Scaramucci takes stand at trial of Manafort banker

One of the best-known but short-lived members of former President Donald Trump’s White House staff, Anthony Scaramucci, took the stand as a prosecution witness Thursday at a federal trial of a Chicago banker accused of trying to trade millions of dollars in loans for a senior post in the Trump administration.

Scaramucci testified for more than an hour about his interactions with the banker, Stephen Calk, and the persistent efforts that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort made to try to get Calk a top role at the Pentagon or elsewhere.

Scaramucci, who served as White House communications director for less than two weeks in July 2019, said Manafort’s advocacy during the presidential transition helped Calk land an interview with a so-called “tiger team” that was screening prospects for top jobs in the new administration.

“He had suggested and recommended Mr. Calk and he wanted us to interview him … The original position was secretary of the Army,” said Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital. He said Manafort pitched Calk as “a friend of his” who “worked on the campaign and had been an early supporter of the president-elect.”

However, under questioning by a federal prosecutor, Scaramucci said he was entirely unaware that Manafort had recently obtained a $9.5 million loan from Calk’s Federal Savings Bank and was seeking millions more.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Rothman led Scaramucci through his contacts with Manafort, asking at one point about a December 2016 phone call with the former Trump campaign chief.

“In that phone call with Mr. Manafort, did Mr. Manafort tell you that he had received millions of dollars in loans from Steve Calk’s bank?” she asked.

“No,” Scaramucci replied, giving the same answer when asked whether he was told Manafort was seeking more loans from the potential nominee.

“If he had said either of those things to you, would you have passed on Mr. Calk’s name?” Rothman asked.

“No,” Scaramucci said.

Calk ultimately got an interview at Trump Tower for secretary of the Army, but Scaramucci said undersecretary of the Army was also discussed because a New York billionaire and West Point graduate, Vincent Viola, had the inside track for the secretary job.

“The original request was for secretary of the Army. I then told Mr. Manafort that we already had somebody in the queue, Vincent Viola, that was somebody I recommended to the president,” Scaramucci said.

“Would he take undersecretary of the Army? Are we double sure? If so, I think we can get it done,” Scaramucci texted to Manafort on December 21, 2016.

“Yes. He will def take it,” Manafort wrote back.

As Scaramucci recounted his dealings with Calk, Rothman again asked whether Calk mentioned that he’d arranged millions in loans for Manafort. “No,” Scaramucci responded.

Calk’s initial requests were extremely ambitious. In an email to Manafort days after the election, Calk said he could be a candidate for secretary of Treasury, Commerce or Defense. He also offered a rank-order list of 19 potential ambassadorships, beginning with the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Calk later lowered his sights from a Cabinet post, but Scaramucci said he tried to convey to the banker that there were many longtime GOP officials, Trump friends and others in contention for the top slots. “I was trying to be realistic with Mr. Calk about the potentiality of those jobs he was looking for actually surfacing,” Scaramucci said.

Scaramucci said he never predicted to Manafort that Calk was in line for a top job, but did think an interview was doable.

Manafort also reached out to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, by email to seek a job for Calk. “On it!” Kushner replied.

Kushner came up only briefly at the trial on Thursday as Rothman asked Scaramucci about Kushner’s position in the transition.

“He was probably in the top two or three people … I would say he had a very consequential role,” said Scaramucci, who fell out with Trump after being fired from the White House and opposed Trump during the 2020 election.

Calk never wound up getting the Army job or any other in the administration, although he did earlier land a slot on the Trump campaign’s economic advisory council.

Calk’s defense has seized on the fact that he never got a government position, but prosecutors insist Calk and Manafort made a “corrupt bargain” that amounted to an illegal bribe of Calk in his position as chair and CEO of a federally insured bank.

Calk faces two felony charges: seeking a bribe in exchange for bank loans and conspiracy to commit the same offense. He faces a maximum potential of 35 years in prison, although if convicted he would likely get substantially less under federal sentencing guidelines.

Calk’s trial opened Tuesday with jury selection, followed by opening statements and the first testimony on Wednesday. Scaramucci is expected to return to the stand when the trial resumes next Tuesday. After the prosecution concludes its questioning, Calk’s defense will get to cross-examine Scaramucci.

Earlier Thursday, jurors heard from Kory Langhofer, an attorney for the Trump transition team. Langhofer was on hand primarily to certify the accuracy of emails, but defense attorney Paul Schoeman also led him through a discussion of a dispute that erupted between Trump aides and the General Services Administration after the GSA turned various emails over to the FBI as part of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Another prosecution witness was Anna Ivakhnik, who said she grew deeply dubious about a loan to Manafort and his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai that was under discussion when she worked as a lending assistant at Calk’s bank in 2016.

“I did not believe that the borrowers had the ability or the will to repay the loan,” Ivakhnik said. “I believed the bank would eventually have to foreclose … It became very obvious this was a bad loan.”

Manafort stopped making payments on the loans after he was indicted in August 2017 on charges that included acting as an unregistered foreign agent and money laundering. Federal Savings Bank did eventually foreclose on Manafort’s properties in Brooklyn and on Long Island. Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, but served about two before being released to home confinement. Trump pardoned him in December.

It’s unclear whether the bank will ultimately cover its losses on the Manafort loans, but prosecutors insist that isn’t relevant to the criminal case against Calk.