Trump Organization trial on hold after witness tests positive for COVID-19
The Manhattan criminal fraud trial of the Trump Organization has been put on hold for the rest of the week after the company executive who was on the stand as a prosecution witness on Monday and Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19.
Company controller Jeffrey McConney had coughed frequently throughout his testimony. On Tuesday, after a lunch break in the proceedings, a prosecutor told Judge Juan Merchan that McConney had just tested positive.
Merchan said the trial would resume Monday, Nov. 7.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2021 charged former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and the company, through two corporate entities — the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation — with more than a dozen criminal counts related to allegations that certain executives were provided with untaxed "indirect employee compensation." Weisselberg entered a guilty plea in the case in August. The company maintains its innocence of all charges.
McConney testified Tuesday morning that a longtime Trump attorney oversaw an internal investigation of the Trump Organization's tax practices in 2017 and 2018, leading the company "to do things differently."
Prosecutors had not yet finished questioning McConney when the trial was delayed.