Former Trump biographer Tim O’Brien warned that the Manhattan District Attorney’s growing pressure on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is reminiscent of the strategy federal prosecutors used to convict notorious mobster Al Capone.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, O’Brien offered his take on a New York Times report from Monday that detailed how the Manhattan DA is scrutinizing Trump’s longtime financial chief to probe possible criminal violations by the company, from misrepresenting property values to tax fraud.
“Tim, you know what Weisselberg knows,” host Nicolle Wallace asked. “What would the prosecutors find out?”
“They would find out what all of those hundreds of LLCs that the Trump Organization established under Allen Weisselberg’s watchful eye are being used for,” O’Brien answered. They would find out why properties were valued one way for tax collectors and another way for insurers and banks. Allen Weisselberg — you know, Al Capone ultimately went down because they got his accountant, and the accountant is the one who showed federal investigators how Capone’s organization was cooking its books.”
“This is about the most vulnerable person you could put in the crosshairs around Donald Trump,” O’Brien added. “There was no deal that went through the Trump Organization of significance that Allen Weisselberg didn’t look at. There was no financing arrangement that he didn’t give his blessing to. And what you’re seeing now is a classic prosecutorial strategy to the extent that they’re doing more than merely looking at Allen Weisselberg and they’re pondering prosecuting Allen Weisselberg, that means Allen Weisselberg might flip, and if Allen Weisselberg flips, you’re going to see a number of dominos very quickly tip over inside the Trump Organization, and it’s going to present, I think, a lot of legal peril to Donald Trump.”
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