Trump's Family Business, CFO Are Expected To Be Charged On Thursday In New York

The Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to bring charges against former President Donald Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer on Thursday, NPR has confirmed.

CFO Allen Weisselberg, who oversaw day-to-day management of the Trump Organization while the former president was in the White House, is expected to face criminal charges for allegedly paying employees off the books to avoid taxes. Among the benefits the Trump Organization is said to have paid for are cars, apartments and private school tuition.

Trump has denied wrongdoing. Weisselberg's personal lawyer, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment on the expected indictment. The Trump Organization's attorneys and Trump's personal attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation of possible protracted criminal fraud by the Trump Organization. Vance launched the probe around the time Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance charges tied to "hush money" used to silence women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump.

In 2019, the New York state attorney general's office started a separate investigation into Trump's real estate transactions that has since been working in cooperation with Vance's probe.

In recent months, investigators have been focusing on non-cash payments made to Weisselberg and other top officials in Trump's companies.

The expected timing of the charges was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. [Copyright 2021 NPR]