Manhattan prosecutors are getting active help flipping Trump's CFO from his former daughter-in-law

(Image credit: Screenshot/The Washington Post)

published 9 April 2021

Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, wheeled three boxes of financial records and a laptop from her Manhattan apartment building to a black Jeep, sending them to Manhattan prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump and his family business. Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg, also a Trump Organization employee, from 2004 to 2018. She obtained their documents, subpoenaed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., in the divorce proceedings.

Allen Weisselberg is the senior-most Trump Organization employee who isn't a Trump. "In complex investigations such as those into Trump's business activities, prosecutors routinely seek evidence of wrongdoing by subordinates as a means to elicit their cooperation and expose damaging information about their bosses," the Post reports, adding that a person with knowledge of Vance's investigation said he is indeed trying to "flip" Weisselberg.

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Vance's office also has hired a special prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, and the forensic accounting firm FTI Consulting to help with the Trump investigation. FTI is helping sift through millions of pages of Trump financial and accounting records. One of FTI's accountants is Morgan Magionos, a former FBI fraud examiner and accountant who was key to securing the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, CNN reports. "At Manafort's trial, Magionos testified that she uncovered several foreign bank accounts linked to Manafort and traced $15 million in transfers that Manafort used to fund his personal lifestyle, including an ostrich-skin jacket and landscaping services for his home in the Hamptons."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.