ladder Capital Finance, which according to the Washington Post gave the Trump Organization a $270 million loan now under scrutiny. While the loan documents weren’t signed by Jack Weisselberg, the Trump Organization and Ladder Capital Finance have declined to give any comment on the investigation.

Another son of Allen Weisselberg, Barry Weisselberg, was more closely integrated into the Trump Organization, earning $200,000 annually as the manager of the Wollman Ice Rink for “as long as he could remember” according to transcripts from his divorce proceedings.

Financial information from those documents also shows annual bonuses of $40,000. Barry Weisselberg’s father paid for most of his living expenses.

An analysis of his finances by Air Mail found that they failed to account for a $172,000 discrepancy between his combined incomes and annual expenses. Barry Weisselberg had difficulty explaining the details of his budget in a deposition.

"I'm not an accountant. I know what I make. I'm not too sure of certain things,” he said.

His ex-wife Jennifer Weisselberg was less circumspect. She pointed to the direct handling and transport of the rink’s cash as Barry’s primary job, and the reason he was so richly compensated by his father.

“What does Allen do with it?” Jennifer told Air Mail. “I don’t think all the cash was reported. It was for Trump. That’s why he wanted [Barry] there so bad.”

All of this, combined with the opening of a criminal investigation, has some wondering how much longer Allen Weisselberg can hold on. Barbara Res, a former vice executive for the Trump Organization, told the New York Daily News that while Weisselberg “thought Trump was a god” and “drank the Kool-Aid,” recent developments might be a step too far.

“I don’t believe he would commit perjury,” Res said. “I didn’t know him to be that kind of guy.”

Questions linger as to what level Weisselberg is cooperating with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which is collaborating with the Manhattan district attorney office.

In the summer of 2018, Allen Weisselberg was granted immunity by federal authorities in New York and testified before a grand jury after Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges in federal court.

In August 2018, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he was not aware that Allen Weisselberg had been granted immunity and didn’t know whether Trump had knowledge of the immunity.