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One of Donald J. Trumps longtime lieutenants, Allen H. Weisselberg, was recently released from the notorious Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty to a tax fraud scheme. Yet Mr. Weisselbergs legal troubles are far from over.

The Manhattan district attorneys office is now considering a new round of criminal charges against Mr. Weisselberg, 75, and this time he could be charged with perjury, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The threat of new charges represents the latest effort in a two-year campaign to persuade Mr. Weisselberg to testify against Mr. Trump. And it comes at a crucial time, just weeks after the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, unveiled an indictment of the former president.

Mr. Weisselberg has so far refused to turn against his former boss, but the prosecutors recently ramped up the pressure, warning his lawyers that they might bring the perjury charges if their client declined to testify against Mr. Trump, two of the people said.

The potential perjury charges stem fromstatements Mr. Weisselberg made under oath during a 2020 interview with the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who was conducting her own separate civil investigation into Mr. Trump and his family business. It is not clear which part of his testimony raised red flags for prosecutors and Ms. James, or how Mr. Bragg might prove that Mr. Weisselberg intentionally made a false statement.

As a trusted financial gatekeeper to Mr. Trumps family for nearly a half-century, Mr. Weisselberg was privy to behind-the-scenes machinations that could make him a valuable witness on several fronts.

He could help Mr. Bragg in the case unveiled against Mr. Trump last month which stems from a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign as well as with a separate investigation into whether Mr. Trump fraudulently inflated his own annual financial statements. Ms. Jamess office is participating in that ongoing investigation.

If Mr. Weisselberg refuses to cooperate, he could face a range of new charges. In addition to pursuing the perjury case, the prosecutors have indicated to his lawyers that they are considering unrelated insurance fraud charges against him.

They also appear to be weighing whether to charge Mr. Weisselberg with inflating the numbers on Mr. Trumps financial statements. The prosecutors recently sought to interview one of Mr. Weisselbergs former Trump Organization colleagues, who might be able to shed light on his involvement in crafting the annual statements, the people said.

There is no sign that Mr. Weisselberg, who recently retired from the Trump Organization with a hefty payout, is close to breaking, or that charges are imminent. But the latest prosecutorial pressure campaign may raise questions about the fairness of threatening a man of advanced age who just got out of jail.

The guy has already been prosecuted and served his time, and hes 75 years old, said Daniel J. Horwitz, a criminal defense lawyer who served in the district attorneys office for nearly a decade. Most defense lawyers are going to scratch their heads and say, Is this fair?

But Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University School of Law, said, There would be nothing improper about charging Mr. Weisselberg a second time with different crimes.

Mr. Weisselbergs lawyer, Seth L. Rosenberg, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg and a lawyer for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Bragg is not the only prosecutor scrutinizing Mr. Trump. The former president might also face criminal charges in Georgia, where a local prosecutor is examining his effort to undo the 2020 election results, and in Washington, where federal prosecutors are investigating his handling of classified documents, among other matters.

The possibility of new criminal charges from Mr. Bragg marks a return to an earlier focus of the criminal investigation into the former president.

When Mr. Bragg took office in January 2022, prosecutors in his office were already presenting evidence to a grand jury about Mr. Trumps financial statements. His predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who did not seek re-election, had authorized the prosecutors to move forward with the case.

But Mr. Bragg soon became skeptical, concerned that they lacked enough evidence to demonstrate Mr. Trumps intent to falsify the statements, a key element of proving the case. Mr. Bragg also lacked confidence in relying on the testimony of Michael D. Cohen, a former fixer for Mr. Trump who was directly involved in the hush-money deal but played a lesser role in Mr. Trumps financial statements.

Enter Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organizations former chief financial officer, a role that provided him a front-row seat to the creation of the financial statements.

