By: Rusty Brooks
New York prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s business have advised Trump’s former bodyguard and current chief operating officer, Matthew Calamari, and his son that they should get their own lawyers, not use the Trump Organization’s attorneys, The Wall Street Journal reported.
New York prosecutors are reportedly looking into whether an ex-bodyguard to former President Trump received tax-free fringe benefits as part of his work with the Trump Organization, WSJ reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that prosecutors are looking into Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari to determine if he received gifts from the company that he did not pay taxes on.
New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been investigating the Trump Organization for a few years, focused most recently on whether the company manipulates the value of its properties to get loans and lower its taxes.
The Hill reported: Calamari reportedly first began working for Trump in 1981 as a bodyguard after he tackled a heckler at the U.S. Open women’s semifinal. He was eventually promoted to chief operating officer.
Neither Trump Organization employee has been accused of any wrongdoing. The DA, who will soon be out office, is also investigating Calamari’s son, Matthew Calamari Jr.
Calamari’s son, Matthew Calamari Jr., who works as corporate director of security for the Trump organization, lives in the Trump Parc East apartment building in what a former employee of the Trump administration once said was a corporate apartment for which he did not have to pay rent, the Journal reported.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been investigation former President Trump since the day Trump announced his run for presidency and that he would not be releasing his tax records immediately.
Trump v. Vance, 591 U.S. (2020), was a landmark, US Supreme Court case arising from a subpoena issued in August 2019 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. against Mazars, then-President Donald Trump’s accounting firm, for Trump’s tax records and related documents, as part of his ongoing investigation into the Stormy Daniels scandal. Trump commenced legal proceedings to prevent their release.
This case eventually ended up in the supreme court, which ruled the tax records shall be released, and this is still ongoing to this day. Vance’s investigation into Trump’s real estate is just the latest in an ongoing legal assault against former President Trump.
Many conservative analysts believe New York’s, legal proceedings against Trump will vanish, if Trump vanishes from the political scene, and this is all a political maneuver to force Trump out of the political scene forever. With Vance, deciding not to run again for DA, there has been a lot of speculation as to what will happen to the Trump investigations in the future.
The Hill reported: Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen said in 2019 testimony in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee that the elder Calamari would have information that backed up his claims that Trump inflated the value of his assets over the years for insurance purposes.
