The investigation that began with looking into the actions of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is expanding. It will now look across the Trump Organization to see if others there took actions that violated campaign financing laws to support Trump.
With the raid on Cohen’s offices, the special counsel investigation grew a sort of “companion investigation” being handled by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. But while it might seem that this Robin to Robert Mueller’s Batman was focused on taxi medallions and the other minutia of Cohen’s criminal life, that doesn’t mean there’s not a solid Trump connection. In Cohen’s own plea agreement, the first six counts involve his own tax violations and bank fraud. But the seventh and eighth counts are directly connected to actions that Cohen took to shield Trump’s sordid affairs from exposure—actions that amount to illegal and excessive campaign contributions.
Now the federal investigation is expanding to other executives of the Trump Organization. And, as Bloomberg reports, investigatigation have a key tool on their side.
Central to the inquiry will be longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who has already provided narrow cooperation with authorities over Cohen’s activities and hush agreements, according to the person. It’s not clear whether Weisselberg is a focus of the continuing inquiry.
Michael Cohen may have been hired to bury Trump’s affairs, but Weisselberg paid for the shovels. And not just for Cohen. Weisselberg was the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization for decades. He not only paid for every funeral plot in Donald Trump’s long history of scandals, he also cashed the checks that came from interesting Cyprus-based banks from interesting Russia-based oligarchs.
The most interesting thing about those executives may be that there are simply not very many. The Trump Organization may list 500 companies and 22,000 employees, but the bulk of those are maids at hotels and foreign workers shuttled in to make great cake at Mar-a-lago. Trump’s core business is owned 100 percent by Donald Trump, it’s core team is very small, and a good number of them share the same last name.
Currently, the leadership team of the Trump Organization is currently headed by Executive Director Donald Trump Jr. and Executive Vice President Eric Trump. Both of them have taken a step up since Trump moved part-time to DC, but both also held roles before the election.
Also in the top ranks is Chief Operating Officer Matthew Calamari. Calimari’s role isn’t quite that of the usual corporate COO. Like other Trump favorite Keith Schiller, who had the role of Director of Oval Office Operations when he was send to drop the “you’re fired” letter on James Comey’s desk, Calimari started with Trump as a bodyguard. According to Business Insider, Trump became impressed with Calimari when he was working as a security guard and ejected hecklers from a tennis tournament. If Michael Cohen is Trump’s fixer, Calimari is the muscle. His son also works for the company as a security guard.
Executive Vice President Andrew Weiss is another long time Trump employee, who has played a shifting role as Trump’s focus moved from construction, to casinos, to licensing. In addition to top accountant Weisselberg, he’s the one employee who has been with Trump through the decades.
Trump’s management team is rounded out with another trio of attorneys: Chief Legal officer Alan Garten, Executive Vice President George Sorial, and Jill Martin who is the general counsel for the company’s frequent litigation. Martin in particular has already been the focus of some speculation because her name appears in some of the documents related to Cohen’s payments to Daniels.
With Cohen already guilty and Weisselberg apparently cooperating, the number of people who are the focus of this investigation is quite small. And the two Trump’s in this list aren’t the only ones who may fall under the scrutiny of the prosecutors.
Ivanka Trump was officially Executive Vice-President of Development & Acquisitions for the Trump Organization before dropping that title and moving into the White House. Ivanka was frequently front and center in supporting some of the organization’s least-reputable ventures, including one in Azerbaijan. While it seems unlikely that Donald Trump was passing his mistress-fund through his daughter’s checkbook, that doesn’t mean Ivanka wasn’t developing and acquiring some other sources of illegal campaign cash.
But the biggest threat for the Trump Organization is Donald Trump, CEO, 100 percent owner, and absolute ruler of the organization. As Cohen’s phone tapes reveal, Trump was in the deal with Daniel’s up to his … let’s just say “neck.” It may not be his only involvement.
As a candidate, Trump could of course “self fund” in any amount he wanted. But as Trump has amply demonstrated with his also-under-investigation fake charity, he had a compulsion to not only give to himself, but figure out some way to rob someone else at the same time. If there is a way to fund Trump’s campaign and illegally take it as a tax deduction or write-down expense for the business, it seems very likely it was done. And absolutely certain the name behind it started with Donald and ended with Trump.
