In closing arguments in the Trump Organization’s criminal trial on tax avoidance charges, New York State prosecutors told jurors that Donald Trump himself knew about the scheme to provide perks to executives to circumvent taxes obligations, the Washington Post reports.
“This whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant was just not real,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass argued, telling the jury that Trump’s knowledge of this was more than just corporate CFO Allen Weisselberg going rogue. In a plea deal, Weisselberg testified in the trial for a reduced sentence of five months at Rikers Island.
Prosecutors allege the company created a policy of compensating executives in the company by having either the company or Trump himself pay high-dollar routine expenses–like rent for a Manhattan apartment or tuition for a grandchild–to avoid having the income reported by the recipient and also having the company have to pay its share of taxes.