The district attorneys first pressure campaign against Mr. Weisselberg peaked in the summer of 2021, when Mr. Vance, unable to secure Mr. Weisselbergs assistance, brought criminal charges against him and the Trump Organization in the tax fraud case. Despite refusing to implicate Mr. Trump personally, Mr. Weisselberg ultimately pleaded guilty and testified against the Trump Organization at its trial last year.

The company, which continues to pay for his lawyers, was convicted. And Mr. Weisselberg, as part of a plea deal, served 100 days in the Rikers Island jail.

Now, Mr. Weisselbergs release from jail, rather than representing a reprieve, is expected to deliver him back into the jaws of the same predicament: He can turn on Mr. Trump, or potentially spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Although perjury is a low-level felony, Mr. Weisselberg could still face significant prison time. The judge who has overseen Trump-related cases, Juan Merchan, sentenced Mr. Weisselberg to 100 days in Rikers Island in the tax fraud case and warned him that he typically imposes tougher sentences in white-collar cases.

Even if Mr. Weisselberg were to turn on Mr. Trump, the former presidents lawyers have potential defenses to a case built around the financial statements. Those annual statements, which assigned values to Mr. Trumps hotels, golf clubs and other assets, contained disclaimers noting that the values were unaudited estimates. And in general, assigning values to real estate is a subjective process, not an exact science.

Yet Mr. Vance felt that the financial statements case was strong, even without Mr. Weisselbergs cooperation, leading him to authorize the grand jury presentation before he left office at the end of 2021. The two lead prosecutors on the case, Mark Pomerantz and Carey R. Dunne, continued that presentation in the early days of Mr. Braggs tenure.

When Mr. Bragg halted the presentation in February of last year, it prompted Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne to resign and set off a media and political uproar that engulfed Mr. Braggs early tenure.

But the investigation continued.

As one group of prosecutors pushed forward with the case centering on a hush-money payment to a porn star the one for which Mr. Trump was recently indicted a separate group continued to investigate Mr. Trumps financial statements.

While the hush case is moving ahead with Mr. Cohen as the prosecutions star witness, Mr. Bragg has been reluctant to charge Mr. Trump for his financial statements without Mr. Weisselberg on board.

And so, while Mr. Weisselberg was behind bars, Mr. Braggs prosecutors told his lawyer that he might face charges in the unrelated insurance fraud inquiry, The Times reported early this year. That inquiry has focused on whether Mr. Weisselberg lied to an insurance company by claiming that the value of the Trump Organizations real estate holdings had been assessed by an independent appraiser, when in fact they had not been.

In recent weeks, the prosecutors broadened their focus to include the potential perjury charge, which would center on Mr. Weisselbergs 2020 interview with Ms. Jamess investigators, the people with knowledge of the matter said. Last year, Ms. James sued Mr. Trump and Mr. Weisselberg for overstating the former presidents net worth by billions of dollars. (Her investigators interviewed Mr. Weisselberg again this month, as Ms. Jamess lawsuit against him and Mr. Trump proceeds.)

In 2020, Ms. Jamess investigators questioned Mr. Weisselberg about some significant errors in Mr. Trumps financial statements. At one point during the interview, court records show, Mr. Weisselberg acknowledged that the Trump Organization had overvalued Mr. Trumps penthouse apartment in Trump Tower by give or take $200 million.

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Trump Ally Could Face Perjury Charge if He Doesn't Cooperate With D.A. - The New York Times

Yet Trump remains popular with Republican voters and is the clear frontrunner to win the GOP nomination in 2024. What explains this ongoing dilemma, where Republicans have been dragged down by Trump, but cant seem to quit him?

For years, political scientists have judged presidents on their strength as party leaders how theyve been able to grow a coalition and cement a majority but Trump is changing the way we think about politics.

Instead, it now seems that Trump is not so much a party leader, but a movement figure. This might seem like the kind of distinction that only academics care about. But its key to understanding the current state of American politics, and the dilemmas now facing GOP leaders as the MAGA movement threatens to completely overtake the Republican Party itself.

