Chairman OK’d Manafort loans, eyed Trump cabinet job, banker testifies

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A New York bank executive testified Friday that Paul Manafort received more than $16 million in loans after the bank’s chairman expressed interest in joining Donald Trump’s cabinet if he won the 2016 presidential election.

The testimony in the former Trump campaign chairman’s financial fraud trial came after proceedings were halted for hours by mysterious backstage discussions between the judge and attorneys for both sides. Prosecutors now say they will wrap up their case against Manafort on Monday.

It was a strange hiccup in nine days of proceedings that have been sometimes dramatic and featured tense exchanges between prosecutors and admittedly impatient U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III as he has pushed the government to speed up its case.

Ellis recessed the trial without explanation after huddling with his bailiff and attorneys from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and Manafort’s lawyers for more than 20 minutes.

At one point, Ellis left the courtroom and headed toward the jury room. After bringing court back into session, he reminded jurors several times that they weren’t to discuss the tax evasion and bank fraud case at all.

The exchange came during a day in which jurors heard detailed testimony about Manafort’s bank loans and about his New York Yankees luxury season ticket purchases — paid for from an offshore account that prosecutors say he concealed from the IRS.

Dennis Raico, an executive at Federal Saving Bank who testified under an immunity agreement, detailed for jurors how he grew uncomfortable by the actions of bank chairman Stephen Calk in the handling of Manafort’s loans. Prosecutors have said that despite red flags, Calk pushed through the loans for Manafort because he wanted a job in the Trump administration.