Goodfellas Do DC

-by Dorothy Reik

There used to be only two categories of low lifes that stripped clean and destroyed everything they touched-- taking whatever was worth anything and leaving behind the skeletal remains-- the Mafia and venture capitalists. The Mafia would take over a business-- a bar for example. They would sell the liquor out the back door, water down enough to keep the drunks coming back for a while and when the lights finally went out they would burn it down and collect the insurance-- including the "lost" liquor! Venture capitalists were more sophisticated-- first they borrow against the company they are taking over and then they steal and sell what they have borrowed against leaving a hollowed out company that can be sold for parts leaving the workers with noting. In both cases running the business was just for show-- the real "business" plan was "take the money and run."

Now we have a third category-- Government Goodfellas. See what happens when goodfellas take over our government. Godfather Trump first milks the public treasury for as much as he can-- over-charging for hotel rooms, golf carts, meals, whatever he could get the government to pay for. This would have continued but for the-- pandemic. When he had his own grift set up he invited the goodfellas to the trough, putting them in charge of regulating themselves so they could roll back rules which cut into their profits allowing themselves to pillage our public lands, pollute our waters, foul our air, further subsidize their industries with our tax dollars and lobby for tax cuts for themselves that would bankrupt any country without a printing press. Then they gutted the executive branch, including departments set up to prevent pandemics from taking hold, and put judges on the bench who would support their thefts and, for good measure, roll back the rights of others to sue them-- such as denying class action status, for one example.

Then, to be sure no one could prosecute them, they supported their Godfather as he gutted the Justice Department, removing any investigators who might get in their way and installing an Attorney General who would do their bidding by discrediting investigations and insisting on reducing sentences and dismissing cases against their own.

These Goodfellas and thief Godfather never planned to actually govern the country any more than the Mafia intended to run that bar or the venture capitalists even intended to run any of the companies they "bought" by borrowing against the very assets they were "buying." And so it is now in DC - the Goodfellas have taken charge of the assets of our country, they are milking them for all they are worth-- including profiting off this pandemic by causing bidding wars for the life-saving products they can produce-- and when they are done they will leave our broken country to fix itself and head back to their gated compounds to count their money.

We ourselves will have become the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Strangling Democracy by Nancy Ohanian

Does Trump Have More In Common With Jesus Or With Don Corleone?

John Pavlovitz had an Easter Sunday tweet this morning: "It's impossible to be devoted to the Jesus of the Scriptures, while refusing refugees, expelling immigrants, demonizing Muslims, vilifying brown people, worshiping political power, and neglecting the poor." And he pointed his followers to a post he wrote in February, The Heresy of Christian Nationalism. But earlier in February, there was another Pavlovitz post easier to fixate on: It’s Time Anyone Stopped Calling Donald Trump a Christian-- a train wreck kind of fixation. "Even in the early days of the Presidential campaign," he wrote, "it was a ludicrous idea: that Donald Trump was now a Christian; that he’d miraculously 'found Jesus' right at the time he needed to pull in millions of Evangelical voters. Never mind that his life showed an open contempt for most of the things the Jesus of the Gospels lived and preached: humility, generosity, respect, empathy, kindness, peace. The high profile-evangelists in his corner assured their rightly alarmed flocks, that behind the scenes Donnie was changed man, a 'baby Christian' who’d now seen the light and was making his way down the narrow road of faith to lead us all to the Promised Land (where curiously America was first and everyone was white.)"

The opportunistic religious leaders began publicly framing the vile, profane, relentlessly offensive Trump as a flawed, imperfect tool of God‚ and American church folk raised on a faith of fear and conditioned to believe they are perpetually in danger—began buying it. Little by little, it became okay, even sensible to call Donald Trump a Christian. (Talk about a miracle.)

