Trump Organization expected to be charged with tax crimes on Thursday
By Erica Orden and Kara Scannell, CNN
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is expected to charge former President Donald Trump’s namesake company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, as soon as Thursday with tax crimes in connection with an array of perks and benefits awarded to employees, a person familiar with the matter tells CNN.
Though Trump faced multiple federal and state prosecutorial inquiries during his administration, the district attorney’s indictment would be the first to charge his company, the Trump Organization, with allegedly criminal conduct.
Trump himself isn’t expected to be charged, his lawyer has said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the upcoming charges.
A spokesman for Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance declined to comment. A lawyer for the Trump Organization didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mary Mulligan, a lawyer for Weisselberg, did not respond to a request for comment.
The expected charges are set to come after lawyers for the Trump Organization met twice with prosecutors in recent days to present arguments about why the company shouldn’t face criminal charges.
And they will come after more than two years of investigation that began with an inquiry into accounting connected to hush-money payments made by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and expanded to include questions about whether the company or certain employees paid taxes on benefits including rent-free apartments, car leases or private school tuition.
Prosecutors have also scrutinized cash bonuses paid to employees and whether appropriate taxes were paid on them, CNN reported Wednesday.
Though prosecutors have focused on Weisselberg in an effort to coax him into cooperating with their investigation, his lawyers recently informed the district attorney’s office that he would not cooperate, people familiar with the matter said.
An indictment against him would likely significantly increase the pressure on him to comply with prosecutors’ demands.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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