Paul Manafort has an unindicted co-conspirator
For the most part, the Paul Manafort trial has been a rather clinical exercise in proving that Donald Trump’s campaign chairman committed several kinds of financial fraud. As Palmer Report has spelled out, this trial is all about Robert Mueller trying to get to a guilty verdict as quickly and cleanly as possible, so he can use it to bolster his standing as he prepares to dive directly into Trump-Russia indictments. But one interesting detail has surfaced late in the trial, and it suggests that the Trump rabbit hole runs to entirely new depths.
One of the accusations against Paul Manafort is that he fraudulently obtained a bank loan, partly by falsifying his application, and partly by promising to try to get Donald Trump to appoint the CEO of the bank as Secretary of the Army. That appointment never happened, for reasons that have never been explained. But it turns out the bank CEO, Stephen Calk, is in deeper than we thought. In fact prosecutors have revealed that Calk is an unindicted co-conspirator.
Robert Mueller’s team made this reveal during a sidebar conversation at the trial, according to a Bloomberg report. Here’s how Mueller’s team phrased it: Mr. Calk is a co-conspirator, and he participated in the conspiracy to defraud the bank … Mr. Calk has other criminal liability aside from this bank fraud.”
Calk is cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation, which may explain why he hasn’t (yet) been indicted. But now that we know Mueller considers him to be an unindicted co-conspirator, this changes things. Is this the first known instance of Mueller targeting a would-be Donald Trump appointee for trying to bribe his way into the job? Trump’s appointments have reeked of corruption across the board. Is Mueller really going after Trump’s cabinet?
