A senior executive at Donald J. Trump’s family business who was charged with participating in a yearslong tax scheme is nearing a deal with Manhattan prosecutors but will not cooperate with a broader investigation into Mr. Trump, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
If it becomes final, a plea deal for the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, would bring prosecutors no closer to indicting the former president but would nonetheless brand one of his most trusted lieutenants a felon.
On Monday, Mr. Weisselberg’s lawyers and prosecutors met with the judge overseeing the case, according to a court database. The judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday, a possible indication that a deal has been reached and a plea could be entered then.
While Mr. Weisselberg, 75, is facing financial penalties as well as up to 15 years in prison if convicted by a jury, a plea deal would avoid a high-profile trial and most likely would spare him a lengthy sentence. Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Mr. Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month jail sentence. With time credited for good behavior, he is likely to serve about 100 days.
The other terms of Mr. Weisselberg’s deal were not clear, including whether he had made additional concessions to prosecutors to receive it. His lawyer, Nicholas A. Gravante Jr., confirmed that he was in negotiations but declined to discuss the specifics. Another lawyer for Mr. Weisselberg, Mary E. Mulligan, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.
In fits and starts over the last few years, the district attorney’s office has been examining whether Mr. Trump and his company fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate to obtain loans and benefits. The investigation, initially led by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the district attorney at the time, evolved into one of the greatest legal threats Mr. Trump faced.
The district attorney’s criminal investigation continued after Mr. Weisselberg was charged last summer with taking part in a 15-year scheme to receive off-the-books perks at Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which was also indicted in the case.
The company will not join Mr. Weisselberg in pleading guilty on Thursday, two people with knowledge of the matter said. And Mr. Weisselberg, while admitting his own guilt, is not expected to implicate anyone in the Trump family.
Prosecutors have long hoped that they could persuade Mr. Weisselberg to testify against Mr. Trump, given his decades in the employ of the Trump family and his vast knowledge of the company and its business practices. But Mr. Weisselberg has refused to meet with them even as his lawyers negotiated a potential deal, the people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mr. Trump and his company have long maintained that Mr. Weisselberg would have had to lie to implicate Mr. Trump. Still, his decision to plead guilty — and accept prison time — underscores the extent of his loyalty to a family that has employed him for nearly a half-century.
The Trump Investigations
The Trump Investigations
Numerous inquiries. Since Donald J. Trump left office, the former president has been facing several different civil and criminal investigations across the country into his business dealings and political activities. Here is a look at some notable cases:
A plea agreement for Mr. Weisselberg could leave Mr. Trump’s company to face trial in the tax case alone. A deal would also be likely to draw renewed attention to the status of the district attorney’s criminal investigation of Mr. Trump and his company’s business practices, an inquiry that lost momentum early this year and has largely disappeared from public view.
Mr. Bragg, a Democrat as was Mr. Vance, has said the investigation is continuing. But its direction and future are unclear. Mr. Trump, who has called the investigation a partisan witch hunt, has himself not been accused of wrongdoing.
The plea negotiations with Mr. Weisselberg came to light after a New York State judge, Juan Merchan, last week declined to toss out the criminal case against the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg.
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The judge’s decision marked the latest legal blow to Mr. Trump, whose Florida home was recently searched by the F.B.I. in connection with an unrelated inquiry. In another embarrassing episode for a former president who has mocked others for declining to answer questions under oath, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the New York state attorney general last week.
The attorney general, Letitia James, a Democrat, is conducting a civil inquiry into some of the same conduct that the district attorney is investigating. And some of her office’s lawyers joined the district attorney’s criminal investigation last year.