Trump companies on trial: Prosecutors' opening says case is about 'greed and cheating'

NEW YORK - The criminal tax fraud trial of two of former President Donald Trump's companies opened Monday with prosecutors alleging the firms conspired in a scheme to benefit top employees and save money, and defense lawyers arguing that Trump's top financial lieutenant was solely to blame.

“This case is about greed and cheating, cheating on taxes,” Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffenberg told the jury of four women and eight men in Manhattan Supreme Court. The Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation “paid their already highly paid more by helping them cheat on taxes.”

A chief beneficiary was Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s closest non-family confidant and the longtime chief financial officer of his business, said Hoffenberg. The tax-free perks he received included a luxury Manhattan apartment, parking garage fees, Mercedes-Benz autos and private school tuition payments for Weisselberg’s grandchildren, she said.

If the companies had increased the reported salaries and benefits of Weisselberg and other top employees to pay for the perks, the workers would have had to report the amounts on their taxes, diluting as much as half the value, said Hoffenberg. By making the payments off the books, the employees got 100% of the payments, and the company did not have to boost salaries, she said.

Jury selection: Negative feelings about Trump 'problematic for both sides' as jurors selected in NYC tax fraud trial

“Everybody wins here … everybody but the tax authorities,” said Hoffenberg.

Defense lays blame solely on Weisselberg

However, Susan Necheles, an attorney representing the Trump Corporation, told jurors the prosecution's legal theory of the case "makes no sense." She alleged it was Weisselberg who masterminded significant personal tax-free payments for himself and others, leaving the companies blameless.

"There is no charge in the indictment that the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation ever cheated on corporate taxes," Necheles told the jury. "It started with Allen Weisselberg and ended with Allen Weisselberg. That's what happened here."

Trump, whom Hoffenberg said paid the private school tuition for Weisselberg's grandchildren, is not charged in the case, and is not expected to attend the trial. The companies pleaded not guilty and opted to let a jury decide the case.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 criminal charges in August. Under a plea agreement that will give him a lesser jail sentence, roughly 100 days, he is expected to testify for prosecutors during the trial. That poses a legal handicap the companies’ defense teams are trying to overcome by blaming Weisselberg.

Hoffenberg told jurors that Weisselberg pleaded guilty both to get a lesser sentence and "because he is guilty."

Necheles, however, alleged that Weisselberg agreed to testify against the Trump companies because he and his family had a luxury lifestyle, "and he knew he was in danger of losing it all."

"This case is about individual personal greed," Weisselberg's greed, argued Michael van der Veen, an attorney for the Trump Payroll Corporation who also represented the former president during his second impeachment trial. "Greed, greed made him cheat on his taxes, hide it from his employers and betray a trust built up over 50 years" of working for the Trump family.

Jurors asked to set feelings for Trump aside

The opening statements came after Acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan instructed the jury about trial procedures. His remarks, and the trial, were delayed briefly by the absence of an alternate juror, a parking employee who was late for court during jury screening last week. Merchan dismissed him from the case, with the consent of prosecution and defense lawyers.

The jurors appeared to listen intently during the opening arguments. Repeating requests that she and other defense lawyers delivered during jury selection, Necheles urged the jurors to avoid letting any feelings about Trump influence their verdict.

Don't let the trial "be a referendum on Donald Trump and his followers," said Necheles.

Some of the jurors acknowledged during the screening that they had negative feelings about Trump. But they said they could put those sentiments aside and judge the evidence fairly and impartially.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sat in a back row of the courtroom during the opening statements as Hoffenberg opened the trial of the high-stakes case for his office.

After the close of the opening statements, prosecutors called Jeffrey McConney, a longtime high-ranking Trump organization financial employee, as their first witness. He worked directly under Weisselberg for years and now is the company controller.

Answering questions from Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, McConney confirmed he had spoken with Necheles, one of the defense lawyers, about what questions to expect from prosecutors, what points he should make and what she would ask him on cross-examination.

Steinglass moved to have McConney designated as a hostile witness. The judge denied the application.

Later Steinglass' questioning led McConney to outline payroll protocols at the Trump Corporation. He identified a 2011 spreadsheet that showed Steinglass received a $400,000 bonus through the Trump Payroll Corporation, plus smaller amounts from other Trump entities, including Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and club.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.

Who's on the jury?

The jurors, including at least five persons of color, plus six alternates, were selected last week for the anticipated six-week trial. They underwent extensive screening about their personal and business backgrounds, including whether they have strong feelings about Trump who isn't accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Spoiler alert: Yes, many do.

It took a last-minute swap agreement for attorneys to select the final two alternate jurors on Friday, chiefly because so many of those screened had been ruled out because they really dislike Trump. The government and defense legal teams each agreed to reinstate one candidate who had been vetoed by the other side.

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The panel of prospective jurors represented all walks of life and varying education levels and interests, a broad array of Manhattanites, residents of the county where the Trump companies are based.

Those selected include a Black woman who's a native New Yorker and was the first juror seated. She said she works as the administrator of a dialysis facility at Harlem Hospital, part of New York City's public hospital network.

She told attorneys during pre-trial screening that she never married, and has one daughter and one grandchild. She also said she sometimes watches NY1, the city's 24-hour cable news channel.

The media outlet is a favorite source of information cited by many of the potential jurors. One, who was selected to hear the case, said she retired in 2019 after working for more than 25 years at Bellevue Hospital, another facility in the city's public hospital system. She now takes care of a friend.

Fittingly for a city that's long been a crossroad of the world, one of the jurors is a French-born manager for a corporate investment bank. The rival legal teams had him read his answers to a juror questionnaire from a spot directly in front of the bench, in part because they had difficulty parsing his accent.

Another juror is a custodian who works at Macy's, the famed department store that sponsors the city's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.

And one of the alternate jurors is a college graduate who lives in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood and works at a Trader Joe's supermarket.

She was chosen even though she described some of Trump's public statements as "degrading," but said she could nonetheless keep an open mind and focus on the evidence and the judge's legal instructions.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump companies face opening arguments in criminal tax fraud trial