前总统唐纳德·特朗普称周四公布的对其组织长期任职的首席财务官艾伦·魏斯伯格的刑事指控是“耻辱”和“可耻的”，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，他是一个“了不起的人”。

维斯伯格和特朗普组织不服罪在曼哈顿州最高法院，15项指控与曼哈顿地区检察官办公室总顾问凯里·邓恩所说的“长达15年的税收欺诈计划”有关

邓恩说，据称维斯伯格从该计划中获益170万美元。

“在该计划实施期间，被告安排维斯伯格从特朗普组织获得间接雇员补偿，金额约为176万美元...在某种程度上，公司被告可以避免向税务机关报告。

杰弗逊·西格尔/纽约时报

唐纳德·特朗普长期任职的首席财务官艾伦·魏斯伯格(左二)投降...

周三，在大陪审团投票起诉他和特朗普组织的指控(包括重大盗窃罪、刑事税务欺诈、共谋和伪造商业记录)几小时后，魏斯伯格和他的律师抵达曼哈顿地区检察官办公室。

曼哈顿的一个特别大陪审团周三投票起诉特朗普的公司及其首席财务官。

起诉书称，从2005年开始，维斯伯格使用特朗普公司的银行账户支付公寓租金和水电费，并为家人支付近36万美元的高档私立学校费用和近20万美元的豪华汽车租赁费用。

起诉书称:“韦斯伯格故意将间接补偿款项从他的个人纳税申报表中删除，尽管他知道这些款项代表应纳税收入，并在内部记录中被特朗普公司视为补偿。”

维斯伯格的前儿媳詹妮弗·维斯伯格和艾伦·维斯伯格的儿子巴里结婚14年，与曼哈顿地方检察官合作在调查期间。今年早些时候，她说调查人员问了她关于艾伦·魏斯伯格“在河边大道特朗普广场公寓的赔偿”的问题。

她周四告诉美国广播公司新闻，她“没有意识到起诉的程度”，指的是170万美元的数字，并称这些指控“公正”

“感觉很好，感觉很好，”她说。

“我不想这么说，因为我花了一分钟才咽下去，但我很激动他不得不戴着手铐走进法庭，因为他对我和我的孩子所做的，甚至对他自己的儿子所做的，他从来没有感到一点责任。”

针对指控的消息，特朗普组织在一份声明中表示，“艾伦·魏斯伯格是一位慈爱、忠诚的丈夫、父亲和祖父，在特朗普组织工作了48年。他现在被曼哈顿地区检察官用作焦土中的一枚棋子，试图伤害前总统。地方检察官正在提起一项涉及雇员福利的刑事诉讼，这是国税局或任何其他地方检察官都不会想到的。这不是正义;这是政治。”

特朗普称这项调查是出于政治动机的“政治迫害”，并表示曼哈顿地区检察官Cy Vance和纽约司法部长Letitia James正在向Weisselberg施压，要求他撒谎。当被问及他是否认为魏斯伯格会合作时，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，“不会。”

卡洛·阿莱格里/路透社

档案图片:特朗普组织首席财务官艾伦·魏斯伯格在当时的苏联的注视下.

特朗普的前律师迈克尔·科恩(其国会证词是曼哈顿检察官调查的最初基础)周四告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，他已经与曼哈顿检察官办公室谈了10次，“目前，地区检察官和总检察长办公室正在调查十几个不同的领域。他们中的每一个人都很重要，在每一项不同的调查中都有不同的行为者。”

科恩目前因竞选资金犯罪和逃税正在家中服刑三年。在2019年告诉国会特朗普组织在寻求贷款和与税务当局交谈时对其持有的资产进行了不同的估价。在科恩作证之前，但在他被判刑之后，特朗普在推特上回击科恩称他为“老鼠”

科恩周四猜测，“对特朗普组织的每个人来说，这都是沉重的一天，因为他们都不知道下一个是谁，这是最大的问题。”

Trump calls indictment against his company and long-serving CFO 'shameful' and a 'disgrace'

Former PresidentDonald Trumpcalled the criminal charges unsealed Thursday against his organization's long-serving chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg a "disgrace" and "shameful," telling ABC News he is a "tremendous man."

Weisselberg and the Trump Organizationpleaded not guiltyin Manhattan State Supreme Court to 15 charges related to what the Manhattan District Attorney's Office general counsel Carey Dunn called a "15-year-long tax fraud scheme."

Weisselberg allegedly benefitted from the scheme to the tune of $1.7 million, Dunn said.

"During the operation of the scheme, the defendants arranged for Weisselberg to receive indirect employee compensation from the Trump Organization in the approximate amount of $1.76 million ... in ways that enabled the corporate defendants to avoid reporting it to the tax authorities," the indictment said.

Weisselberg arrived at the Manhattan District Attorney's office with his lawyer hours after a grand jury on Wednesday voted to indict him and the Trump Organization on the charges, which include grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.

A special grand jury in Manhattanvoted Wednesdayto indict Trump's firm and its chief financial officer.

The indictment said that, beginning in 2005, Weisselberg used the Trump corporation's bank account to pay the rent for his apartment and his utility bills, as well as to cover nearly $360,000 in upscale private school payments for his family and nearly $200,000 in luxury car leases.

"Weisselberg intentionally caused the indirect compensation payments to be omitted from his personal tax returns, despite knowing that those payments represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records," said the indictment.

Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law Jennifer Weisselberg, who was married for 14 years to Allen Weisselberg's son Barry,cooperated with the Manhattan DAduring the investigation. Earlier this year, she said investigators had asked her about Allen Weisselberg's "compensation at the apartment at Trump Place on Riverside Boulevard."

She told ABC News on Thursday that she "didn't realize the extent of the indictment," referring to the $1.7 million figure, and called the charges "justice."

"It feels right and it feels good," she said.

"I hate to say this because it took me a minute to ingest it, but I am thrilled that he had to walk [into court] in handcuffs because what he's done to my children and I, what he's even done to his own sons, he's never felt an ounce of accountability."

In response to news of the charges, the Trump Organization said in a statement, "Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organization for 48 years. He is now being used by the Manhattan District Attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President. The District Attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing. This is not justice; this is politics."

Trump has called the investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," and has said that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance and New York Attorney General Letitia James are pressuring Weisselberg to lie against him. When asked if he thought Weisselberg would cooperate, he told ABC News, "No."

Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, whose congressional testimony was the initial basis for the Manhattan DA's investigation, told ABC News on Thursday that he'd spoken to the Manhattan DA's office 10 times, and that "there are more than a dozen different areas that are being investigated at the present moment by the district attorney as well as the attorney general's office. Each and every one of them is significant, and there are different actors in each of the different investigations."

Cohen, who is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in home confinement for campaign finance crimes and tax evasion,told Congress in 2019that the Trump Organization had valued its holdings differently when seeking loans versus when talking to tax authorities. Prior to Cohen testifying, but after he was sentenced,Trump fired back at Cohen on Twitter, calling him a "rat."

Cohen speculated on Thursday that it was a "heavy day for everybody at the Trump Organization because none of them know who's next, and that's the biggest problem."