Politics- The jury has found Donald Trump's real-estate company criminally liable for its executives' tax fraud.
- To acquit, jurors needed to believe that Trump's two top financial executives testified truthfully.
Former President Donald Trump's real-estate empire is criminally liable for the admitted tax frauds of its two top financial executives, a Manhattan jury found Tuesday afternoon.
The verdict was a fast and decisive one, following just 10 hours of deliberations over two days, and capping a total six-week trial.
The verdict means Trump's company now risks up to $1.6 million in penalties when it is sentenced on January 13.
The company also now has felony status, meaning a big black eye as Trump makes his third run for president.
"It was common sense. Both sides deserved a fair chance," a male juror told Insider of the verdict, as he left the courthouse with fellow jurors.
Another male juror told Insider that the verdict was not based on any single witness or piece of evidence. "It came down to a lot of things," he said.
They declined to comment further — but several nodded "Yes," when asked if they were worn out by the process.
"Exactly!" one said of being exhausted.
Defense lawyers promised to appeal the verdict; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg thanked the jury and the prosecution team.
"The former president's companies now stand convicted of crimes," Bragg told reporters. "That is consequential. It underscores that in Manhattan, we have one standard of justice for all."
Bragg turned away from reporters without answering a final, shouted question: "Do you regret not going after Donald Trump?"
Trump himself was not on trial. Instead, two Trump subsidiaries faced a total of nine tax-fraud counts.
The jury found that both subsidiaries — the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation, both doing business as Trump Organization — were complicit in a decade-long tax-dodge scheme admittedly run by ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg and top payroll executive Jeffrey McConney.
In order to convict, the jury of four women and eight men needed to find that Weisselberg and McConney ran the scheme not only to save on personal taxes, but to benefit the company as well.
Both Weisselberg and McConney had denied on the stand that they had any motive beyond their own personal gain.
Without that admission, there was no direct evidence that Weisselberg and McConney indeed intended to benefit the company, a vital element under New York corporate liability law.
However, there was a breadth of circumstantial evidence that the two money men had more than lining their own pockets in mind.
Dozens of trial exhibits showed Trump or his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., had signed off on some of the luxury apartments, free Mercedes vehicles, pricey private school tuition payments and other tax-free "perks" involved in the scheme.
These perks were carefully logged in internal company records, but were left off of the company's W-2 tax forms.
Jurors also heard that in the years before he left for Washington in 2017, Trump was a micromanager, insisting on approving and signing any checks in excess of $2,500.
The conviction indicates that the jury believed Weisselberg lied on the stand when he testified that he had no intention to help anyone beyond himself in the scheme.
But Weisselberg's lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, Jr., called Weisselberg's testimony a success.
"His only obligation relating to the trial was that he testify truthfully," Gravante told Insider. "And clearly, he did."
"This was a case about greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law," Bragg added in an extended, post-verdict statement.
"For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes.
"Today's verdict holds these Trump companies accountable for their long-running criminal scheme, in addition to Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who has pled guilty, testified at trial and will now be sentenced to serve time in jail."