Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Donald Trump "knew exactly what was going on" with top Trump Organization executives who schemed for years to dodge taxes on company-paid perks, a prosecutor said Thursday, challenging defence claims that the former president was unaware of the plot at the heart of the company's tax fraud case.
Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass lobbed the bombshell allegation during closing arguments. He promised to share more details when he resumes on Friday, buoyed by the judge's decision to grant prosecutors permission to veer into territory that had been considered off-limits because Trump is not on trial.
The tax fraud case is the only trial to arise from the three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices by the Manhattan district attorney's office. Thursday's closing arguments were the last chance for prosecutors and defence lawyers to sway jurors before they deliberate next week.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, overruling a defence objection after the jury had left court, said the company's lawyers opened the door by asserting in their closing arguments that Trump was ignorant of the scheme, hatched by his longtime finance chief just steps from his Trump Tower office.
"It was the defence who invoked the name Donald Trump numerous times," Merchan said, setting up a potentially explosive final day of arguments before jurors deliberate next week.
Prosecutors had given mixed signals about Trump's importance to the case, telling a judge early on, "this case is not about Donald Trump," but then repeatedly asking witnesses about him; showing a witness copies of Trump's tax returns and, ultimately, seeking to connect the dots to him in closing arguments.
Trump has denied any knowledge of the scheme, writing Tuesday on his Truth Social platform: "There was no gain for `Trump,' and we had no knowledge of it."
Steinglass said the Trump Organization "cultivated a culture of fraud and deception" by lavishing luxe perks on executives and falsifying records to hide the compensation.
Steinglass' at-times fiery summation followed defence arguments that sought to focus blame for the fraud on Allen Weisselberg, the senior adviser and ex-CFO who has admitted scheming to avoid paying personal income taxes on a company-paid apartment, luxury cars and other goodies.
"Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg," Trump Organization lawyer Michael Van der Veen told jurors, punctuating his closing argument with the defence team's mantra for the monthlong trial.
Steinglass pushed back when it was his turn, telling jurors: "Both halves of that sentence are wrong. It wasn't just Weisselberg doing it and it wasn't just Weisselberg who benefited."
The Trump Organization -- the entity through which Trump manages his real estate holdings and other ventures -- is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives avoid paying income taxes on company-paid perks.
Steinglass argued that the Trump Organization -- through its subsidiaries Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. -- is liable because Weisselberg and an underling he worked with, controller Jeffrey McConney, were "high managerial" agents entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities.
If convicted, the Trump Organization could be fined more than $1 million. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who watched Steinglass' closing from the courtroom gallery, has said that his office's investigation of Trump is "active and ongoing," and that no decision has been made on whether to charge him.
But company lawyers argued that Weisselberg was only intending to benefit himself with his tax-dodge scheme, not the Trump Organization, and that the company shouldn't be blamed for his transgressions.
"We are here today for one reason and one reason only: the greed of Allen Weisselberg," Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles said, her remarks accompanied at one point by the wail of a siren from an emergency vehicle outside.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to dodging taxes on $1.7 million in extras and testified against the Trump Organization in exchange for a promised sentence of five months in jail.
Weisselberg has worked for Trump's family for nearly 50 years, starting as an accountant for his real estate-developer father Fred Trump in 1973 before joining Donald Trump's company in 1986.
"Along the way, he messed up. He got greedy. Once he got started, it was difficult for him to stop," Necheles said.
Necheles argued that the case against the company is tenuous and that the 1965 state law underlying some of the charges requires prosecutors to show Weisselberg intended to benefit the company, not just himself.
Weisselberg testified that he conspired to hide his perks with McConney by adjusting payroll records to deduct their cost from his salary.
The arrangement reduced Weisselberg's tax liability, while also saving the company money because it didn't have to give him a hefty raise to cover the cost of the perks and additional income taxes he would have incurred.
"I knew in my mind that there was a benefit to the company," Weisselberg testified.
But Necheles argued that any benefit to the company was ancillary, minimal and unintentional.
"He is atoning for his sins, but as part of the plea deal, the prosecution forced him to testify against the company he helped build," Necheles told jurors. "Now the prosecution's case rests on one thing: convincing you, the jurors, that Mr. Weisselberg's actions were done in behalf of the company."
"You are going to see there was no such intent," Necheles added. "The purpose of Mr. Weisselberg's crimes was to benefit Mr. Weisselberg."
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.