After raising their sons on Long Island, Mr. Weisselberg and his wife moved to a Trump-branded building on Manhattan’s West Side, where they lived rent-free for years. He bought a house in South Florida, not far from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort, and was traveling back and forth on Mr. Trump’s jet for the weekend. His older son, Barry, worked for the company that Wollman Rink ran in Central Park, and acted as the DJ for Mr. Trump’s Christmas parties, which Allen Weisselberg had reportedly left out on the dance floor. In 2004, Mr. Weisselberg appeared on an episode of “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump’s reality television show.
“They’re like Batman and Robin,” said Barry Weisselberg’s ex-wife Jennifer, who assisted Mr. Vance’s investigation into a controversial divorce. “You are a team. You’re not the best of friends. They don’t spend all their time together, but the world was so closed off for everyone that he didn’t know anything else. “
Mr Weisselberg was so closely interwoven with the Trump organization that when Mr Trump moved into the White House in 2017, he entrusted Mr Weisselberg with the management of his company along with the adult sons of the former President. His income reflected his importance: Between 2007 and 2017, his total salary averaged nearly $ 800,000 per year; In 2018, he earned more than $ 977,000 in salary and deferred earnings, according to tax return data received by the New York Times as part of an investigation published last year.
One of Mr. Weisselberg’s attorneys, Mary E. Mulligan, declined to comment. A Trump organization lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
Even before the indictment, Mr. Weisselberg had been publicly drawn into Mr. Trump’s controversies and scandals in recent years, including investigations into donation abuse by the Donald J. Trump Foundation and payments to women on Mr. Trump’s behalf to purchase their silence Affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.
Former Trump attorney Michael D. Cohen testified in Congress that Mr. Weisselberg helped organize a cover-up to reimburse him for a payment of $ 130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and that they worked together incorrect valuations of the company’s real estate holdings in order to meet Mr. Trump’s needs at all times.