Old land deal quietly haunts Mick Mulvaney as he serves as Trump’s chief of staff

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was involved in a real estate deal in North Carolina that is now subject to a legal dispute. (Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)

 Mick Mulvaney was a young businessman and budding politician 11 years ago when he became co-owner of a company that wanted to build a strip mall near a busy intersection in this upscale bedroom community outside Charlotte.

All that was needed was money.

The company cobbled together the financing — which included borrowing $1.4 million from a family firm owned by a prominent local businessman named Charles Fonville Sr., according to court records and interviews.