Social movements, on the right or the left, engage the faithful the most ideological and committed to the cause. Making dramatic change in politics or society typically requires challenging the institutions and systems currently in place, including the existing political parties.

For Trump supporters and the MAGA movement, the indictment in New York, for instance, is not just evidence of partisan warfare; to them, its also evidence of a corrupt system where politics unduly influences law, and ordinary people like them are excluded and persecuted. Undermining such a system is a goal, not a drawback.

Movement adherents are in a weird relationship with both parties and presidents. Movements want fundamental change. Parties and presidents are usually more cautious: Presidents are charged with preserving the constitution, and parties tend to be risk-averse and protective of a winning election coalition.

Under normal circumstances, presidents and parties are caught in a cycle of mutual dependence, while sometimes working at odds with each other.

Presidents need parties to campaign and build support. Parties need presidents to attain their policy goals and hold on to power. But their incentives and objectives arent always aligned. Presidents are interested in their own careers and legacies, and parties are focused on both longer-term and, sometimes, more local concerns, and typically consist of people who want to expand the tent and grow the coalition.

In some ways, Trump changed all of that. While not completely severing the relationship between party and president, Trump largely ignored the partys needs, both electorally and legislatively. Instead, he focused on building his own movement within the party. That made him a different kind of president.

Trump did help remake the GOP coalition, but he didnt ultimately grow it. While Republicans won more voters of color than at the partys low point in the Barack Obama years, they still cast their ballots in large numbers for Democrats. The shift by white working-class voters to the GOP sped up under Trump, though that was offset by more middle- and upper-class white voters swinging to the Democrats. Trump has made it far more difficult for Republicans to win in the suburbs.

Former President Donald Trump focused on building his own movement within the Republican party.|Spencer Platt/Getty Images

But as MAGA adherents seized control of the GOP, it became clear that Republican primary voters mostly didnt care, even as it cost the party. In the 2022 midterms, Trump-backed MAGA candidates like Kari Lake and other swing-state politicians who were the most vocal in their denials of the 2020 election result, and the loosest in their commitments to basic democratic institutions and values, were the ones who lost races that traditional Republicans might have won.

The 2022 elections offered some of the strongest evidence that Trump was a movement president rather than a party leader. His inclination to back a MAGA foot soldier who embraces his grievances and election lies reveals his priorities; hes more intent on channeling the energies of his far-right base than appealing to swing voters or even party regulars.

Trump hasnt been a complete failure as a party leader. He remade the GOP in his image and scared off dissenters in the Republican ranks like Paul Ryan and Jeff Flake. No other president not Reagan, not FDR, not Lincoln has been able to reshape his party from the top down in quite the same way. As political scientist Daniel Galvin observes, Trump used his public prominence to elevate supporters and push out dissidents from within his own party, and a group of loyalists made a concerted effort to elect Trump supporters in state party elections throughout the country.

But where other presidents have made real change in their parties policies or united them under his legislative agenda, Trump faltered. Congressional leaders demurred on funding for his border wall and pursued a typical GOP agenda; the landmark bill of the Trump presidency was a package of massive tax cuts. Trump also notably failed to unify his party around a plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a yearslong Republican goal.

Now as he embarks on a third presidential bid, Trump is focused on grievance, not policy. His main vow is to impose vengeance on his and by extension the MAGA movements enemies. This approach violates much of what political scientists have come to expect from politicians: that theyll seek to build broad coalitions in pursuit of electoral advantage. Turning away from that strategy is one of the most striking features of Trump-style Republicanism.

Movements, like parties, have historically had a complicated relationship with presidents. They can be useful sources of political support and energy. Republicans, in particular, have relied on the groups associated with the Christian conservative movement for four decades. At the same time, politicians sometimes prefer to keep a safe distance from the most extreme elements of a social movement. Reagan avoided directly addressing the March for Life in person in 1981, at the advice of aides who were concerned that too much emphasis on social issues would be divisive. On the left, politicians have endeavored to ally with environmentalists and civil rights activists without endorsing all of their tactics and messages.

