Jury selection began Monday morning in the Trump Organization's trial on New York state criminal fraud charges, and the judge told potential jurors that former President Donald Trump could be called as a witness in the case.
The company was indicted by a grand jury in July 2021. It faces 14 counts related to allegations it provided untaxed"indirect employee compensation" to executives. The high-end perks, which included in at least one case an apartment and two luxury cars, were described as"secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal taxpayers" by a prosecutor at a hearing last year.
As proceedings got underway at the courthouse in lower Manhattan, the judge said potential witnesses in the case may include Trump, his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump posted about the case on his social media site Monday morning, calling it a"witch hunt" and noting that it is going to trial two weeks before Election Day.
Also among the witnesses expected to be called by the government is former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who in AugustWeisselberg's deal with prosecutors calls for a sentence of five months in New York's Rikers Island jail, followed by five years' probation. He must also pay $1.9 million in back taxes and fines, and testify under oath as a witness in the company's trial.