And for someone who has served as a pastor for twenty years, the transformation was astounding and disheartening to witness. Millions of fundamentalists who’d previously spent their days parsing out Bible verses to condemn the LGBTQ community, Muslims, entertainers, Atheists, Democrats, suddenly became a people of Grace. They got really liberal with the Scriptures. They lectured those of us who questioned it all “not to judge lest we be judged”, and heaped shame upon us for bringing up example after example of the man’s hypocrisy, because “God looks at the heart” and how dare we assess another’s professed faith. (Somehow these things were never in play over the eight years they spent daily crucifying Barack Obama, but perhaps the issue there was one not of religion, but of pigmentation.)

But this far into Donald Trump’s tenure, Christians need to speak the truth that sets them free: Donald Trump is not a Christian. He can do every ceremonial, photo-op Bible Study he wants.

Yes, he may have shown up in a church during the campaign (looking as comfortable as a cow in a slaughterhouse), and he may have given some lip service prayer to one of his preacher pals while golfing, and he may have bamboozled scores of Christians already dying to believe it so they could make peace with their vote—but he is not a man following Jesus. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks these words:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”  Mt 5:15-20

Jesus says that we can judge people. We should evaluate the things we can see. We can measure devotion to God by what is manifested outwardly. We look at the “fruit.”

What is the fruit of Donald Trump’s life, of his marriages, his business dealings, his campaign, of his Presidency?

What is the fruit of eliminating healthcare for tens of millions of poor people?

What is the fruit of tear-gassing refugees and separating their families?

What is the fruit of walling off Mexico and demanding they pay for the gesture?


What is the fruit of driving an oil pipeline through sacred Native American land?


What is the fruit of filling your Cabinet with billionaires?

What is the fruit of demonizing and banning Muslims?

What is the fruit of appointing a white supremacist to the highest level of government?

It’s rotten fruit, that’s what it is.

It’s exactly the kind of greedy, bloated, bitter, violent, self-centered, myopic existence that Jesus spent his life calling us to reject. So no, I don’t know the President’s heart or his inner confession of faith, but I have eyes and they see no love or benevolence or compassion-- and that does matter to Jesus.

Christians need to stop insisting that Donald Trump is a Christian if they really care at all about people coming to know Christ. If that is the greatest burden on their hearts, using this man is tantamount to spiritual treason. It is a perversion of the Gospels that provides such a dissonance to the bystander, as to make Christ all but invisible. Until he says or does anything that remotely resembling him, we need to stop using him and Jesus in the same breath because it distorts Jesus by association.

Christian, you can continue to support this man, but don’t say you’re doing it because he is a man of God, a follower of Jesus, someone striving for Christlikeness. The putrid, stinking fruit of his life-- says otherwise. 

Or, in the words of Guardian reporter David Smith, writing today from Washington, DC, "After Mueller, the president is being compared to mobsters from John Gotti to Tony Soprano. And yet he remains in office... [Mueller's report] portrays him as a serial liar willing to abuse power, shred norms and bend the rule of law in a White House rotten to the core. Amid this culture of malfeasance and mendacity, trusted lieutenants are expected to demonstrate absolute loyalty, up to and including obstructing justice to save the president’s skin. 'He conducts himself like a New Jersey mob boss who is unconcerned about asking the people around him to conduct unethical or legally challenging behaviour,' said Kurt Bardella, former spokesperson and senior adviser for the House oversight and government reform committee. 'Truth and accuracy just don’t factor into his thought process at all. The demands for loyalty and fealty are like an organised crime network. Instead of the John Gotti family, it’s the Trump family and his solders are the Republican members of Congress who protect him.'... Mueller’s report depicted a man dangling pardons to acolytes, turning vicious against those who refused to kiss his ring and frantically scrambling to conceal evidence as law enforcement closed in. He appeared paranoid about who was on his side and who might betray him."

Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “I thought it was a shocking report. I don’t think we’ve had a president in the modern era who’s been revealed to be as coarse and brutish and willing to break the law as Donald Trump.

