Vesselberg, 75, testified as the government’s star witness as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that would allow him to spend no more than five months in prison.
The Trump Organization argued that Weiselberg carried out the scheme to benefit himself. He is on paid leave from the company and testified that he received more than $1 million in salary and bonus payments this year.
“The question here is not whether the company saved some money as a by-product,” defense attorney Susan Necheles said in her closing arguments Thursday. “(Weiselberg’s) intention was to benefit himself, not the company.”
Trump wrote on his Truth social platform on November 19 that his family “received no economic benefit from the actions taken by the executive.”
Republican Trump, who announced his third campaign for the presidency on November 15, has called the investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt”. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his predecessor who brought the charges, Cyrus Vance, are both Democrats.