Reports: Trump Organization finance chief gets immunity
NEW YORK – President Donald Trump’s finance chief, a close confidant who has worked for the family’s real estate business since the early 1970s, was granted immunity in the federal probe of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, media outlets reported Friday.
Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, 71, is likely to have knowledge of every major personal and business deal Trump has been involved in since his career as a real estate mogul began.
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News were the first to report from anonymous sources that Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg got immunity to talk to federal prosecutors in the investigation of hush money Cohen paid to two women who claimed affairs with Trump.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press about the deal Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One of them said the immunity agreement was restricted to Weisselberg’s grand jury testimony last month in the Cohen case, specifically the allegations that Cohen paid hush money to two women who claimed affairs with Trump.
Whether the 71-year-old is continuing to help prosecutors was unclear. Asked if Weisselberg was cooperating further, one of the sources declined to comment.
Cohen pleaded guilty to tax and campaign finance violations Tuesday. And while not named in the Cohen case, Weisselberg is believed to be one of two Trump executives mentioned in the lawsuit who reimbursed Cohen and falsely recorded the payments as legal expenses.
Calls and emails to the Trump Organization to reach Weisselberg and general counsel Alan Garten were not immediately answered. An assistant said both were out of the office Friday.
Weisselberg, a loyal numbers-man for Trump, was mentioned on an audiotape that Cohen’s lawyer released in July of Cohen talking with Trump about paying for Playboy model Karen McDougal’s silence in the months leading up to the election. Cohen says on the tape that he’s already spoken about the payment with Weisselberg on “how to set the whole thing up.”
In Cohen’s court appearance in Manhattan to enter his guilty plea Tuesday, Cohen admitted to making payments of $150,000 to McDougal and $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels “at the direction” of Trump for the “principal purpose of influencing the election.” The Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen for that payment, setting up a sham invoices for legal expenses. In court filings, prosecutors say two unnamed Trump Organization employees helped in making the payments.