Trump Org CFO's ex-daughter-in-law has 'several boxes of documents' left to give prosecutors, her lawyer says
- Jennifer Weisselberg has more documents to give prosecutors, her lawyer said.
- She's the ex-wife of a Trump Org employee and cooperating with investigations into Trump's finances.
- Weisselberg hired a former top official in the Manhattan DA's office to sift through the documents.
Jennifer Weisselberg, a cooperating witness in investigations into former President Donald Trump's finances, still has "several boxes of materials" she has yet to give prosecutors, her lawyer told Insider.
The attorney, Duncan Levin, said in an interview that he was hired to conduct an analysis of the reams of documents Weisselberg has, which include Trump Organization financial records and show how intertwined the company is with the Weisselberg family's finances.
"We're basically culling through it methodically, and we will turn over documents and information to law enforcement as is helpful," Levin said.
Weisselberg has been speaking with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the New York attorney general's office as they investigate the finances of both Trump and the Trump Organization. The offices appear to be running parallel investigations into whether the former president and his company misrepresented the values of properties and other assets in order to pay less in taxes and procure favorable loan terms.
Weisselberg obtained the documents through a contentious divorce from Barry Weisselberg, whom she was married to between 2014 and 2018, after a judge forced him to submit for a deposition and subpoenaed his financial information. Barry Weisselberg is the son of Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization who also manages the Trump family's personal finances, and is a key Trump Organization employee in his own right as the manager of the company-run Wollman Rink in New York's Central Park.
Levin, a former top official in Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office, is determining which documents might be relevant for the investigations before handing them over.
"She has joint-bank-account information, credit cards, tax records, tax returns - that's the meat of what we're looking at to see what types of patterns we might be able to find," Levin said.
Trump has disparaged the investigations and called them politically motivated. Allen Weisselberg's attorney has declined to comment on his role in the investigations.
Jennifer Weisselberg's lawyer is an expert in financial fraud
In an earlier interview with Insider, Jennifer Weisselberg said she gave "seven boxes of documents" to investigators in both offices and that she had been cooperating with them since the fall.
She said investigators she spoke with appeared to be interested in information about the Trump Organization's finances, how the company operated, and in "flipping" her former father-in-law into becoming a cooperating witness himself.
"They picked up documents many times. They ended up taking seven boxes of my documents and scanning them, going through them," she said, adding that "they took depositions, they took checks, routing numbers, bank-account" information, and other records.
Vance's investigation in particular appears to be heating up. Shortly after Trump left office, Vance hired Mark Pomerantz, a seasoned prosecutor of white-collar crimes and mob bosses, to help with the investigation. Pomerantz has interviewed Jennifer Weisselberg several times, she told Insider. And Vance is widely expected to bring indictments before he leaves office at the end of this year.
"It was my distinct impression that things are heating up and that this investigation is of intense focus for prosecutors at the DA's office," Levin said. "They are staffed up and ramped up to investigate every aspect of this that they can."
Levin, now a partner with his firm Tucker Levin PLLC, worked as the head of the asset-forfeiture division for Vance between 2011 and 2014. Before that, he held positions as a prosecutor at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and in private practice with Vance, along with an earlier stint at the Manhattan DA's office under Vance's predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.
Levin said he and a forensic accountant were sorting through the remaining documents in Weisselberg's possession.
"I've been building complex financial-fraud cases for 20 years now," Levin said. "I have been in close contact with the prosecutors' offices. We have indicated to them that we are going through these documents in a very sophisticated way."
Levin said the documents he had reviewed showed just how intertwined the Trump Organization's finances were with the Weisselberg family's finances. According to Bloomberg News and a previous Insider interview with Jennifer Weisselberg, Allen Weisselberg ensured his own family members got perks like apartment buildings and tuition payments through the Trump Organization - benefits that are now being scrutinized by prosecutors.
"I can't comment on any specific documents that may or may not belong to the Trump Organization, but I can say that the source of funds for their lifestyle was largely from the Trump Organization," Levin said.
Jennifer Weisselberg previously told Insider the Trump Organization would give those perks in lieu of raises as a way to control employees.
"They want you to do crimes and not talk about it and don't leave," she said. "It's so controlling."