The former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer predicted that he would flip on his boss amid a mountain of evidence about questionable financial arrangements and tax issues.
Allen Weisselberg has overseen the company’s finances for decades, beginning with Donald Trump’s father. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) has been conducting a criminal investigation into Weisselberg’s personal taxes for months — and has also launched a criminal probe into the Trump Organization, her office revealed Tuesday.
A parallel investigation into possible loan, bank and insurance fraud by the Trump Organization and its officers is being carried out by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
Jennifer Weisselberg, who was married to Allen Weisselberg’s son Barry for 14 years, until 2018, has been cooperating with investigators. She told Erin Burnett in a CNN interview Thursday that she turned over boxes of business and financial records, including tax filings, from both her ex-husband and former father-in-law, as well as “digital” evidence.
Barry Weisselberg was in charge of running Trump’s Wollman Rink in New York City’s Central Park, a cash business. His ex-wife said that the company paid her husband in part with free use of Trump’s Manhattan apartments. She said she also turned over documents showing that the company paid tuition for one of her children at the former Manhattan private school of Trump’s son Barron, which she considered yet another portion of her husband’s hefty compensation package.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that investigators discovered more than $500,000 covering tuition for Allen Weisselberg’s grandchildren had been paid for with checks signed by him or by Trump.
Jennifer Weisselberg said she believed investigators were examining potential “tax issues” with the tuition payments and other perks. “There’s nothing legal going on there,” she quipped.
Investigators from both James’s and Vance’s office have inquired about “untaxed” benefits collected by Allen Weisselberg and his son, The Washington Post reported last month. Officials are working to get Weisselberg and/or his son to cooperate with the investigation into Trump’s company, sources told the Post.
“Would Allen Weisselberg flip on Trump?” Burnett asked the former daughter-in-law Thursday.
“Yes,” she responded.
“Wow, no hesitation at all with your answer there,” Burnett noted.
Weisselberg said she was shaken when Trump became president. “It’s dangerous … to give somebody so self-serving and narcissistic that much power when it’s always, inevitably, to benefit themselves.”
She’s cooperating with authorities now, she said, because she doesn’t want to see Trump return to the White House.
“The truth matters,” said Jennifer Weisselberg. “It’s so horrifying to think that Donald Trump could be president again knowing that I know … there needs to be accountability.”
Check out a clip of the CNN interview up top.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.