One of the central figures in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into Donald Trump is Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. An employee of the firm for decades, Weisselberg has personally described himself as Trump’s “eyes and ears” at the company, and as his former colleague Michael Cohen has put it, “Allen Weisselberg [knows] every single dollar in, and every single dollar—not even dollar, to the penny. Every single penny in and every penny out [goes] through Allen Weisselberg’s desk, and then [is] reported, before and after, to Donald J. Trump.” Obviously someone with such detailed knowledge of the finances of the company would make an extremely helpful witness to Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr., which is why the prosecutor has been working for months to get Weisselberg to flip and cooperate against the ex-president. And based on new developments, it sounds like he just might!

The New York Times reports that the D.A.’s office appears to have “entered the final stages of a criminal tax investigation” into Weisselberg, who could personally face charges this summer. The investigation into the CFO, which Vance’s office is likely using to pressure him to flip and save himself, reportedly focuses in part on the possibility that Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on benefits Trump provided to him and his family over the years, such as apartments, cars, and thousands of dollars in private school tuition. As The Washington Post reported in March, Vance’s office has been “delving deeply into the personal and financial affairs” of Weisselberg, with an additional focus on his adult sons, Barry Weisselberg and Jack Weisselberg, “a tactic that could be an effort to increase pressure on the elder Weisselberg.” Jack works at Ladder Capital, which, according to the Post, happened to loan the Trump Organization more than $270 million. More significantly, Barry is a Trump Organization employee who managed the Wollman ice rink for the company before the city ended its contract. In April, Barry’s ex-wife, Jennifer Weisselberg, turned over numerous financial documents to Vance’s office containing information on her ex-husband’s bank accounts and credit cards, as well as his statements of net worth and tax filings. “My knowledge of the documents and my voice connect the flow of money from various banks and from personal finances that bleed directly into the Trump Organization,” she said. And according to the Post, those documents contain information that has likely been of particular interest to prosecutors:

The documents show an array of payments and perks that Barry Weisselberg and his family received as a result of his employment for Trump’s company over 18 years, likely raising key questions for investigators analyzing the finances of the cash-only skating rink and working to ascertain whether the proper taxes were paid…. In [his divorce] deposition, Weisselberg acknowledged making errors in explaining information about his finances. He said, for instance, that he had forgotten that he shared an investment account with his father and he misstated his salary, prompting interjections from his attorneys when repeatedly confronted with contradictory information, the transcript shows.

He could not answer some questions about his taxes, the transcript shows. When asked whether taxes had been paid on the corporate apartment where his family previously lived, he said he wasn’t sure. Asked how the company determined the size of his bonuses, which tallied about $40,000 annually from 2015 to 2017, he said he had “no idea.” When pressed in the deposition to explain discrepancies between what he said he earned and what he reported on tax forms for the Internal Revenue Service, he said: “I’m not an accountant. I know what I make. I’m not too sure of certain things.”

Despite earning $200,000 a year for “as long as he could remember,” Barry said in the deposition that while he and Jennifer were together, they lived rent-free for a number of years in Trump-owned apartments, adding that he had no idea how taxes on one of the properties were handled. Last month the Manhattan D.A. subpoenaed the private school that Barry’s children, who are Weisselberg’s grandchildren, attend; according to Jennifer, from 2012 to 2019, more than $500,000 in tuition payments were made with checks signed by either Weisselberg or Trump, which could have been a way for the Weisselbergs to avoid taxes. Vance’s office reportedly secured the senior Weisselberg’s tax returns earlier this year, in addition to personal bank records, while the Trump Organization was asked to hand over documents “related to any benefits Mr. Trump or the company may have provided to other employees.”

According to the Times, should prosecutors seek charges against Weisselberg, they could choose from a variety of alleged crimes, including scheme to defraud, tax fraud, or grand larceny. The fallout from tax fraud, per the Times, “would be steeper than under the scheme-to-defraud charge,” as failing to pay more than $10,000 in taxes in a single year can be punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison. (Scheming to defraud holds a sentence of up to four years.) “Those dollar amounts could make it relatively easy for the Manhattan district attorney to make a criminal case,” said Cono R. Namorato, a former senior official at the Justice Department’s tax division.

