Trump Organization ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg released from Rikers Island after perjury conviction

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has been released from Rikers Island jail for the second time, according to New York City Department of Corrections records.

Back in March, Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty to committing perjury during testimony in the civil fraud case brought against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and some of its top executives.

Weisselberg had admitted to lying about the size of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse and how it came to be overvalued on company financial statements in a July 2023 deposition.

In return for pleading guilty to two counts of perjury, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office agreed not to prosecute him for any other crimes he might have committed in connection with his longtime employment at the Trump Organization.

“Allen Weisselberg accepted responsibility for his conduct and now looks forward to the end of this life-altering experience and to returning to his family and his retirement,” Seth Rosenberg, his attorney, said after his sentencing in the spring.

He was sentenced to five months in Rikers Island on April 10.

On Friday, he walked out of the notorious prison a free man after serving just 100 days for good behavior.

It was Weisselberg’s second stint in the infamous lockup, having served 100 days in jail last year for the non-payment of taxes on $1.7m in company perks, including a rent-free apartment in Manhattan and luxury cars. He was released on April 19 2023.

Weisselberg, who was employed by Trump’s family for nearly 50 years, has so far testified twice during trials involving the former president.

During the civil fraud trial, Weisselberg stayed loyal to his former boss, insisting that Trump had not committed any serious wrongdoing.

In February, New York Justice Arthur Engoron hit Trump and his fellow executives with $450m fines plus interest for systematically misrepresenting the value of the organization’s assets between 2011 and 2021 in order to obtain favorable terms from lenders.

Trump placed a discounted bond one month later in order to appeal the verdict. That appeal is still ongoing.

Weisselberg’s latest stint in prison prevented him from being called to testify in the former president’s criminal hush money trial in New York, which began just five days after his sentencing. The trial ended with Trump being convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels for her silence in the lead-up to the 2016 election about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.

Judge Juan Merchan, presiding over that case, did ask both sides why Weisselberg had not been called as a witness but both said that calling a twice-jailed perjurer might not help their cases.