“The criminal intent is quite comparable to what Richard Nixon engaged in. Trump was able to get away with it because his staff said no. Nixon’s staff did the Watergate break-in and participated in the cover-up.”

The investigation spelled out just how far Trump has gone in pushing the limits of the presidency and making others complicit. Jacobs added: “What concerns me about this moment is the message it sends to future presidents: Trump was able to act in a lawless way and solicit help from a foreign rival. One shudders to think how future presidents will act. What’s the deterrent?”

As faithfully chronicled in The Sopranos, the most skilled crime bosses manage to remain untouchable even as their captains and footsoldiers are picked off. Trump managed to resist sitting down for an in-person interview with the special counsel.

The report’s appendix includes 12 pages of Trump’s written responses to queries from Mueller’s team. There were more than 30 instances when Trump offered variations of “I don’t recall”, answers Mueller deemed “inadequate”. He considered issuing a subpoena to force the president to appear but decided to avoid a long legal battle.

But there was another striking moment in the report that seemed out of character. Mueller notes that Trump was so agitated at the special counsel’s appointment on 17 May 2017 that he slumped back in his chair and declared: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”

A rare show of self-doubt from an otherwise shameless Don. Corleone and Soprano would not have approved.

America's Problem: Trump Is Married To The Mob

Trump's Mafia connections have been dogging him for his whole life. Somehow they didn't impress his supporters-- except maybe in Staten Island where Mon connections are considered a plus. Yesterday David Von Drehle gave it another try in the Washington Post: All The President's Wiseguys. Trump, he wrote, "spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented-- the late Wayne Barrett and decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply-- Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime. New York construction, for starters. In 1988, Vincent “the Fish” Cafaro of the Genovese crime family testified before a U.S. Senate committee concerning the Mafia’s control of building projects in New York. Construction unions and concrete contractors were deeply dirty, Cafaro confirmed, and four of the city’s five crime families worked cooperatively to keep it that way."

This would not have been news to Trump, whose early political mentor and personal lawyer was Roy Cohn, consigliere to such dons as Fat Tony Salerno and Carmine Galante. After Cohn guided the brash young developer through the gutters of city politics to win permits for Trump Plaza and Trump Tower, it happened that Trump elected to build primarily with concrete rather than steel. He bought the mud at inflated prices from S&A Concrete, co-owned by Cohn’s client Salerno and Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family.

Coincidence? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Trump moved next into the New Jersey casino business, which was every bit as clean as it sounds. State officials merely shrugged when Trump bought a piece of land from associates of Philadelphia mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo for roughly $500,000 more than it was worth. However, this and other ties persuaded police in Australia to block Trump’s bid to build a casino in Sydney in 1987, citing Trump’s “Mafia connections.”

His gambling interests led him into the world of boxing promotion, where Trump became chums with fight impresario Don King, a former Cleveland numbers runner. (Trump once told me that he owes his remarkable coiffure to King, who advised the future president, from personal experience, that outlandish hair is great P.R.) King hasn’t been convicted since the 1960s, when he did time for stomping a man to death. But investigators at the FBI and U.S. Senate concluded that his Mafia ties ran from Cleveland to New York, Vegas to Atlantic City. Mobsters “were looking to launder illicit cash,” wrote one sleuth. “Boxing, of all the sports, was perhaps the most accommodating laundromat, what with its international subculture of unsavory characters who play by their own rules.”

But an even more accommodating laundromat came along: luxury real estate-- yet another mob-adjacent field in which the Trump name has loomed large. Because buyers of high-end properties often hide their identities, it’s impossible to say how many Russian Mafia oligarchs own Trump-branded condos. Donald Trump Jr. gave a hint in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”

For instance: In 2013, federal prosecutors indicted Russian mob boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and 33 others on charges related to a gambling ring operating from two Trump Tower condos that allegedly laundered more than $100 million. A few months later, the same Mr. Tokhtakhounov, a fugitive from U.S. justice, was seen on the red carpet at Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Obviously, not everyone in these industries is corrupt, and if Donald Trump spent four decades rubbing elbows with wiseguys and never got dirty, he has nothing to worry about from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. But does he look unworried to you?

