Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg surrenders to prosecutors Monday and pleads guilty later to lying in a deposition with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office in former President Trump’s financial fraud trial. Weisselberg was fined $1 million by Judge Arthur Engoron as part of the massive judgment against Trump, his adult sons and members of the family business. As expected, the Supreme Court rules that Congress, not individual states, is the only authority that can bar candidates who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office again. Here are the latest legal developments involving the former president hoping to be reelected to the White House in 2024.

New York financial fraud

Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to committing perjury

Key players: Former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg, Judge Arthur Engoron, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

• On Monday, Weisselberg pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury relating to a deposition he gave to James’ office in the financial fraud trial of Trump, his adult sons and their family business, CNN reported.

• Weisselberg surrendered to prosecutors Monday morning. Under the terms of the deal, he will be sentenced to five months in prison.

• For weeks, Weisselberg had been negotiating the deal with Manhattan prosecutors, but in exchange for pleading guilty, he will not have to testify against Trump at his upcoming trial on campaign finance and tax violations.

• In 2022, Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud. He was sentenced to 5 months in jail, but only served 100 days at Rikers Island prison.

• After learning that Weisselberg may be negotiating a plea deal with Bragg, Engoron asked lawyers in the fraud case to supply him with any knowledge they may have had regarding Weisselberg lying on the witness stand.

• As part of his judgment against the defendants, Engoron fined Weisselberg $1 million plus interest and barred him from ever working for the Trump Org. in any financial capacity.

• In a statement, the Trump Org. said Weisselberg “is now being used by the Manhattan District Attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President.”

Why it matters: On the witness stand, Weisselberg tried to convince the judge that he had not overinflated Trump’s personal and business assets to obtain favorable loan and insurance rates. The plea deal is just one more bit of evidence that will be used to counter Trump’s appeal of Engoron’s massive $464 million judgment against the former president and his company.

Jan. 6 election interference

Supreme Court halts Colorado, Illinois, Maine and other states from kicking Trump off ballot

Key players: U.S. Supreme Court, Colorado Supreme Court, Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie R. Porter, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows

• As expected, the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Colorado Supreme Court had overstepped its authority when it ordered Trump be removed from state ballots, Yahoo News reported.

• Colorado’s Supreme Court, Porter and Bellows had all cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution but later “engaged in insurrection, and concluded that Trump was not eligible to hold elected office again.

• In its decision, however, the high court ruled that “the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates.”

• Because the court found that Congress and not the states are the arbiters of Section 3, that effectively puts an end to all state attempts to ban Trump from ballots.

• Trump celebrated the ruling with a post on his social media network that read, “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”

Why it matters: While legal scholars and some conservative former judges filed amicus briefs with the court arguing that Section 3 could be applied to prevent Trump from holding office again, the case was mostly viewed as a long-shot. The same can be said of a sharply divided Congress finding that Trump violated the Constitution when he attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

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