As for whether Weisselberg will flip, the Times notes that thus far he “appears to have rebuffed Mr. Vance’s office and continues to work at the Trump Organization.” On the other hand, asked about the prospect of his turning on Trump, Barbara Res, a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization, told the Daily News that while Weisselberg “thought Trump was a god” and “drank the Kool-Aid,” there are likely limits to his devotion. “I don’t believe he would commit perjury,” she said. And as his ex-daughter-in-law, Jennifer, told Air Mail in April: “Trump doesn’t care about Allen, but Allen knows every bad thing he ever did.” Regardless, things are not looking good for the ex-president. As the Times points out:

Even if Mr. Weisselberg chooses not to assist the investigation into his boss, charges against him could portend trouble for Mr. Trump, signaling that the prosecutors have identified what they believe is misconduct at his family business.

A lawyer for Weisselberg declined the Times’ request for comment, as did the Trump Organization. Trump, of course, has frequently decried the investigation, claiming it’s a “continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our country.”

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Vladimir Putin isn’t gonna pretend he hasn’t had God knows how many people killed

Tucker Carlson’s new Capitol insurrection take: The FBI did it

Nearly two dozen Republicans vote against honoring police for January 6 bravery

The “law and order” party, indeed! Per CNN:

Despite the House and Senate coming to an agreement that will award the Congressional Gold Medal to the officers who defended the Capitol, 21 House Republicans voted against the legislation Tuesday, the latest reminder that members of Congress still cannot agree on the facts of the deadly January 6 riot. The final vote in the House on Tuesday was 406-21. The number of House Republicans voting against the bill nearly doubled since the first time a version of the bill came to the House floor, as the vote when the bill first passed the House in March was 413-12.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told reporters that she voted against the Congressional Gold Medal to U.S. Capitol Police officers and [Metropolitan Police Department officers] because she does not believe the legislation should refer to January 6 as an insurrection. “I wouldn’t call it an insurrection,” Greene told reporters.

Like Carlson, Greene is now promoting the crackpot theory that “FBI operatives” were “involved in organizing and carrying out the Jan 6th Capitol riot.” (In reality, one of her “closest friends” was part of the mob that stormed the building.)

The Biden administration ends another monstrous Trump policy

The new guy has continued his unspoken pledge to do the exact opposite of the last one. Per The New York Times:

The Education Department said on Wednesday that transgender students were protected under Title IX, a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools, reversing a Trump-era policy that effectively had said the opposite. “We just want to double down on our expectations,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said in an interview. “Students cannot be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.” The decision was rooted in a Supreme Court ruling last year that determined that protections in the Civil Rights Act against discrimination in the workplace extended to gay and transgender people, and similar interpretations of the ruling have appeared in agencies throughout President Biden’s government. His administration has conducted a sweeping effort to rescind, revise, or revoke a number of Trump-era policies that rolled back transgender rights.

Throughout Mr. Trump’s presidency, his administration revoked [Barack] Obama-era guidance on the rights of transgender students but did not install its own regulations. In 2017, the administration rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity. That directive, administration officials said, was made “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy.” The Trump administration had also threatened last year to withhold federal aid from schools that allowed transgender athletes to participate in scholastic sports.

Pretty nice to have a president who’s not consistently in the running for the worst person in history, isn’t it? 

Elsewhere!

Putin and Biden Cite Gains From Summit, But Tensions Are Clear (NYT)

Justice Department drops lawsuit, criminal probe over John Bolton’s book on Trump (CNBC)

Fed estimates inflation will grow faster than projected just three months ago and moves up expectations for rate hike (Washington Post)

A once-unthinkable number: More than 600,000 people in the U.S. are known to have died of COVID-19 (NYT)

Group of 20 bipartisan senators back $1.2T infrastructure framework (Axios)

House Set to Vote on Making Juneteenth a National Holiday (Bloomberg)

Man contracts “flesh-eating bacteria” from using roomie’s razor (NYP)

Biden gifts Putin custom aviators at the leaders’ Geneva summit (Politico)

An Olympian, a Failed Drug Test, and an Accused Burrito (WSJ)

— The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
— Ben Crump Is Thriving in Biden’s Washington
— Why It’s Not a Great Time to Be Matt Gaetz
— AOC’s Endorsement Could Change the NYC Mayor’s Race—But It May Never Come
— Trump Has Been Telling People He’s Going to Be President Again
— Is Juan Williams’s Exit From The Five Thanks to a Greg Gutfeld Blood Feud?
— Republicans’ Reason Not to Want to Investigate January 6: They’re to Blame
— Trump’s Inner Circle Is Scrambling at the Likelihood of Criminal Charges
— From the Archive: “60 Minutes Is Going Down”

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