Perhaps it's worthwhile to go back to a NY Times piece from 1988, long before anyone ever saw a lowlife like Trump in the white House, even as a visitor, Mob Role In New York Construction Depicted. "Vincent (Fish) Cafaro, a former captain in the Genovese organized-crime family in New York," explained The Times, "told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that the Mafia rigged contracting bids in NYC by demanding a 2% kickback from winning bidders and their unions. 'Legitimate guys ain't got a chance,' he said. He told the senators that the Mob-- the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese and Colombo crime families-- controls 75% New York's construction industry.

Cafaro, who told them he had been involved with the Mafia since 1958, was indicted with Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno for "racketeering, extortion, plotting murders, gambling and conspiracy." He became an informer for the FBI and wore a wire at Genovese Family meetings from October 1986 to March 1987. In 1989 and 1990, Cafaro testified against Gambino boss John Gotti and then disappeared into the federal Witness Protection Program.

Remember Staten Island Mafioso figure and congressman, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm? He was involved with Anthony "Fat Tony" Morelli. Trump's "Fat Tony" was Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. During the Republican primaries Ted Cruz tried getting the Trump Mafia story out into the media. Not many people cared. New Yorkers had known about it for decades and Trump fans in the Old Confederacy were already under Trump's spell. Michael Daly, though, gave it a shot for the Daily Beast: The Klansmen and Mobsters in Donald Trump’s Closet.

Cruz sought to rouse the mob ghosts of Donald Trump’s earlier days, saying on NBC that “ABC, CNN, multiple news reports have reported about his dealings with, for example, S&A Construction, which was owned by ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno, who is a mobster who is in jail.”

Trump did deal with S&A Construction in the early 1980s, though not necessarily out of choice.

S&A was indeed owned by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno of the Genovese crime family, but he was sentenced to 100 years in prison back in 1986 and died behind bars in 1992.

So an apologist might just shrug and say it was what everybody had to do back in the day in order to build anything at all.

A Trump supporter might even suggest that he and indeed all his fellow builders were victims of the mob in that era.

But few of the builders who accepted S&A concrete as an offer they could not refuse actually met with Salerno, as Trump is said to have done in the office of Roy Cohn the lawyer and fixer, who represented The Donald as well as the Don.

The Smoking Gun also reported that the now-extensive licensing of Trump name began with two lines of glamorized Cadillac limos-- the Trump Golden Series and the Trump Executive Series-- produced by Dillinger Coach Works, which was itself apparently named after the famous gangland figure John Dillinger. The company was owned by two convicted felons, one of whom, John Staluppi, has been identified by the FBI as a member of the Columbo crime family.

And only Trump helped a lady friend of a mob-connected union boss secure financing for three duplex apartments priced at nearly $10 million directly beneath the Trump penthouse in the signature Trump Tower. Verina Hixon’s complex included the building’s only private swimming pool, an addition that required structural alterations to the building.

As reported by Wayne Barrett in his book Trump: The Deals and the Downfall and confirmed by law enforcement officials as well as by people who worked on Trump Tower, the beautiful Hixon was a close pal of union boss John Cody, an avowed admirer of Jimmy Hoffa and also close to Cohn.

The value of Cody’s goodwill became clear when his union, Teamsters Local 282, called a citywide strike just as Trump Tower was near completion. The Trump site was exempted.

The danger of Cody’s displeasure became equally clear when Trump grew so weary of Hixon’s demands that he finally said no. Concrete deliveries ceased not just at Trump Tower but at sites across the city. Hixon soon got what she wanted.

