New York prosecutors have issued a subpoena seeking bank records from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort related to real estate loans of up to $16 million, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has ordered the Federal Savings Bank, a small Chicago bank whose loans to Manafort make up almost a quarter of its equity capital, to turn over records related to loans issued for two properties owned by Manafort and his wife, according to the Journal.
Steve Calk, a member of Trump’s economic advisory council who runs the bank, told the newspaper he had no comment about the subpoena. A spokesperson for Manafort declined the Journal’s request for comment.
The veteran GOP operative is caught in a thicket of intertwined investigations, many of which relate to his complex real estate dealings. Both New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, are looking into the millions of dollars in property that Manafort owns for evidence of fraud and money laundering.
Manafort is also under scrutiny by congressional and federal investigators for his work for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, as well as any assistance he may have provided to Russian operatives working to sway the election in Trump’s favor.
The Justice Department previously subpoenaed Citizens Financial Group, Inc. for Manafort’s banking records as part of the federal probe into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election, according to the Journal. Federal investigators also subpoenaed records related to a $3.5 million mortgage that Manafort took out on a country house he owns on Long Island, and were probing Manafort’s financial dealings with his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai. As the New York Times previously reported, Manafort allegedly funneled millions of dollars to luxury properties across the U.S. that Yohai purchased through a network of shell companies.
Ask Manafort is Donald Trump knew about the meeting that he, Jr. and Kushner was going to have with the Russians. Ask Manafort if they met or talked with Donald Trump before and or after their meeting with the Russians.
This is the key – federal prosecution will only produce pardons, but if NY state can sink its teeth into Trump, there is a real chance of actual jail time.
Don’t sweat pardons. They’ll come from President Pence (or President Whoever) after Trump is gone, meaning after we’ve done what we can to pull out of the nosedive.
In the highly unlikely event that Trump pardons anyone, it’ll mean that the target has no Fifth Amendment protections and would instantly find himself accounting for every second of his life since birth to a hundred different investigators. It’d also be an act of obstruction of justice in its own right while simultaneously being such a huge confession of guilt that even some hardcore Trumpers would take notice.
I assure you, the Manhattan DA will cheerfully drop any charges against Manafort if it means his cooperation in the larger Trump investigation.