Everything you need to know about Matthew Calamari, Trump’s employee of nearly 40 years who went viral after being implicated in Michael Cohen’s blockbuster testimony

Matthew Calamari knew about a fraudulent insurance scheme that would help President Donald Trump evade taxes, according to Michael Cohen’s testimony to Congress Wednesday.
Calamari isn’t famous, but he plays an important role at the Trump Organization as its COO.
He first began working for Trump as a bodyguard in 1981, after Trump saw him tackle a heckler at the US Open.
Calamari and his son reportedly oversee the Trump Organization’s vast surveillance operations on the company’s properties.
He had a memorable moment in the second season of "The Apprentice," where he appeared to freeze up on camera.
His name also briefly became a meme.

In Michael Cohen’s public testimony Wednesday, he implicated a member of President Donald Trump’s orbit who has largely escaped scrutiny: Matthew Calamari.

Calamari, Trump’s former personal lawyer said, was familiar with Trump’s alleged practice of providing an inflated accounting of his assets to insurance companies are part of a scheme to evade taxes. As the House of Representatives continues to look into Trump’s secretive finances, his knowledge of those alleged plans could become increasingly important.

Calamari’s name instantly pricked reporters’ ears and his name turned him into a minor meme.

Here’s everything you need to know about him.

Trump hired him as a bodyguard after seeing him tackle a heckler

Bobby Bank/Getty Images

Calamari initially didn’t want to go into security services. As a student at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, he was a linebacker on the football team. He had dreams of playing football professionally, he told Bloomberg in 2015.

A knee injury put an end to that and Calamari found himself working in security. At the 1981 US Open, a pair of hecklers interrupted the game between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. He decisively handled it.

"I took one guy immediately right down," he told Bloomberg. Then he tackled another heckler: "I ran right at him, I picked him up, I slammed him to the ground, I carried him down."

Trump and his wife at the time, Ivana, were impressed, he told Bloomberg. Trump hired him as a personal bodyguard, and he’s risen the ranks ever since, a hardcore Trump loyalist.

"I love the guy," Calamari told Bloomberg. "My thing is, I’ve always promised I would, knock on wood, never let anything happen to him."

Now Calamari is the Chief Operating Officer of Trump’s business empire, according to his LinkedIn profile. In his role, he oversees building management, construction, and insurance, he told Bloomberg.

"He promotes you until you fail," he said. "There are no boundaries."

He and his son reportedly ran Trump’s surveillance operations

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

At his properties, Trump runs extensive surveillance far beyond the security operations of normal golf clubs and hotels, according to BuzzFeed News. At his Mar-a-Lago estate, he reportedly had a switchboard that allowed him to eavesdrop on calls made from any room’s telephone.

For years, Calamari ran the company’s surveillance programs at Trump Organization properties, according to BuzzFeed News.

In 2011, his son, Matthew Calamari, Jr., joined the Trump Organization. He became the company’s "Director of Surveillance" in May 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. In April 2017, he was promoted as the company’s Director of Security. Sources who worked for the Trump Organization told BuzzFeed News that Calamari, Jr. picked up the surveillance gig from his father.

Calamari, Jr. attended Chaminade High School, according to his LinkedIn profile. It’s a prestigious Catholic prep school also attended by Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, a close friend of Trump, as well as disgraced Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly and US Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat. He then went to Molloy College, graduating with a business degree in 2015.

Both Calamaris are registered Republicans, according to voting records reviewed by INSIDER, and live in Glen Head, which is part of Suozzi’s district on Long Island.

He had a memorable moment on the "The Apprentice"

NBC

Calamari was in three episodes of "The Apprentice," Trump’s reality TV show on NBC, according to IMDb. A clip from the second season’s live finale went viral Wednesday, after Cohen mentioned Calamari in his hearing.

In the clip, Trump asks Calamari to decide which contestant he likes better. As Trump pressed him to explain his choice, Calamari seemed paralyzed.

"Donald you know I don’t care for Jen very much, gotta be honest with ya," he said. "Um, because. Wow. Because, uh. Wow, I’m not doing too good, huh? … I like Kelly. Because, wow, OK."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider