While Biden is following China-Taiwan affair, Trump is worried by Allen Weisselberg 's case. On Thursday, the former chief financial officer of Donald Trump 's business, admitted to committing more than a dozen offenses, including grand theft and criminal tax fraud as CNN reported.

Authorities in New York charged Weisselberg and the Trump Organization with concealing specific cash rewards as part of what they called a years-long tax avoidance plan when they indicted them last year. The issue is a part of the swirling legal controversy that continues to surround Trump and his close associates.

Local, state and federal authorities are looking into everything from his name-brand company to how he has handled top-secret government materials since leaving office.

Weisselberg, 75, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom and admitted his involvement in the events described by the prosecution. He also volunteered to testify if necessary at the company's ongoing trial. Weisselberg, a longtime friend and confidant of "orange-colored, media-long-present" Trump, agreed to a Plea deal in which he would serve five months in prison and then undergo five years of probation.

During the hearing, Weisselberg didn't say anything beyond "yes" to confirm his actions and guilt on all counts. The former president's namesake company, which according to the prosecution, engaged in "a vast and ingenious unlawful payments system," could suffer from his future evidence.

The district attorney's office claims that Weisselberg's sentence is contingent upon him "testifying truthfully" during the trial for the Trump Company. According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the plea deal "clearly implicates" the Trump Organization in a "broad range of criminal activities.

"Weisselberg "will spend time in prison in addition, thanks to the extraordinarily hard work and dedication of the team prosecuting this case," Bragg added. "We are eager to present evidence in court to refute the Trump Organization".

The former president and people close to him have attacked the case, linking it to the tangle of other inquiries and vigilance that he frequently refers to as a planned "witch hunt" by Democrats who don't like him.

His business referred to Weisselberg as "a wonderful and honorable guy who, for the past four years, has been pursued, persecuted and threatened by law enforcement, particularly the Manhattan District Attorney, in their never-ending, politically driven effort to get President Trump".

On Monday, Weisselberg's 75th birthday, Weisselberg's attorney Nicholas Gravante Jr., referred that a plea agreement was anticipated. Then, he was informed that he was not anticipated to assist with an ongoing investigation of the former president.

According to CNN, Weisselberg's indictment in July 2021 was a part of an effort to secure his cooperation against Trump. Weisselberg's attorney also said in a statement: "Mr.

Weisselberg decided to enter a plea of guilty today to put an end to this lawsuit and the years-long legal and personal horrors it has caused for him and his family."

In response to his office's inquiry against Trump, Bragg, who assumed office earlier this year, has been under public pressure. After realizing that Bragg would not permit them to seek an indictment against the former president, two experienced prosecutors who were involved in the case quit in protest. In the spring, Bragg said in a public statement that the inquiry was ongoing, and on Thursday, his office reaffirmed that remark.

The former president is under increasing legal scrutiny, including investigations into attempts to rig the 2020 election, his handling of classified documents after leaving office, his taxes, and his involvement in the riot at the U.S.

Weisselberg's plea came the same day as a hearing in South Florida on whether an affidavit provided before an FBI search of Trump's residence might be made public, underscoring the variety of inquiries and legal peril facing the former president and others in his orbit.

For Weisselberg, who has spent almost 50 years working for the Trump family, the plea agreement indicates what appears to be the conclusion of his criminal case and avoids a trial in the middle of Manhattan, which would have probably garnered a lot of media attention. Weisselberg was listed as "one of the major individual benefactors" of what the prosecution claimed to be a complex, protracted plan in the indictment from the previous year.

According to the indictment, Weisselberg and his wife's Mercedes-Benz car leases were financed by the Trump Organization, who also paid the rent and utilities for their Manhattan apartment, but they failed to declare this income as income and pay the required taxes. He allegedly "deliberately withheld" his remuneration from his tax forms, according to the indictment.

Weisselberg allegedly concealed from tax authorities a total of $1.7 million in his remuneration between the years of 2005 and 2017, evading "hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal, state, and municipal taxes," according to the indictment.