Allen Weisselberg, who is poised to plead guilty in a tax scheme today, has been called a loyal soldier to Donald Trump.

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By James Barron

We’ll look at the plea deal for a Trump Organization loyalist who could have been sentenced to 15 years in jail. We’ll also hear from a violinist from Ukraine who cherished time in Manhattan before a couple of concerts.

Allen Weisselberg’s ex-wife once said that he and Donald Trump were like Batman and Robin. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, compared them to Frick and Frack, while a former Trump executive called Weisselberg an unquestionably loyal “soldier” who was “good at doing what Donald wanted him to do.”

Today Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty in a tax scheme involving the Trump Organization, where he was a top executive for years. Prosecutors said he did not report perks like leased Mercedes-Benzes, rent on an apartment on the Upper West Side and private school tuition for his grandchildren — perks that were tracked on spreadsheets within the Trump Organization.

The plea deal that Weisselberg’s lawyers agreed to will not require him to cooperate with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on its investigation of the former president, who has not been accused of wrongdoing.

But it will require him to testify at the company’s trial in the fall, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That would put the company at a disadvantage because it will face many of the same charges that Weisselberg is acknowledging. Even though Weisselberg is not expected to implicate the Trumps, his testimony would lend credence to the allegations, undercutting the company’s lawyers’ efforts to claim that no crime was committed.

Weisselberg’s plea negotiations became known last week after a judge declined to throw out the criminal case against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization. The New York Times reported on Monday that his lawyers and prosecutors were close to an agreement on it, and CNN reported Wednesday that he had agreed to testify at the Trump Organization’s trial. His lawyers, Nicholas Gravante Jr. and Mary Mulligan, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which sought the indictments.

Under the plea deal, Weisselberg must acknowledge 15 felonies that he was charged with in an indictment made public last year. Weisselberg was accused of participating in a scheme to provide Trump Organization executives with off-the-books perks. Weisselberg himself avoided paying taxes on $1.76 million of income over the last 15 years, the prosecutors said.

Prosecutors had hoped they could press Weisselberg to take the stand against Trump. But Weisselberg refused to sit down with them even as his lawyers worked out the potential plea deal, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The prosecutors had essentially accused him of conspiring with the Trump Organization, which he will have to acknowledge at the hearing today.

Weisselberg’s willingness to plead guilty and go to prison points to his allegiance to the Trumps, for whom he worked for almost 50 years. At the company’s trial in the fall, Trump’s lawyers could assert that Weisselberg accepted the plea to avoid a harsher sentence. Weisselberg could have faced up to 15 years in prison plus financial penalties if he had been convicted by a jury. Instead, he is expected to be sentenced to five months in jail under the plea deal. With time credited for good behavior, he is likely to spend about 100 days behind bars.

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