Michael Cohen, a former Donald Trump personal lawyer, said he believed the Manhattan district attorney would be able to convince the former president’s accountant to cooperate if prosecutors threaten him or his family with charges.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been lobbying Trump’s longtime accountant, Allen Weisselberg, 73, to denounce him in the 18-month investigation into whether the former president and the Trump Organization have committed financial crimes in manipulating the asset value for loans and tax gains.
In a recent interview with New Yorker, published on Friday, Cohen predicted that Weisselberg will eventually cooperate with prosecutors to protect his own family from serving time in prison.
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“He is not going to let his boys go to prison,” said Cohen. “And I don’t think he wants to spend his golden years in a correctional facility, either.”
Weisselberg’s involvement in the Trump family’s finances dates back to 1973, when he started working for Fred Trump, the father of the former president.
In 2007, Donald Trump testified in a defamation suit that he filed against a reporter over whether he inflated the value of his properties. Asked by lawyers to reveal who estimated the values of his real estate empire, he said: “I think that, ultimately, probably, Mr. Weisselberg … I was never really involved, except to give my opinion.”
A source familiar with the criminal investigation told the Associated Press last week that prosecutors have been working to convince Weisselberg to cooperate in the Manhattan investigation.
“They want him to transform,” said an unidentified person familiar with the investigation. The source was granted anonymity as they were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.
The source also said prosecutors had been examining Weisselberg’s children.
Jack Weisselberg serves as a director of Ladder Capital, a real estate investment company that lent money to Trump for four properties, and Barry Weisselberg has already managed skating rinks in New York City with links to the former president.
The Supreme Court previously allowed Trump’s request to block subpoenas for his tax returns twice. But the court ruled against the former president last month. And in late February, a spokesman for Vance said the tax records had been handed over to his team.
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into Trump and his company, which also focuses on some of the same issues as criminal investigations, as well as tax deductions. The Trump Organization has written off about $ 1 million in consulting fees, some of which has been paid to the daughter of former President Ivanka Trump.
Newsweek contacted Trump representatives for comment