Trump biographer says CFO will flip on former president if threatened with prison as grand jury convened
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Trump biographer Tim O’Brien has said that the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg will flip on former President Donald Trump if the only other option for Mr Weisselberg is spending time behind bars.
The Manhattan district attorney has convened a grand jury that will decide whether to indict Mr Trump should prosecutors present the panel with evidence of a crime.
Mr Trump accused District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr of “being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors” and called the probe a “witch-hunt”.
Mr O’Brien said Mr Weisselberg could be an important informant that could determine whether any charges are brought at all.
“If it comes to showing loyalty to Donald Trump or a prison term, you know, I don’t think he’s going go to prison,” Mr O’Brien told CNN on Wednesday.
“We know now he’s the subject himself of a criminal investigation. Investigators have clearly been pressuring him and his family members legally. Whether or not he’ll flip is the million-dollar question, but if the investigators have the goods on him and his own liberty is at stake, of course he’ll flip,” the biographer added.
“There’s been a lot of emphasis on Allen Weisselberg,” Mr O’Brien said, “because he knows where all the financial bodies are buried, but the children are steeped in a lot of this”.
“There are other executives inside the Trump Organization whose names have not been made public or have not been discussed very much who I think... may also flip,” Mr O’Brien said.
He added that there’s a trail of evidence “in the hands of other people” in the Trump Organization not only because they are witnesses “but because of emails that they may have”, Mr O’Brien explained.
“While Trump didn’t use emails himself, he used his administrative assistant, Rhona Graff, to communicate with other people and he’s cited in those emails,” the biographer told CNN. “So I assume investigators have her hard drive.”
Mr O’Brien said that “no deal got done at the Trump Organization without the approval” of Mr Trump, Mr Weisselberg, and Jason Greenblatt. Mr Greenblatt served as the in-house counsel at the Trump Organization, and later as special envoy in the Middle East while Mr Trump was in the White House.
“There’s no indication anywhere that Jason Greenblatt has done anything wrong or he’s thought to have done anything wrong,” Mr O’Brien told CNN. “But he’s clearly a person with knowledge that I assume investigators will be just as interested in as Allen Weisselberg.”
The Independent has reached out to Mr Trump and the Trump Organization for comment.
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