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Former President Donald Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been criminally charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office in a case involving alleged tax-related crimes.

, Weisselberg's personal lawyers, Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said in a statement that the CFO "intends to plead not guilty and he will fight these charges in court."

The investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. began in 2018, around the time Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, 

 to campaign finance charges related to payments of 

, which were made in the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign, 

, "in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office." The goal was to block two women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump — former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels — from telling their stories publicly.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James' office launched its own probe in 2019 after Cohen 

 that Trump manipulated property values to lower his tax obligations and to obtain bank loans. James' investigation was initially focused on potential civil charges, but it recently expanded to include a criminal probe in partnership with Vance.

homed in on non-cash payments made to top officials in Trump's companies, including Weisselberg.

The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for the charges,

 in February to block a subpoena from Vance's office seeking Trump's financial records. Vance first requested tax filings and other financial records from Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, in 2019.


In a statement released in May, Trump said the New York-based investigations were part of a "Witch Hunt," adding, with a reference to how his presidential campaign started in 2015: "It began the day I came down the escalator in Trump Tower, and it's never stopped."


Crime, Law and Justice

Politics and Government News

Andrea Bernstein

Author

Ilya Marritz

Brian Naylor

The indictment comes after a three-year investigation into the business dealings of the former president's family business by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Trump's family business, CFO are criminally charged for alleged tax crimes

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