Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was set to go on trial in October over allegations he took more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the company, including rent, car payments and tuition. Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and Weiselberg’s attorneys met Monday with the judge overseeing the case, Juan Manuel Mercan, according to court records. The judge then set a hearing on the matter for 9 a.m. Thursday, but did not specify why. The people who spoke to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. They said the purpose of Thursday’s hearing was to get Weiselberg to plead guilty, but cautioned that plea deals sometimes fall apart before they are finalized in court. Weiselberg’s attorney, Nicholas Gravante Jr., told The New York Times on Monday that Weiselberg has been engaged in negotiations to resolve the case, but did not elaborate on the terms of a potential settlement. Contacted by the AP, Gravante declined to comment. The Times, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, said Weiselberg is expected to serve five months in prison, which would make him eligible for parole after about 100 days. The agreement would not require Weisselberg to testify or cooperate in any way in an ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s business practices. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is also charged in the case but does not appear to be involved in the plea deal talks. Weiselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with a Trump Organization lawyer. News of Weiselberg’s plea negotiations came days after the judge rejected requests by his lawyers and the Trump Organization to dismiss the case. The judge did dismiss one tax fraud charge against the company citing the statute of limitations, but more than a dozen other charges remain. In seeking to have the case dismissed, Weiselberg’s lawyers argued that prosecutors in the Democratic-led district attorney’s office were punishing him for not offering damaging information against the former president. The judge rejected that argument, saying the evidence presented to the grand jury was legally sufficient to support the charges. Weiselberg, who turned 75 on Monday, is the only Trump official charged in the years-long criminal investigation launched by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who went to the Supreme Court to secure Trump’s tax records. Vance’s successor, Alvin Bragg, is now overseeing the investigation. Several other Trump officials have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case. Prosecutors alleged that Weiselberg and the Trump Organization schemed to give off-the-books compensation to senior executives, including Weiselberg, for 15 years. Weiselberg alone was charged with defrauding the federal, state and city governments of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and wrongful tax refunds. The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand theft, carried a potential sentence of five to 15 years in prison. Charges of corporate tax fraud are punishable by a fine of twice the amount of unpaid taxes or $250,000, whichever is greater. Trump has not been charged in the criminal investigation, but prosecutors have noted that he signed some of the checks at the center of the case. Trump, who has decried the New York probes as a “political witch hunt,” said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate industry and in no way constituted a crime. Last week, Trump sat for testimony in New York, the parallel political investigation by Attorney General Letitia James into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times. In the months after Weiselberg’s arrest, the criminal investigation appeared to be moving toward a possible indictment of Trump himself, but the investigation has slowed, the grand jury has been disbanded and a top prosecutor has left after Bragg took office in January — if and insists that it is continuing.
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