By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was charged with perjury and agreed to plead guilty, a judge said on Monday, the latest legal woe for former U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime loyal deputy.
Weisselberg agreed to plead guilty to two perjury counts, Judge Laurie Peterson said in a Manhattan criminal court hearing. He was led into the courtroom in handcuffs after surrendering to authorities earlier on Monday.
Prosecutors are recommending Weisselberg be sentenced to five months in jail, prosecutor Gary Fishman said.
The perjury charges stem from his testimony in a civil fraud trial against Trump, Fishman said.
Weisselberg, 76, said on the witness stand in October that he was not involved in an incorrect valuation of Trump's Manhattan penthouse - one of a series of misleading financial statements that New York state Attorney General Letitia James said amounted to a fraudulent effort to dupe lenders.
Forbes later published a report accusing Weisselberg of lying on the stand. The magazine said a review of old emails and notes showed he sought to convince its reporters over several years that the apartment was worth more than it truly was.
Trump's 2015 financial statement valued the unit at $327 million based on an estimate that it was 30,000 square feet, nearly three times its actual size. James called the valuation "absurd."
He was ordered last month to pay $1.1 million including interest as Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was found liable for manipulating his net worth in a civil fraud case brought by New York state's attorney general.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the trial part of a political witchhunt aimed at derailing his third run for the White House.
Weisselberg's plea comes ahead of Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan starting March 25 on charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Trump, who faces three other criminal indictments related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his handling of government documents, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
As part of the agreement, Weisselberg will admit he lied during his testimony and could concede to misleading investigators from the New York attorney general's office, the New York Times said. Weisselberg is not expected to cooperate against the former president, the Times said.
Weisselberg worked for the former president's family for half a century.
He spent around three months in New York's Rikers Island jail in 2023 after pleading guilty to participating in a 15-year tax fraud scheme at the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg had testified at the Trump Organization's 2022 trial that found the company guilty of all charges and fined $1.6 million. Trump was not charged in that case.
(Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu, David Ljunggren and Chizu Nomiyama)
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