Dive Brief:

• Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was released from jail Friday after serving a sentence related to felony perjury charges, according to records from the New York City Department of Correction. He was released early due to good behavior, according to media reports.
• The former CFO plead guilty to two counts of perjury in March after reaching a plea agreement with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, CFO Dive previously reported. He was sentenced to five months in prison beginning April 10 as part of the plea deal.
• “Allen Weisselberg was released from custody today and has been reunited with his family,” Seth Rosenberg, an attorney for the ex-CFO with Clayman, Rosenberg, Kirshner & Linder LLP, said in an emailed statement sent to CFO Dive.

Dive Insight:

The ex-CFO was charged with five counts of perjury related to testimony given during the New York Attorney General’s civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump, in which Weisselberg was also a named defendant.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in the case required Weisselberg to pay back as ill-gotten gains the $1 million he received from the Trump Organization as part of his severance agreement and he also was barred permanently from serving in the financial control function for any New York company, CFO Dive previously reported.

Trump is currently appealing Engoron’s civil fraud ruling — which requires the former president to pay $464 million in disgorgement and other fees after finding him guilty of fraud — recently filing a motion to recuse Engoron from the case, according to a June ABC news report.

Weisselberg was a “critical player in nearly every instance of fraud,” Engoron said when issuing his ruling, CFO Dive reported at the time.

The time Weisselberg served as part of his perjury sentence represented his second stint in jail. The former finance chief served a previous prison term after pleading guilty to charges of tax fraud in 2022, CFO Dive reported. As part of his 2022 plea, Weisselberg was required to pay back $1.99 million in taxes, penalties and interest and was also sentenced to five years of probation as well as his prison sentence.  

That previous conviction opened the door for Weisselberg to serve time in state prison if convicted of perjury, legal experts previously told CFO Dive.

Weisselberg began serving his second jail sentence just as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal trial against former president Trump was getting underway. The criminal trial concerned hush money payments made by Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, with the court finding Trump guilty on all counts in May according to a press release by the Manhattan DA.

While attorneys floated the possibility of Weisselberg returning to testify during the hush money trial, neither prosecutors nor the president’s defense attorneys called him to the stand, according to reports.