Matthew Calamari, who has worked for ex-President Donald Trump as a bodyguard and eventually become Chief Operating Officer at the Trump Organization, could be an imminent target of Manhattan prosecutors, as outlined in a new Insider report. In Manhattan, the office of District Attorney Cy Vance is conducting a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization and looking into alleged fraud at the Trump family business. According to longtime Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen, the Trump business repeatedly fraudulently adjusted valuations of its assets in order to secure financial benefits like tax breaks, and Cohen said during 2019 Congressional testimony that Calamari has knowledge of the operation.
Cohen has been interviewed by Manhattan prosecutors over half a dozen times. As summarized by Insider, in Congressional testimony, Cohen “said Calamari was familiar with Trump’s alleged practice of providing an inflated accounting of his assets to insurance companies [as] part of a scheme to evade taxes,” and as “investigators continue to look into Trump’s finances, Calamari’s knowledge of those alleged plans could become increasingly important.” Prosecutors are already apparently angling to flip longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who works as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.
Vance’s office hasn’t been publicly forthcoming with exhaustive details of their investigation, but recently, the team successfully obtained troves of Trump’s financial records — including his tax returns — after a U.S. Supreme Court conclusion in their favor. Trump tried to block a subpoena from Vance for his longtime accounting firm Mazars USA, but that shielding effort repeatedly failed. The financial records could provide formal confirmation of what Trump told various authorities and thus allow for an examination of whether he lied on his financial filings.
Whether Vance’s investigation will culminate in criminal charges is not yet clear, although a recent CNN report stated that, according to sources, Vance “is likely to decide on whether to charge a case or close the investigation by the end of the year.” Trump, unsurprisingly, has repeatedly freaked out about the legal scrutiny that he is facing in New York. He has characterized New York investigative efforts as an extension of the so-called “witch hunt” that he faced during his presidency from Congress and others, and laughably, he’s claimed that he’s the victim of “political persecution.” He’s not. A duly proceeding investigation in response to duly documented and potentially criminal behavior is not political persecution.
