NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday in a tax evasion case. this is the only prosecution stemming from a lengthy investigation into the former president’s company, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was scheduled to go on trial in October on charges he took more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the company, including rent, car payments and school tuition.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and Weisselberg’s attorneys met Monday with the judge overseeing the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, according to court records. The judge then scheduled a hearing on the matter for 9 a.m. Thursday, but did not specify the reason.
The people who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. They said the goal of Thursday’s hearing was to get Weisselberg to plead guilty, but cautioned that plea deals sometimes fall apart before they are finalized in court.
Weisselberg’s attorney, Nicholas Gravante Jr., told the New York Times on Monday that Weisselberg has been engaged in plea negotiations to resolve the case, but did not specify the terms of a possible plea deal. Reached by the AP, Gravante declined to comment.
The Times, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, said Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month prison sentence, which would make him eligible for parole after about 100 days. The agreement would not require Weisselberg to testify or cooperate in any way with 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 plea deal talks. Weisselberg 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 lawyer for the Trump Organization.
News of Weisselberg’s plea negotiations came days after the judge rejected requests from his lawyers and the Trump Organization to dismiss the case. The judge dropped one criminal tax fraud charge against the company citing the statute of limitations, but more than a dozen other charges remain.
In seeking to dismiss the case, Weisselberg’s lawyers argued that prosecutors in the Democratic-led district attorney’s office were punishing him because he would not provide 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.
Weisselberg, who turned 75 on Monday, is the only Trump executive charged in the years-long criminal investigation launched by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who went to the Supreme Court to secure the records. Trump’s tax returns. Vance’s successor, Alvin Bragg, is now overseeing the investigation. Several other Trump executives have been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury in the case.
Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization schemed to provide off-the-books compensation to top executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was charged with defrauding the federal, state and city governments of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.
The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand theft, carried a possible sentence of five to 15 years in prison. Tax fraud charges against the company 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 denounced the New York probe as a “political witch hunt,” has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate business and in no way a crime.
Last week, Trump sat for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
In the months after Weisselberg’s arrest, the criminal investigation appeared to be moving toward a possible criminal indictment of Trump himself, but the investigation slowed, a grand jury was disbanded and a top prosecutor left after Bragg took office in January — though he insists it is continuing.
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