Trump's fraud-trial judge, left out of loop, demands to know if a key witness really may cop to perjury like the NYT says

• The New York Times reported that ex-Trump Org CFO Allan Weisselberg is mulling a perjury plea.
• This was news to Arthur Engoron, the judge presiding over the fraud-trial testimony in question.
• On Tuesday, he demanded that both sides tell him what the heck's going on.

The judge in Donald Trump's New York civil fraud trial sounds pretty angry about having to read in the New York Times that a defendant and key witness in his trial — ex-Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg — may be about to admit in another court that some of his testimony in front of him was a lie.

"Dear Counselors," the fraud-trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, begins an acidly-worded email he sent Monday.

Read the judge's email here.

The email was uploaded to the trial's public docket Tuesday. The "Counselors" it addresses are the lead lawyers for the Trump defense team and the state attorney general's office, whose fraud lawsuit has been an open trial matter since October.

"As you are undoubtedly aware," the email begins, "in an article in the February 1, 2024 on-line edition of the New York Times, headlined 'Trump's Former Finance Chief in Negotiations to Plead Guilty to Perjury,' William K. Rashbaum, Jonah E. Bromwich, and Ben Protesss write that defendant Alan [sic] Weisselberg 'is negotiating a deal with Manhattan prosecutors that would require him to plead guilty to perjury.'"

The Times story said that Weisselberg, 76, is in negotiations with the Manhattan district attorney's office.

If he agrees to the plea deal that's on the table, he would admit to lying under oath while testifying at trial, before Engoron, about the origin of a major fraud alleged in the attorney general's case, Trump's admitted tripling of the the size of his Manhattan triplex penthouse.

Weisselberg testified that tripling the size of Trump's penthouse in financial records was a "de minimus," or minor, mistake that he had little to do with.

It was Forbes that first raised the perjury flag on Weisselberg's testimony. In disputing the ex-CFO's claim that the penthouse's worth was "never a concern of mine," the magazine pointed to old emails between Weisselberg and the magazine they said showed otherwise.

"What's more," Engoron's email continues, still quoting from the Times, Weisselberg "'would have to admit that he lied on the witness stand' in the case pending before me (and during a pre-trial interview plaintiff conducted)."

Apparently angered to be out of the loop on such a vital issue — particularly as he continues to draft what's expected to be a long and potentially punishing verdict — Engoron demands to know what the heck is going on.

After all, he notes, he is the fraud trial's "presiding magistrate, the trier of fact, and the judge of credibility."

In describing the potential trial monkey wrench that a Weisselberg perjury admission would be, Engoron drops some Latin.

Would the admission be a case of "falsus in uno?" he asks, a reference to the Latin phrase "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus—" meaning false in one, false in everything.

"I of course want to know whether Mr. Weisselberg is now changing his tune, and whether he is admitting he lied under oath in my courtroom at this trial.

"Although the Times article focuses on the size of the Trump Tower Penthouse, his testimony on other topics could also be called into question," Engoron continues, hypothesizing about the size of this monkey wrench he's only now learned of.

Engoron gives the parties until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to submit a letter detailing "anything you know about this that would not violate any of your professional ethics or obligations."

"I would also appreciate knowing how you think I should address this matter, if at all, including the timing of the final decision," he concludes the email.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of fraudulently inflating his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion a year in a decade's worth of annual net-worth statements he used to win $168 million in loan-interest savings.

Trump has countered that his valuations were conservatively low . Lawyers for his co-defendants in the lawsuit — the Trump Organization, eldest sons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump, Weisselberg and another longtime Trump Org executive, Jeffrey McConney — have also denied wrongdoing.

Attorneys for Trump and Weisselberg, and spokespersons for the AG's office and Manhattan district attorney's office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.