Then Cody was sentenced to federal prison in 1984 for extortion and for attempting to murder the man who took over the union following his arrest. The extent of Cody’s fall became clear when Hixon was forced out of the tower. Trump no longer had her beneath his 68th-floor aerie, which is in truth on the 58th floor, the numbers in the tower’s elevators going from 1 to 6 and then 16 to 68 to make it all seem huger.

As he expanded into the casino business in Atlantic City, Trump agreed to pay twice the market value for land occupied by a bar owned by the sons of two Philadelphia Mafia bosses, the boys having made a name for themselves as part of a crew called the Young Executioners. The purchase, also reported by Barrett in his book, was reportedly routed through the secretary of Paddy McGahn, a thrice-wounded Marine war hero who had become as influential in his city as Roy Cohn was in New York.

In bringing high rollers to Atlantic City, Trump used a helicopter service owned by Joseph Weichselbaum, a mob-connected drug smuggler who lived in a Trump apartment while awaiting sentencing on narcotics charges in 1987. The case was prosecuted in Ohio but was moved to New Jersey for reasons that remain unclear.

As reported by The Smoking Gun, the case was then assigned to The Donald’s sister, federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. Some serious ghosts would soon be rising from that supposed coincidence had somebody not thought to quickly shift the case to another judge. Barry’s now-deceased husband, John Barry, often served as The Donald’s lawyer in New Jersey.

Trump’s dealings with mob figures appear to have included at least one member of Chinese organized crime. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Government Affairs reported in 1992 that Danny Leung was both a vice president for marketing at Trump’s Taj Mahal casino and an associate of the 14K Triad.

“He was formerly a business partner with Eddie Louie, a 14K Triad member and the brother of Nickie Louie, aka Louie Yin Poy, a former leader of the Ghost Shadows Gang,” the committee reported. “Leung has also given complimentary tickets for hotel rooms and Asian shows to numerous members and associates of Asian organized crime.”

The committee notes, “The 14K Triad comprises over 30 subgroups which include an estimated membership of over 20,000… The 14K engages in a variety of criminal activities including heroin trafficking, alien smuggling and counterfeit credit card manufacturing, and has connections in the United States for all of these purposes.”

More recently, Trump was joined in building the Trump SoHo by the son of a convicted extortionist described in court papers as a Russian gangster. Court records also show that the son has himself been convicted of felony assault and of bilking investors out of millions in a stock scheme.

Trump has insisted that he only had minimal dealings with the felon, Felix Sater, and was unaware of the man’s record until it was reported in the newspapers. Trump has also insisted that he had minimal dealings with John Cody, telling The Daily Beast that “I barely knew him,” describing the union boss as “a bad guy.” Trump has further denied ever encountering Salerno, though the encounter has been described by a Cohn assistant and there is no disputing that Trump did business with the mobster’s firm.

Trump with father figure, right-wing Mafia lawyer Roy Cohn

A couple of months before the election, we noted that even Trump campaign volunteers at the lowest level had to sign a 2,271-word non-disclosure agreement in which they also promise they won't compete against or say anything bad about Trump, his company, his family members [including Barron] or products-- now and forever." The bizarre requirement meant that even online volunteers had to sign the form, even if they'd never meet a Trumpanzee family member, attend a Trumpanzee rally, meet a Trumpanzee campaign staffer in person or step inside a Trumpanzee campaign office. Those years and decades with the slimiest and most dishonest lawyer in contemporary American history, Roy Cohn, had certainly rubbed off on Señor Trumpanzee. And in more ways than one. Also during the campaign, the Wall Street Journal described Signore Trumpanzee's deep ties to the Mob, writing that through his shady businesses in NYC and Atlantic City he "sometimes dealt with people who had ties to organized crime, while giving Trumpanzee the opportunity to describe himself as "the cleanest guy there is."

