Trial of Trump’s company begins in New York

The trial of former President Donald Trump’s family business opened Monday, with prosecutors set to accuse the company of running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with lavish off-the-books perks.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office will tell a jury that two of the many corporations that comprise Trump’s real estate business — the Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. — engaged in the scheme since at least 2005. They will say that one executive, the company’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, received $1.76 million in perks, including the rent on an Upper West Side apartment, leased Mercedes-Benzes and private school tuition for his grandchildren.

Here is some important context for the case:

— Trump has not been charged and is not expected to be implicated in the trial. But he is synonymous with the company he ran for decades, a business that bears his name and served as a launchpad for his presidency.

Also Read: Trump says Twitter 'now in sane hands' after Musk purchase

— The company and Weisselberg were charged in 2021 with multiple counts of criminal tax fraud, conspiracy, scheme to defraud and falsifying business records. Late this summer, Weisselberg pleaded guilty, and agreed as part of a plea deal to testify at the trial. If the judge on the case, Juan Merchan, finds that he testified truthfully, he will sentence Weisselberg to five months in jail. Ultimately, with time credited for good behavior, the executive might serve fewer than 100 days behind bars.

— The Trump Organization will not pay more than $1.7 million if found guilty. Although a conviction would hurt its reputation, the company is not likely to be seriously harmed by a conviction.

— But the trial in state Supreme Court is likely to present an embarrassing scene for the former president, pushing to the forefront one of several criminal investigations swirling around him. Trump, who is not expected to attend the trial, has called the charges a “continuation of the witch hunt that started when I came down the escalator,” referring to the moment in 2015 when he announced his presidential candidacy at Trump Tower.

Weisselberg is not the prosecutors’ ultimate target. He was charged as an offshoot of a broader investigation into Trump’s business practices, and prosecutors focused on his receipt of the tax-free perks as they sought to pressure him into cooperating.

When he declined, they charged him. And while Weisselberg has not contributed to the prosecutors’ investigation into Trump, whose family he has served for close to 50 years, his agreement to take the stand gives the district attorney’s office a significant advantage in the trial, which is expected to last about six weeks.