More than other Republican politicians, Trump has encouraged relationships with violent far-right forces like the Proud Boys (Stand back and stand by), alongside more traditional activists like evangelicals and gun owners. Some of these groups are important to the Republican Party, providing them with campaign resources, communicating the party message and rallying the faithful sometimes literally. But theyre not the party, exactly. And this helps to explain why Trumps influence in the GOP has been so strong, yet has consistently put elected leaders in the position of having to defend and explain things they dont want to defend and explain, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6.

What does this mean for the relationship between presidents and parties, and particularly for presidents after Trump?

Obviously, Joe Biden is a much more traditional party figure than Trump. Hes the clear leader of the Democrats, but he doesnt dominate them in the same way as Trump or seemingly shrink the partys reach like Trump. Furthermore, no one would associate Biden with many of the movements that now animate the Democratic coalition.

But these progressive movements have also had a significant impact on Bidens presidency; in the wake of the Dobbs decision, abortion rights activists have clearly pushed Biden to be more aggressive. Political scientist Robert C. Smith argues, the protest activity against racial injustice in the summer of 2020 has led the Biden administration to break with past patterns and adopt rhetoric and policies targeting systemic racism.

Its more complicated for the GOP. So far, other Republican presidential hopefuls seem to be both courting the MAGA movement and following the traditional party playbook while they pay visits to the early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa. Some of these candidates hope to fulfill the dream of Trumpism without Trump. But so far that looks like a fantasy, with Trumps core supporters sticking with him no matter what.

I recently spoke with Sidney M. Milkis and Daniel J. Tichenor, the authors of Rivalry and Reform: Presidents, Social Movements, and the Transformation of American Politics. They pointed out continuities as well as important differences between todays MAGA movement and the socially conservative right of Reagans era. Social conservatives of the 1980s, Tichenor said, were rooted squarely in electoral politics, conventional politics and claimed to simply want a seat at the table and to support Reagans presidency.

By contrast, elements of the MAGA movement that are close to Trump and increasingly driving the GOP agenda are, to put it mildly, hostile to pluralistic politics and not entirely peaceful in their tactics. Milkis and Tichenor also agreed that Trump was more of a movement president than any other in the past.

As for the future, there are several possibilities, not all mutually exclusive. The alliance between mainstream Republicans and the MAGA movement could reach a breaking point, with election deniers and extreme candidates repeatedly costing the party elections until the GOP ultimately jettisons the far-right. Second, the movement could fuel an across-the-board shift in party priorities; House GOP politics since January suggest there may be something to this, with MAGA Republicans exacting major concessions from Speaker Kevin McCarthy in order for him to hold power.

A third possibility is that Congress and the parties institutions designed to represent a wide swath of interests to act collectively could simply become less relevant as the relationship between presidents and movements becomes closer, especially on the GOP side. If movements can gain direct access to the White House and promise voter mobilization in return, then these other institutions might wither even more.

Trumps time in office shows what can happen from a governance perspective: Less may get done legislatively, but the tools of the executive branch can deliver plenty that a movement demands: the right rhetoric, executive orders and judicial appointments. Thats particularly true for a movement that prioritizes things like tightening immigration restrictions. And as the strength of the MAGA movement holds firm, there may be few Trump skeptics in the GOP left to object.

Ive been writing about the importance of presidency-centered government for a long time, Milkis said. And even Im shocked.

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Trump's Dominance in the GOP Isn't What It Seems - POLITICO

When we last checked in on the governments criminal investigation into Donald Trumps handling of classified documents after he left office, things did not appear to be going great for the former guy. For one, we learned last month that the Justice Department had uncovered significant evidence that Trump may have obstructed justice, which the ghost of Richard Nixon will tell you is never a good thing. For another, nearly everyone who works at Mar-a-Lagothe place where he was stashing the majority of the classified docshas been subpoenaed by prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith. And now, according to a new report, the shit has continued to hit the fan.