Some developers avoided working directly with unsavory figures by operating through a general contractor. Mr. Trump said he preferred to negotiate business matters personally, because he made more money that way.

Referring to a concrete contracting firm that law enforcement said was affiliated with one of New York’s Mafia families, Mr. Trump said: “That was a major contractor. You hear stories that they may have been [mob-controlled].

“In the meantime, I was a builder. I was never going to run for office.… I’d go by the lowest bid and I’d go by their track record, but I didn’t do a personal history of who they are.”

Many of the associations the Journal explored have been previously reported piecemeal. In the early 1990s, Mr. Trump’s license to operate casinos in Atlantic City was re-examined after a book by reporter Wayne Barrett alleged a number of organized-crime connections. New Jersey officials determined Mr. Trump remained eligible.

In its own examination, the Journal reviewed thousands of pages of legal and corporate documents and interviewed dozens of Mr. Trump’s business associates.

The gambling business now is largely corporate, but at the time when Atlantic City was newly opened to casinos and a family friend suggested Mr. Trump build there, many banks shunned the industry.

“Any project in the gaming arena in general is a difficult project to finance, because of the natural prohibition that a lot of institutions have,” Mr. Trump told New Jersey casino regulators in 1982.

Some of the people he dealt with in Atlantic City illustrate why the FBI agent counseled caution.

Kenneth Shapiro owned part of a site where Mr. Trump wanted to build his first casino. Mr. Shapiro was a Philadelphia scrap-metal dealer and property investor, described by law enforcement as an “agent” of Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo.

A co-owner of the site was Daniel Sullivan, a gregarious six-foot-five Teamster and labor consultant with a criminal record that included a weapons violation. “He knew a lot of organized-crime figures and they knew him,” said Walter Stowe, a former FBI agent.

Mr. Sullivan also was a tipster to the FBI. Gangsters “knew he was an informant. I don’t know why nobody ever tried to kill him,” Mr. Stowe said.

Mr. Trump negotiated with Messrs. Shapiro and Sullivan, now both dead, to lease their property. “They are not bad people from what I see,” Mr. Trump said at a regulatory hearing in 1982. His project nonetheless faced obstacles because of their involvement.

Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Trump and another partner had a deal to acquire an interest in a drywall company. New Jersey casino regulators told Mr. Trump any dealings with Mr. Sullivan beyond the property lease could delay casino licensing. He backed out of the drywall deal.

When the hotel-casino was near completion, the regulators said Messrs. Shapiro and Sullivan might need casino licenses too, as site owners, but could have trouble getting them. Eventually, Mr. Trump bought the two out.

Mr. Trump also used Mr. Sullivan as an adviser on New York labor issues. These included a 1980 dispute over the use of undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller store on Fifth Avenue to make way for Trump Tower, Mr. Sullivan said in lawsuit testimony. Mr. Trump, in testimony of his own, said he didn’t know there were undocumented workers at the site.

Mr. Trump told the Journal he knew Mr. Sullivan and considered him “OK” because he traveled with FBI agents. He said he didn’t know of any underworld connection Mr. Shapiro might have had.

Mr. Shapiro was a conduit the Scarfo crime family used to buy influence with Atlantic City’s then-mayor, Michael J. Matthews, according to a 1984 indictment of the mayor. The late Mr. Matthews pleaded guilty to extortion. Mr. Scarfo, now in prison, didn’t agree to an interview.

Mr. Trump, as a casino owner, couldn’t legally contribute to the local politicians who controlled such matters as zoning and signs. Mr. Shapiro told a federal grand jury he secretly gave thousands of dollars to the mayor on Mr. Trump’s behalf, said people familiar with his account.

“Donald was always trying to maneuver politically to get things done,” said Mr. Shapiro’s brother Barry Shapiro.

Kenneth Shapiro said he never was reimbursed for the money given the mayor, according to his brother and two other people. “Donald just reneged; that’s his automatic thing,” Barry Shapiro said.

