For the Trump Organization to be found guilty, prosecutors must prove top executives had “some intent” to help the company in addition to enriching themselves.
Donald Trump knew about a 15-year tax fraud carried out by longtime executives at his namesake company, a prosecutor argued Friday, saying the illegal activity ended when the company cleaned up its business practices around the time Trump entered the White House.
At the close of the Trump Organization’s criminal trial, prosecutors introduced the idea that Trump had knowledge of crimes committed by his top deputies. The claim was a way of supporting their theory that the real estate, hospitality and golf company is criminally culpable for and benefited from tax cheating.
“This whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant was just not real,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said during his summation. He asked jurors, who are likely to begin deliberations in the case on Monday, to dismiss the idea that executives who committed crimes had simply gone “rogue.”
At the same time, Steinglass also told the jury that it “doesn’t matter” whether they believe Trump knew about the fraud, because the former president is not considered a conspirator in the case.
Trump has not been charged with wrongdoing. Allen Weisselberg — his former chief financial officer and a Trump family employee for a half-century — pleaded guilty to fraud this summer. Testimony about the fraud from Weisselberg and Trump Organization comptroller Jeffrey McConney — who was granted immunity automatically by state law when he appeared before the grand jury — were key elements of the prosecution’s case.
Prosecutors say the company profited from the fraud in various ways, including by cutting down its payroll costs and by saving on its Medicare tax burden.
For the company to be found guilty of wrongdoing and fined up to $1.