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The National Archives and Records Administration, according to multiple sources who spoke to CNN, is set to hand over tospecial counsel Jack Smith16 records that show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president. In a letter sent to Trump on Tuesday, NARAs acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote, The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records.

Why is this bad news for the former POTUS? Because ever since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago last yearand found more than 100 classified documents that were not supposed to be there, and which Team Trump had falsely claimed in a certification had been turned overTrump has claimed that he had the power to declassify them without going through the proper protocols or even mentioning anything to anyone. Hes said this on numerous occasions, but most notably when he told Sean Hannity he could declassify classified documentswith his mind. (Actual quote: There doesnt have to be a process [to declassify], as I understand itif youre the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying its declassified, even by thinking about it. There can be a process but there doesnt have to be.)

More recently, at last weeks disastrous CNN town hall, he falsely claimed to moderator Kaitlan Collins that government procedure allowed him to take whatever he wanted from the White Houseand in doing so, the items in question were automatically declassified.

I had every right to under the Presidential Records Act, Trump told Collins when she asked him why he took documents after he left office. You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified. (To be clear, that is not how any of this works.) Last year, following the raid, Trump also took to claiming that he had a standing order to declassify documentsbut more than a dozen administration officials said they knew nothing of said standing order, and that such a notion was ludicrous, ridiculous, and a complete fiction.

Anyway, as CNN notes, the 16 records NARA is preparing for Smith may provide critical evidence establishing the former presidents awareness of the declassification process, a key part of thecriminal investigationinto Trumps mishandling of classified documents. The records could also help reveal whether he willfully disregarded what he knew to be clearly established protocols, according to an individual familiar with recent testimony provided to the grand jury by former top Trump officials. Which is probably why, per Walls letter, Trump previously tried to block the special counsel from accessing the 16 documents in question. (In her letter, Wall informed the ex-president that Smiths office has said it is prepared to demonstrate with specificity to a court, why it is likely that the 16 records contain evidence that would be important to the grand jurys investigation.)

The records are set to be handed over on May 24, unless Trump gets a court to block them. And if we know the former guyand we think we dohes quite obviously going to try.

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Report: The National Archives Is Set to Hand Over Damning Evidence in Trumps Classified-Docs Case - Vanity Fair

WASHINGTON (AP) A key lawyer for former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was leaving the legal team, a move that comes as a special counsel investigation into the retention of classified documents shows signs of being in its final stages.

Timothy Parlatore told The Associated Press that his departure had nothing to do with Trump and was not a reflection on his view of the Justice Departments investigation, which he has long called misguided and overly aggressive, or on the strength of the governments evidence. He said he believed he had served Trump well.

Other lawyers, including former Justice Department prosecutor James Trusty, are continuing to represent Trump in Washington investigations.

CNN earlier reported Parlatores departure.

Parlatore has long been a key member of the team representing Trump in an investigation by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith into the possession of hundreds of classified documents at the former presidents Florida home, Mar-a-Lago as well as into possible efforts to obstruct that probe.

A grand jury over the last several months has heard from a broad array of witnesses close to Trump. Federal prosecutors in March questioned another of Trumps lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, before the grand jury after successfully piercing attorney-client privilege. Parlatore testified voluntarily in December about efforts to recover classified documents in response to government demands.

Last month, Parlatore and other lawyers for Trump issued a letter to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, laying out a series of defense arguments of Trump and saying that the Justice Department should be ordered to stand down in its investigation.

Besides the Mar-a-Lago probe, Smith has also been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, with former Vice President Mike Pence among the grand jury witnesses in that probe. Manhattan prosecutors charged Trump in March arising from hush-money payments made to a porn star who said he had an extramarital sexual encounter with her years earlier.

