The Trump Organization and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg were indicted on Thursday (July 1) after an almost-three-year-long investigation by New York lawmakers, Associated Press and other outlets report. The charges are expected to be announced this afternoon.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Wednesday (June 30) that charges were expected to be filed against Trump’s company and its chief executive officer. However, Trump’s lawyer said the former president himself is unlikely to be charged.
According to WSJ, both the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the New York state attorney general’s office have accused Weisselberg and Trump Organization employees of illegally avoiding paying their taxes on company benefits, including new cars, apartments and private school tuition. Associated Press writes that the specific charges are expected to include these alleged tax violations.
Executives from the Trump Organization and Weisselberg will appear in court today to hear the charges. Weisselberg’s lawyer, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment to reporters on Wednesday and the Manhattan district attorney’s office also declined to comment. Trump’s spokesperson has not released a statement but his former senior advisor, Jason Miller, called the charges “politically terrible for the Democrats.”
“They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80-year-old man for maybe taking free parking!” Miller wrote on Twitter, apparently referencing 73-year-old Weisselberg.
In his own statement on Monday (June 28), Trump blasted investigators as “rude, nasty and totally biased.” The 45th president claimed his company’s actions are “things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community and [are] in no way a crime.”
Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the Associated Press that no charges are expected to be filed against Trump this week. However, he said the former president is not “out of the woods yet completely.”