A New York judge ruled Friday that a criminal fraud and tax evasion prosecution against the Trump Organization and its former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg can move forward.
Former President Donald Trump‘s business and Weisselberg were charged last year by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which alleged the organization of having engaged in a multiyear scheme in which executives were compensated with hidden benefits in order to evade taxes. A jury selection is slated for Oct. 24, according to court records.
INDICTED TRUMP ORGANIZATION CFO ALLEN WEISSELBERG REMOVED FROM TOP ROLES AT SUBSIDIARIES
Both the company and Weisselberg asked a judge in February to dismiss all 15 counts charged against them, alleging they were subject to “political animus” by prosecutors. Judge Juan Merchan dismissed one of several tax fraud counts against Trump’s business, though it allowed the others to remain.
The investigation into the company and Weisselberg was prompted by a Nov. 2, 2020, report for Bloomberg about the benefits the former CFO was allegedly receiving.
Merchan’s ruling marks a major win for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and is another legal blow to Trump in a week that has been filled with tumultuous setbacks for the former president.
TRUMP’S FIFTH AMENDMENT PLEA AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR HIS INVESTIGATIONS
Trump was called in for a deposition on Wednesday in a separate civil case led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, but he invoked his Fifth Amendment privileges and replied with the “same answer” hundreds of times during nearly four hours of questioning.
James, a Democrat who has been critical of Trump for the nearly three years her office has been investigating his business practices, also has two attorneys from her own office assigned to the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation.
And on Tuesday, a federal appeals court approved the House Ways and Means Committee’s request to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the IRS. The committee requested a judge on Thursday to expedite Trump’s response from Aug. 22 to Aug. 16. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has not responded to the request because Trump is likely to appeal the Tuesday decision.
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The former president’s week started with a Monday raid by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, a move that he claimed was “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
Justice Department Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke for the first time since the raid on Thursday, announcing he “personally approved” the search by federal agents on Trump’s property while the former president was away in New York.
