Trump Says Weisselberg Is ‘Wonderful Guy’ Who Didn’t Betray Him
Weisselberg has worked for Trump family for more than 40 years.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, didn’t betray him when he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation into Michael Cohen.
“100 percent he didn’t,” Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News, when asked whether Weisselberg had turned on him or put him in legal jeopardy. “He’s a wonderful guy,” adding that the cooperation was related to “a very limited period of time.”
Trump’s comments were his first public remarks about Weisselberg since news broke last week that he had received immunity in a federal investigation into the finances of Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer.
Weisselberg’s immunity is tied to his cooperation with the probe into payments facilitated by Cohen to two women who threatened to go public with their claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. The Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen the $130,000 he paid to the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels, according to court records.
Cohen pleaded guilty to two campaign finance crimes concerning the payments, which he said were related to the 2016 election. He told the court that Trump had directed him to help make illegal hush-money payments. Trump, who has denied the alleged affairs, has yet to give a clear explanation of his involvement in the payments.
At least three employees were involved in the effort. Weisselberg, according to the Wall Street Journal, was one of them.
Weisselberg’s importance to the president eclipses his title. After more than 40 years serving the Trump family, including Donald’s father, Fred, he’s the only person not named Trump whom the president trusts with his money. He’s negotiated Trump’s loans, is a co-signer on his accounts, helps arrange his taxes, and, with Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric, oversees the trust that holds all the president’s assets.
He “knows of every dime that leaves the building,” Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie wrote of Weisselberg last year in a book about their time running Trump’s presidential campaign.
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--With assistance from Shahien Nasiripour, Caleb Melby and Toluse Olorunnipa.
To contact the reporters on this story: John Micklethwait in Washington at micklethwait@bloomberg.net;Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Joshua Gallu
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