Asked about this, Mr. Trump said he didn’t make contributions to the Atlantic City mayor. “I’m not interested in giving cash, OK?...The last thing I’m doing is now handing cash.”

As for Mr. Shapiro, “I never remember him asking me for money. He was always straight with me...I didn’t know Shapiro well other than to know that we did a pretty small little land transaction down in Atlantic City, which was fine.”

A major profit source at one Trump casino was a racehorse trader named Robert LiButti. His gambling losses earned Trump Plaza $11 million between 1986 and 1989, state documents show.

Mr. LiButti had been convicted of tax fraud related to horse sales in 1977 and was barred from attending races in New York for trying to conceal his horse ownership. A Trump employee told New Jersey regulators that Mr. LiButti repeatedly invoked the name of gangster John Gotti and called him “my boss,” according to a 1991 state investigative report.

“LiButti was a high-roller in Atlantic City,” Mr. Trump said in an interview. “I found him to be a nice guy. But I had nothing to do with him.”

Jack O’Donnell, who ran Trump Plaza in the late 1980s, said, “It isn’t like [Mr. Trump] saw LiButti once or twice-- he spent time with him, saw him multiple times,” and even attended a birthday party for Mr. LiButti’s daughter.

The daughter declined to be interviewed but confirmed to Yahoo News that Mr. Trump attended a birthday party for her.

It was illegal in New Jersey for casinos to keep high-rollers happy by giving them cash gifts. Regulators, in a ruling that didn’t cite Mr. Trump personally, fined Trump Plaza for funneling Mr. LiButti $1.65 million via gifts of expensive cars quickly converted into cash.

Mr. Trump agreed in 1988 to buy a horse from Mr. LiButti for $250,000, Mr. O’Donnell said in a book he wrote after quitting Trump Plaza. The horse, named D.J. Trump, had cost the LiButti family just $90,000 a year earlier, according to Blood Horse magazine. Mr. O’Donnell said Mr. Trump aborted the deal after the horse had a health problem.

Mr. Trump didn’t respond to questions about the horse and the birthday party.

...A lawyer Mr. Trump relied on and socialized with in his early years was the hard-driving attorney Roy Cohn. Among Mr. Cohn’s clients were several gangsters, including Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, co-owner of a concrete company important to New York builders. Former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res said that during heated negotiations with contractors, Mr. Trump would pull out a photo of Mr. Cohn and say, “I’m not afraid to sue you and this is who my lawyer is.”

Mr. Trump called that “totally false.” He said people in the construction industry “don’t get scared by holding up a picture.”

Mr. Trump was a character witness for Mr. Cohn in proceedings that led to the lawyer’s disbarment shortly before his death in 1986.

Mr. Cohn had many clients who, like Mr. Trump, weren’t mob-affiliated, such as the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. “Roy was a great lawyer if he wanted to be,” Mr. Trump said in an interview.

Messrs. Cohn and Trump had a common associate in Teamsters official John A. Cody. Mr. Cody had a lengthy arrest record and was close to mob bosses Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, according to a Justice Department memo from 1982, when Mr. Cody was convicted of racketeering.

Mr. Cody led a powerful union local that represented drivers who delivered cement to New York construction sites.

When he called a strike, Mr. Trump still received cement for Trump Tower, said Mr. Cody’s son, Michael.

“My father wasn’t that generous, unless there was a reason,” Michael Cody said.

...In the 2000s, Mr. Trump dealt with another figure who had gangland ties. It happened when a small real-estate firm called Bayrock Group rented space in Trump Tower, two floors below Mr. Trump’s offices, and negotiated deals with Mr. Trump to put his name on buildings and give him equity in them. One person Mr. Trump worked with at Bayrock was Felix Sater.

In the early 1990s, well before Mr. Trump knew him, the Russian-born Mr. Sater was a stockbroker but lost his license and went to prison after he jabbed a margarita glass into a man’s face in a bar fight.

