Under the terms of the deal, which is still being finalized, Weiselberg will be sentenced to five months in prison but will serve about 100 days behind bars, the person said. Weiselberg faced up to 15 years in prison. Weiselberg will not be listed as an associate, the person said, but will testify at trial — if the case moves forward and the Trump Organization does not reach a plea deal. The judge set the trial for October 24. The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced the tax charges last year and sought to win Weisselberg’s cooperation against the former president in a broader criminal investigation into the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s financial statements. Despite the pressure, Weiselberg refused to “flip” or cooperate against Trump or his children. No charges have been filed in this investigation. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office could not immediately be reached. The Trump Organization was charged with 10 counts and Weiselberg with 15 felonies in connection with an alleged scheme dating back to 2005 “to compensate Weiselberg and other Trump Organization officials in a manner that was ‘off the books’.” Prosecutors allege Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on $1.7 million in income, including luxury perks such as a Manhattan apartment, a pair of Mercedes-Benz cars and private school tuition for two family members. The ruling followed Judge Juan Merchan denying motions by Weisselberg and the Trump Organization to dismiss the tax charges at a hearing last week. Weisselberg’s expected guilty plea comes at a dramatic legal time for Trump, who last week in a deposition to the New York attorney general’s political investigation asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer hundreds of questions about his financial Trump Organization situations. This came two days after the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s private home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, as part of a criminal investigation into the handling of presidential records, including classified documents.
