New York v Weisselberg & Trump Org -a deeper dive of the indictment
Arguably earlier today my previous article was kind of difficult to read - this follow up article is meant to be sans disquiet and far more targeted. Because sometimes a second look is mandated
To be fair my previous article was really disjointed and it might have been difficult to read/follow because I was multitasking— I mean how dare my actual J-O-B get in the way of breaking news. The purpose of this article is to do a more refined and targeted examination of the July 1, 2021 Indictment, because there are ton of tiny details that actually matter.
A clean (un-highlighted) copy of the indictment via this CNN link
Upon reading and scrutinizing the indictment - here are some key phrases & pagination and/or paragraph number(s). You really should pay closer attention —as words in an indictment are not arbitrary or otherwise capricious. But when viewed in context - it’s hard not to argue these phrases are not incontrovertible bread crumbs. Meaning these phrases tell you that the prosecutors have at least two cooperating witnesses waiting in the “bullpen” - several Trump Org Targets, Bank/Lender Targets, Weisselberg’s Two Sons (Jeff see 2005 NYTs wedding announcement and Jack who was recently promoted at Ladder Capital) and both of Trump’s sons. Why?
“and others” see pages 2, 3, 5, 6 and 14
“Senior managers” of the Trump Org -see Paragraph 1 invoked 3 times
“Unindicted Co-conspirator #1” - see pages 14 & 15
“Employees” see pages 2, 3, 10, 11, & 12
”Executives” see pages 3, 10, 11, 12 -page 11 is important
“Weisselberg and others directed” see page 11 paragraph 7
”other employees” See pages 10 & 11
Yes prosecutors alleged a decade and a half of an audacious scheme to defraud the State of New York, the City of New York and the IRS. Charging the Trump Organization, various sub-entities like Trump Payroll Corporation and its longtime Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg with 15 felony counts.
New York Statue of Limitations - Tax Crimes
As it relates to the statute of limitations for criminal tax fraud and tax evasion New York’s statute of limitations only goes up to five years. For federal offenses, the statute of limitations is three to six years. But the fact an indictment has been filed this effectively stops the SOL clock. Now Trump & Weisselberg’s current defense is “this indictment is purely a witch hunt” or that it’s entirely “politically motivated” and much will be made about Weisselberg “flipping on Trump”
—I remain skeptical of this narrative— primarily because of some insider info and having read Weisselberg’s various deposition transcripts (a total of 4 deposition transcripts not all related to the DA or AG investigations). Now if Weisselberg had been remanded into custody pending trial -I would unequivocally leans towards he’s going to flip on Trump. But Weisselberg was RoR’d I’m sticking to my previous assessment. Weisselberg flipping on Trump - doubtful but doing a deeper dive into the indictment I’m going to present a counter argument to my own assertion. If I’ve tabulated correctly Weisselberg —if convicted is looking at 20 to 65 years in prison.
But you need to remember a few things about Weisselberg - he knows where all of the bodies are buried, he knows where all the money is hidden but most importantly Fred Trump brought Weisselberg into the Trump Org orbit. Having studied Trump’s history of vexatious litigation - I have another phrase I want you to remember: Roy Cohn. Meaning Weisselberg and Cohn were incredibly close and many attribute Trump’s vexatious litigant status to lessons Roy Cohn taught him. Plus Weisselberg isn’t a weak as one would be in order to squeeze him into flipping on Trump. Naturally you can disagree with me. I won’t take it personally.
The larger issue here is the indictment - it establishes a large pattern of behavior and the fact that Trump Org has two sets of books. That nothing happened in Trump Org without Trump’s permission. So let’s take a deeper dive into today’s indictment. But before we do that I’m going to remind you to the best of my knowledge the Manhattan Special Grand Jury has not been dismissed and that is super important because see today’s New York Attorney General Statement - “investigations is ongoing”
-SCHEME TO DEFRAUD IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law § 190.65(1)(3) - penalty Weisselberg could face as this is considered a Class E Non-Violent Felony is; up to 4 years in prison and/or up to 5 years probation.