In Georgia, prosecutors in Fulton County are expected to announce in coming months the results of an investigation into attempts to subvert Trumps election loss to President Joe Biden in that state.

___

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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Key Trump attorney says he's departing legal team as Mar-a-Lago probe intensifies - The Associated Press

Timothy Parlatore, one of the lawyers representing former President Donald J. Trump in the federal investigations into Mr. Trumps handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has resigned from the former presidents legal team.

In a brief interview on Wednesday, Mr. Parlatore declined to discuss the specific reasons for his departure, but said it was not related to the merits of either inquiry both of which are being led by a special counsel, Jack Smith. Mr. Parlatore said that he informed Mr. Trump of his decision directly and that he left the legal team on good terms with the former president.

His departure was reported earlier by CNN.

Mr. Parlatores withdrawal from the twin special counsel cases leaves Mr. Trump a lawyer short at a moment when prosecutors under Mr. Smith seem to be nearing the end of their sprawling grand jury investigations and may be approaching a decision about whether to bring charges.

Two other lawyers James Trusty and John Rowley will for now continue to take the lead in representing Mr. Trump in both of the cases.

Mr. Parlatore informed Mr. Trumps team on Monday that he anticipated withdrawing, according to a person familiar with the events.

Since last summer and until recently, Mr. Parlatore played a key role in Mr. Trumps attempts to use attorney-client and executive privilege to limit the scope of the testimony provided by a series of witnesses who appeared in front of grand juries hearing evidence in both of the matters.

Over and over in sealed filings and at closed-door hearings, Mr. Parlatore and his colleagues sought to assert privilege on behalf of Mr. Trump in the hopes of narrowing testimony from top Trump aides like Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, and former Vice President Mike Pence. But their efforts were almost completely unsuccessful.

At one point, Mr. Parlatore himself was subpoenaed to appear in front of the grand jury investigating the documents case. During his appearance, he answered questions about efforts made by Mr. Trumps legal team to comply with a subpoena issued by the Justice Department last May demanding the return of all classified material in the former presidents possession.

Among the things that Mr. Parlatore said he discussed with the grand jury were searches ordered by a judge in response to a push from the Justice Department that he oversaw at the end of last year of several properties belonging to Mr. Trump, including Trump Tower in New York; Mr. Trumps golf club in Bedminster, N.J.; and a storage site in West Palm Beach, Fla. During the search of the storage site, investigators found at least two more documents with classified markings.

Those searches followed a search in August of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trumps private club and residence in Florida, by the F.B.I., which led to the discovery of more than 100 classified documents that had not been returned in response to the earlier subpoena.

Mr. Parlatore was brought on to the legal team by Boris Epshteyn, who had been serving as something of an in-house counsel, hiring and negotiating contracts for lawyers. Mr. Epshteyn has shown a penchant for delivering sunny news to Mr. Trump despite bad circumstances, and for creating a bottleneck for the lawyers in dealing with the client, according to several people familiar with the events.

Last month, Mr. Parlatore wrote a letter to Congress asking lawmakers for help in taking the documents investigation away from prosecutors and giving it to the intelligence community a move that, among other things, would have removed the threat of a criminal indictment against Mr. Trump.

The letter also seemed to preview some of Mr. Trumps potential defenses in the documents case, noting that during his chaotic departure from the White House, aides quickly packed everything into boxes and shipped them to Florida. This hasty process, Mr. Parlatore argued, suggested that White House institutional processes, not intentional decisions by President Trump, were responsible for sensitive material being hauled away.

Last week, Mr. Trump appeared to undercut those assertions on live television, declaring at a CNN town hall event that he knowingly removed government records from the White House and claiming that he was allowed to take anything he wanted with him as his personal property.

I took the documents, he said at the event. Im allowed to.

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Trump Lawyer Resigns From Defense Team in Special Counsel Inquiries - The New York Times