The Trump Organization's CFO is just the latest Donald Trump associate to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, and Trump earlier this week stated that flipping should be “outlawed.” | Spencer Platt/Getty Images Trump Organization CFO granted immunity in latest blow to the president Allen Weisselberg's extensive knowledge of the president's finances could be highly valuable to investigators.

In what may be the biggest legal blow yet to President Donald Trump, federal prosecutors in New York have granted immunity from prosecution to Allen Weisselberg, the man who knows Trump’s financial secrets — and those of his family and his global business empire.

At the very least, Weisselberg — the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer — has provided key information to federal prosecutors in their case against former Trump lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen and his hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the matter.


But federal prosecutors in Manhattan could use Weisselberg’s cooperation to investigate a broad array of potential financial crimes and irregularities, including any other payoffs and campaign finance violations, false statements to the government, corrupt business dealings overseas and tax evasion by Trump, his family members and their eponymous company and all of its related entities and offshore shell companies, legal experts told POLITICO on Friday.

“What we have right now is a campaign finance issue,” said Joyce Vance, a 25-year former federal prosecutor and U.S. Attorney for Alabama in the Obama administration. “But there’s a whole amusement park of potential crimes out there given what we know about Donald Trump, and Weisselberg is the guy who knows where the entrance is and has the roadmap of it.”

In many ways, Weisselberg isn’t just the keeper of the roadmap, he is the roadmap, with a head full of information about names, dates and reasons for why the secretive Trump entered into particular transactions.

For several decades, Weisselberg has done Trump’s personal tax returns and watched over his personal finances in addition to acting as CFO for the Trump Organization. Currently, he is also running that financial empire with Trump’s two eldest sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

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Prosecutors have not disclosed the particulars of the immunity deal given to Weisselberg, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But his cooperation with prosecutors became apparent to veteran Trump watchers on Tuesday, when Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to eight charges that included tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign finance violations. Cohen said during his courtroom appearance that he was directed by then-candidate Trump to make payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal "for the purposes of influencing the election.”

A representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has accused Cohen of making up stories to get a plea deal.

The disclosure about Weisselberg’s cooperation capped a week of potentially devastating legal and political developments for Trump, who has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing --- including having affairs with Daniels and McDougal.

On Tuesday, while pleading guilty to campaign finance-related fraud, Cohen told a judge that Trump directed him to make the payments to keep both women from disclosing the affairs in the run-up to the election. If true, that makes Trump an unindicted co-conspirator, although Justice Department guidelines hold that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Later, his lawyer said Cohen knows much more about potential criminal activity by Trump, including alleged collusion with Russia in its election interference effort, and that he is willing to tell all to prosecutors and, if asked, to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

On Thursday, it was disclosed that federal prosecutors also have granted immunity to David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer and a longtime friend of Trump’s. Pecker reportedly has been providing investigators with details of the hush-money payouts by his tabloid magazine, and potentially others, in its ongoing effort to protect Trump from bad publicity.

But Weisselberg’s cooperation could prove far more damaging to the President, given their longstanding business relationship, and the long-held belief that Trump has engaged in a multitude of financial shenanigans, both individually and through his business dealings.

“This is extraordinarily bad news for Trump given that all of the Trump Organization money, and Trump’s own, passed across his desk,” said David Cay Johnston, author of the 2016 book, “The Making of Donald Trump.”

“So even if he didn’t always know the purpose for what it was used, he’s the key witness that Trump needs to worry about most,” said Johnston, founder of DCReport, which has waged a campaign to force the New York state and local authorities to launch a criminal investigation into Trump. “He is the one person who can authenticate documents, who can put people in rooms and who can lay out what took place.”

“He is also an indication that people around Trump, knowing that loyalty is one-way street, are not going to go to prison for their boss,” Johnston added.

Ultimately, Trump’s potential exposure will hinge on where the New York prosecutors want to go with their investigation, and whether it intersects with that of Mueller, whose team is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion by Trump or his associates in it.

Eric Columbus, a former veteran Justice Department lawyer, said everything that is known publicly about the case “cuts against the theory that he’s just being used against Michael Cohen, including the fact that he is a much bigger fish.”

“In the worst-case scenario for Trump, Weisselberg will be able to deliver information to prosecutors that could implicate Trump or his family in serious financial crimes,” Columbus said, adding that rumors have long circulated about the Trump Organization’s possible involvement in helping foreigners, including Russian oligarchs and criminals, launder their money through his real estate properties.

Weisselberg is just the latest Trump associate to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan — a trend that has incensed Trump, who earlier this week stated that flipping should be “outlawed.”

"This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping. Thirty, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go. It almost ought to be outlawed," Trump said in an interview with Fox News. "It's not fair."

As Mueller’s Russia investigation and related probes have intensified, more of Trump’s allies have been willing to cooperate, including Cohen, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. In this instance, Mueller referred the case to the Southern District of New York.

While Trump has railed against the idea of flipping — and has slammed Cohen specifically — he has offered high praise for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was found guilty on Tuesday of eight counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.

So far Manafort has shown no sign of flipping, and Trump has not publicly ruled out a pardon for him.

“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” Trump tweeted earlier this week. “’Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ - make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’ Such respect for a brave man!”

Lorraine Woellert contributed to this report.