OVERT ACTS as to Count Two --the tiny details that matter
You’ll note that off the bat, Prosector drop the “unindicted co-conspirator # 1” I rarely make assumptions or predictions but with out a doubt that unidicted co-conspirator #1 is; Donald John Trump.
Note the date cited, On or about March 31, 2005….”acting through its president” again that is without a doubt Donald John Trump. The proffer that prosecutors made is “with a rider designating Allen Weisselberg and his spouse as the sole occupants” —the reason this proffer is important is the Prosecution has the actual “rider” document. That’s bad, like vert bad for Weisselberg and Trump.
I would like to draw your attention to paragraphs 2 thru 9 under the OVERT ACTs subsection of the Indictment. This is important because some might wonder “is Donald Trump in legal jeopardy” —I would argue that yes he most certainly is - as in “Unindicted Co-Conspirator #1” —Congratulations Donald, you’ve evolved from Individual #1 to Unindicted Co-Conspirator # 1. Well done Donald. Well done indeed. To be fair and accurate —paragraphs 3 thru 9 solely implicate Allen Weisselberg
April 5, 2010, the Trump Corporation, acting through ts agent, Unindicted Co-conspirator#1, underreported Allen Weisselberg’s taxable income for the tax year 2009.
Paragraph 10 is also important because here the Prosectors state that in September 2016 at Weisselberg’s direction - the accounting department “removed the notations ‘Per Allen Weisselberg’ from Trump’s detailed General Ledger. What that tells you is that wasn’t part of the Trump Organization but from Donald Trump’s personal general ledger.
September 2016, Allen Weisselberg directed a staff member in the accounting department to remove the notations “Per Allen Weisselberg” from the entries in Donald J. Trump's Detail General Ledger relating o tuition payments paid on Weisselberg’s behalf to his family members” private school.
The defendant Allen Weisselberg, in the Countyof New York and elsewhere, during the period from on or about April 5, 2010 to on or about April 27, 2018 stole property from the United. States Internal Revenue Service and the value of the property exceeded fifty thousand dollars.
The “grand larceny” count - New York has a wonky law as it relates to Criminal Tax Evasion and “grand larceny” - violation of New York Penal Law § 155.40(1) - importantly here is the dollar amount. Meaning Prosectors allege that Weisselberg Tax Fraud Crimes exceeded a valuation of greater than $50,000.00 and to be clear - Count Three is not ambiguous—at all - the New York Prosecutors straight up said “Weisselberg stole property”…and it “exceeded fifty thousand dollars”
One of the primary reasons I preemptively provided my readers/followers with the New York Penal Code (laws) of the degrees of Tax Crimes is you needed to understand the legal/statutory framework within New York. Hours before the indictment was unsealed I knew that understanding the basic New York laws would be an important aspect to fully understand the indictment, once it was unsealed. If you’ll recall I preemptively argued that you should look at the “degree” of tax crimes in the indictment. I believe my exact words were;
The point was I wanted to make was priming the information pump. That way we could quickly run through the indictment with a factual recitation of the current New York Law - of the fifteen counts, count four is one of the “lesser included”- because off the top of my head the New York Tax Crimes are tiered (in severity) with First Degree having the maximum allowable 25 years (per each count) for reference because I think it’s important for you to have access to the New York Tax Laws http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/lawssrch.cgi?NVLWO:
1st degree is a Class B Felony >$1,000,000,000.00
2nd degree is a Class C Felony >$50,000.00
3rd degree is a Class D Felony >$10,000.00
4th degree is a Class E Felony >$3,000.00
5th degree is a Class A misdemeanor NY Tax Law § 1802
…committed a tax fraud act and, with the intent to evade any tax due under the Tax Law, and to defraud the state and any political subdivisionofthe sate, the defendants paid the state and a political subdivisionof the state, by means of underpayment and receipt of refund and both, in a period of other more than one year in excess-of ten thousand dollars less than the tax liability that was due.
