NEW YORK (AP) — The defense rested Monday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial after a contentious day in court, putting the case involving former President Donald Trump’s real estate empire on track for deliberations next week.
Trump Organization lawyers contend that Manhattan prosecutors are seeking to punish the company for longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg’s scheme to avoid personal income taxes on company-paid perks such as an apartment and luxury cars.
The defense insists that neither Trump nor the Trump family knew about Weisselberg’s 15-year scheme as it was happening and that the company didn’t benefit from his actions. Echoing Trump’s recent social media posts, the company’s lawyers suggested that its longtime accountant, Donald Bender, shared some blame for not catching the fraud.
The defense rested after calling just two witnesses: Bender, whom company lawyers sought to discredit and treat as a hostile witness, and a paralegal who appeared briefly to verify tax information referenced in a 2013 email that Weisselberg sent to Bender.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with jurors expected to begin deliberating on Monday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said. Prosecutors said they might spend four or five hours summarizing the complex, numbers-rich case for jurors. Defense lawyers said they’ll likely need about three or four hours.
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The lawyers and judge will meet Tuesday to finalize how Merchan…
