He’s not on the Manhattan DA’s menu.
Matthew Calamari, the Trump Organization’s chief operating officer, will not be indicted by Manhattan prosecutors as part of the office’s probe into the former president’s private company, his attorney said Wednesday.
The lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, said in a statement he does not know where the investigation headed by District Attorney Cy Vance is going, but he’s glad Calamari is out of hot water for now.
“I have been informed that there is no present intention to bring charges against Mr. Calamari,” Gravante said.
“We believe that is the fair and just decision. What the future holds in terms of the District Attorney’s continuing investigation is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, however, we are pleased that the considerations raised on Mr. Calamari’s behalf have not fallen on deaf ears,” he added.
In a subsequent statement, Gravante said Calamari would cooperate with law enforcement if he’s subpoenaed.
“If subpoenaed to testify, he will appear and testify truthfully,” Gravante said.
Vance’s office declined to comment.
Calamari, who once served as Trump’s bodyguard, was being probed by prosecutors for allegedly accepting tax-free fringe benefits from the Trump Organization, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In July, the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, was hit with tax fraud and other charges stemming from benefits he received from the organization that were allegedly tax-free.
In that indictment, prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and Weisselberg engaged in a 15-year tax fraud scheme to pay the CFO and other executives at the company in a “manner that was ‘off the books.’”
“The beneficiaries of the scheme received substantial portions of their income through indirect and disguised means, with compensation that was unreported or misreported by the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp,” the indictment states.
Trump Organization attorneys blasted the indictment as a politically driven prosecution by Vance, who leaves office next month.