The defendants committed a tax fraud act by willfully engaging in, and willfully causing another to engage in, the tax fraud act set forth in Tax Law § 1501(a)(2), in that the defendants knowing that a return contained any materially false and fraudulent information, and omitted any material information, filed and submitted that return, to wit New York Resident Income Tax Return (Form IT-201), with the state and any political subdivisionofthe state, and with any public office and public officer of the state and any political subdivisionofthe state.
April 2, 2018, committed a tax fraud act and, with the intent to evadeany tax due underthe Tax Law, and to defraud the state and any political subdivisionofthe state, the defendants paid the state and a political subdivision of the state, by means of underpayment and receipt of refund and both, in a period of not more than one year in excess of three thousand dollars less than the tax liability that was due.
…did knowing that a written instrument, to wit…a New York Resident Income Tax Return (Form IT-201), contained a false statement and false information, and with intent to defraud the state and any political subdivision, public authority andpublicbenefit corporationofthe state, offered and presented it to a public office, public servant, public authority and public benefit corporation, with the knowledge andbelief that it would be filed with, registered and recorded in and otherwise become a partof the records of such public office, public servant, public authority and public benefit corporation.
accuses the defendants the Trump Corporation, d/b/a the Trump Organization, Trump Payroll Corp., d/b/a the Trump Organization, and Allen Weisselberg of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law § 175.10, committed as follows (read the last sentence very closely because the “intent” and/or “intended” to commit another crime and “aid and conceal”… super bad
…defendants, in the County of New York and elsewhere… with the intent to defraud, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement…and defendant intent to defraud included an intent to commit another crime and to aid and conceal the commission thereof.
Now you might hear/read machinations of “well Vance & James have a really high standard to meet” in some respects that is fair and factual statement. However that does discount that Vance & James presented enough evidence and they repeatedly met the probable cause threshold and more importantly DA Vance argued all the way to the US Supreme Court (granted that concerned Trump’s taxes) —but most importantly here is the Grand Jury returned a fifteen count indictment - each of the Counts requires the Prosector to meet the threshold also known as “elements of the crime”. For Example Counts 4 and 5 —the elements include:
“…tax fraud act set forth in Tax Law § 1501(a)(2), in that the defendants…knowing that a return contained any materially false and fraudulent information, and omitted any material information, filed and submitted that return, to wit, a 2015 New York Resident Income Tax Return (Form IT-201), with the state and any political subdivisionofthe state, and with any public office and public officer of the state and any political subdivision of the state.
Mens rea - “guilty mind’ or “guilty intention to commit a crime” colloquially known as the “defendant’s state of mind”
Actus Reus - “guilty act itself”, which is required when proving that a criminal act was committed - meaning was there a criminal act and if so what was it and can you prove it. Hence the aforementioned “elements of the crime”
WILLFULLY means acting with either intent to defraud, intent to evade the payment of taxes or intent to avoid a requirement of law, a lawful requirement of the commissioner or a known legal duty.
INTENT means conscious objective or purpose. A person acts with intent to evade any tax due or to defraud the state [or to evade the payment of taxes or to avoid a requirement6 of law, or a lawful requirement of the commissioner or a known legal duty] when that person's conscious objective or purpose is to do so
And lastly - in June of 2018 I tweeted a long but receipt laden thread about Trump’s Fraud - I mean Foundation Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School
And in case you are concerned about the provenance of the embedded IRS links - I’ve previously walked my readers/followers on how to obtain these records -but let’s do a quick refresher course:
As I’ve previously stated - as for what to look for next?
I’m going with:
Jeff McConney
Matthew Calamari and his son, Matthew Calamari Jr.
Rona Graff
I told you in May 2021 who to watch - I walked you through the deposition excepts from the New York Attorney General’s Office and my assessment remains unchanged. And lastly I want you to remember this phrase
“…the case relates to an active, ongoing investigation…
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth . . . Marcus Aurelias.
Great job Ms Accordion. I Love Facts.
SDNY should put you under contract - in your spare time 😂