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   By Tom Winter 
   
   The longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, was given immunity by federal prosecutors in New York during the course of the Michael Cohen investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. 
   
   The news was first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal. 
   
   Weisselberg is "Executive 1" on page 17 of the criminal information filed by prosecutors in the Michael Cohen case, a person with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. 
   
   According to prosecutors, Cohen, then Trump's attorney, sent an invoice to Executive 1, meaning Weisselberg, for "Payment for services rendered for the month of January and February, 2017," a payment that was really meant to reimburse Cohen for a payment to Stormy Daniels. 
   
   Weisselberg then sent the invoice to another Trump Organization executive via e-mail directing him to "Please pay from the Trust. Post to legal expenses. Put 'retainer for the months of January and February 2017' in the description." 
   
   A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined comment. 
   
   Weisselberg, 70, began working for the Trump Organization as an accountant in the 1970s, when President Donald Trump's father, Fred, ran the company. Weisselberg was also treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the president's charitable organization, which has been sued by the New York attorney general for alleged violations of state law. 
   
   Cohen mentioned Weisselberg's name several times on a recorded phone conversation with Trump about a payment to kill a story about Trump's alleged relationship with Playboy model Karen McDougal. The tape was seized during the FBI's April raid on Cohen's residence and office, and was released to the media by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis. 
   
   On the tape, recorded two months before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen mentions that he has spoken to Weisselberg about setting up a corporation to process the payment. 
   
   "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend David," says Cohen, "so that — I'm going to do that right away. I have spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding." 
   
   "David" is apparently David Pecker, a Trump friend who is the chairman and CEO of American Media and publisher of the National Enquirer, which had agreed to purchase McDougal's story. ||||| President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges on Tuesday. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday explains how Cohen’s plea agreement could impact the president. Photo: Associated Press 
   
   President Trump’s financial gatekeeper was granted immunity by federal authorities in New York and testified before a grand jury, the third longtime confidant of Mr. Trump known to have provided information in an illegal hush-money investigation that has implicated the president. 
   
   Allen Weisselberg, who has served for decades as chief financial officer and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, testified several weeks ago in the criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan into Michael Cohen, Mr....
target: – First Michael Cohen, then David Pecker, and now Allen Weisselberg. Another longtime ally of President Trump has been granted immunity by prosecutors in exchange for testimony. The 70-year-old Weisselberg is no mere acquaintance: He has served for decades as chief financial officer and executive VP of the Trump Organization, reports the Wall Street Journal. In fact, when Trump was elected president, he turned over the financial reins of his business empire to Weisselberg and to Trump's adult sons. Weisselberg actually started working for the organization in the 1970s, when Trump's father, Fred, ran it, per NBC News. Earlier this year, Weisselberg was called to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation of Cohen's payments to two women in exchange for their silence about alleged affairs with Trump. Weisselberg had been mentioned in a recorded conversation between Cohen and Trump about how to facilitate a payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Cohen has pleaded guilty to eight charges and said Trump directed him to make the hush-money payments ahead of the election, possibly implicating the president in a federal crime. It's not clear what information Weisselberg provided in the investigation. (This week, Trump suggested that "flipping" in exchange for deals with prosecutors should be illegal.)