New York v. Trump on Day Six: Allen Weisselberg Forgets Much on the Stand, But Remembers a Key Detail

The Trump Organization’s former chief financial official Allen Weisselberg exhibited extensive memory lapses during daylong testimony on Tuesday, his first stint on the witness stand since serving a months-long sentence at Rikers Island jail in New York.

But what Weisselberg did remember -- providing key financial information to Trump himself -- could prove important to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ effort to hold the former president, members of his family, and his business associates liable for the remaining counts of fraud.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has already ruled against Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and two of their business associates, ordering the dissolution of their New York business empire. But the trial will determine whether they will pay $250 million in "ill-gotten gains" — or be allowed to serve as directors in New York businesses in the future.

During the afternoon session, Weisselberg acknowledged that he provided statements of financial condition at issue in the trial to Trump between 2011 until the time of the former president’s election. Weisselberg confirmed that Trump “periodically” sent back comments, as first reported by NBC News. 

The attorney general alleges, and the trial judge has found, that Trump inflated his assets on fraudulent statements of financial condition (sometimes abbreviated as SFCs or SFOCs) that he sent to banks and insurers for financial benefits. 

Later in the day, Assistant Attorney General Louis Solomon pressed Weisselberg on who had the “final sign-off” over the statements.

"Good question," Weisselberg told Solomon.

But Weisselberg ultimately wouldn’t provide him with an answer. 

The ex-CFO testified that he sometimes passed on the statements to Eric Trump, but Weisselberg said he didn’t know whether the SFCs eventually went to the former president. Weisselberg appeared to stop short, in this and other instances, from implicating his former boss.

Weisselberg’s $2 million severance package

On Jan. 10 of this year, Weisselberg received a five-month sentence in connection with various tax-fraud crimes he pleaded guilty to in connection with the Trump Organization. 

Under the terms of his plea deal with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Weisselberg ultimately testified against the company he served for 50 years, and he was released from jail after serving roughly three months of his term. 

The AG’s counsel set the tone for Tuesday’s questioning by showing the court the $2 million separation agreement that Weisselberg signed with the Trump Organization on Jan. 9, the day before the ex-CFO’s sentencing earlier this year. 

Now that his criminal case is over, Weisselberg is taking the stand as Trump’s co-defendant and a witness for the state in the civil case, but the way the AG’s office opened up Weisselberg’s grilling emphasized the witness’s financial ties to his former employer. 

To accommodate another witness's schedule, Weisselberg's ongoing testimony will be put on pause until later in the week. The first witness to testify on Wednesday will be Nicholas Haigh, a former risk manager at Deutsche Bank.