Later in the 1990s, Mr. Sater was involved in a Mafia-linked scheme to pump up marginal stocks, dump them on unsuspecting investors and stash the profits abroad. The scheme relied on gangsters from three mob families for protection, said a Justice Department news release. It quoted the New York police commissioner at the time as saying the operation could have been called “Goodfellas Meet the Boiler Room.”

Mr. Sater pleaded guilty to racketeering, cooperated with prosecutors and had his conviction sealed. It was then, around 2000, that he joined Bayrock and sometimes dealt with Mr. Trump on real estate.

Bayrock’s projects included the Trump SoHo condos in New York and Trump International Hotel & Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Its marketing in Fort Lauderdale included a letter in which Mr. Trump said, “This magnificent oceanfront resort offers the finest and most luxurious experience I have ever created.”

The New York Times described Mr. Sater’s criminal history in an article in 2007. Mr. Trump, giving a court deposition days later, said he was unaware of it until then.

Two federal press releases in 2000 had referred to Mr. Sater’s past, one from the National Association of Securities Dealers and one from the Justice Department. The Justice Department one announced the indictment of 19 people in the pump-and-dump stock scheme Mr. Sater was part of, including several it identified as members of La Cosa Nostra.

The Justice Department release said a Genovese crime-family soldier, Ernest “Butch” Montevecchi, had protected Mr. Sater from an extortion effort.

Mr. Montevecchi declined to comment.

In a 2009 court proceeding, Mr. Sater described the Bayrock real-estate business, which is no longer active, as one he “built with my own two hands” and where he was probably the No. 2 person. In an interview, Mr. Sater said he had atoned for his crimes by cooperating with the government in the pump-and-dump case and on national-security matters. He declined to answer questions about Mr. Trump.

More recently, Trump's Organized Crime dealings have been with the Russian Mafia rather than the old traditional Italian Mafia. In Trump’s Russian Laundromat, veteran journalist Craig Unger details how the Russian mafia has used the president’s properties-- including Trump Tower and the Trump Taj Majal-- as a way to launder money and hide assets. "Whether Trump knew it or not," writes Unger, "Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs used his properties not only to launder vast sums of money from extortion, drugs, gambling, and racketeering, but even as a base of operations for their criminal activities. In the process, they propped up Trump’s business and enabled him to reinvent his image. Without the Russian mafia, it is fair to say, Donald Trump would not be president of the United States."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Yup. The White House is now the Trump Crime Family Social Club. Would it shock you if Sammy The Bull Gravano was the doorman at 1600?

Drugs? You bet. The pill-popping wiseguys and made men (and women) of the Trump Administration now refer to house doctor Ronny Jackson as "The Candyman" as they've brought government drug abuse to new heights. Drugs explain a lot. Just think of that the next time you see Kellyanne, Sarah, or any of 'em yapping on your TV. It's worth noting, too, that we pay any White House drug habits with our hard-earned tax dollars. Criminals? In the White House? Not the first time, but now it's apparently a qualification for "service." Rapists? Can there be any doubt? We've heard more than enough rumors and the way they all so eagerly supported Roy Moore speaks volumes.

Yup. When Señor Trumpanzee was talking about such things being characteristic of Mexicans as he announced his candidacy, he was really just speaking code for himself and his people. These are not "the best people" after all. I'm shocked. Shocked I tell ya!

Who Keeps Trying To Burn Down Trump Tower, Baku? As Trump Said, The Mob Takes The Fifth

Yesterday's fire at Trump Tower Azerbaijan isn't being covered correctly by the media. The real story is that Trump and his Mafia buddies have been trying to burn the building down-- for insurance purposes-- for a couple of years. I'll get to that in a moment. First, though, let's look at what's being so shoddily reported this weekend.

A skyscraper that was slated to become a Trump International Hotel in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku has caught fire.

The Azadliq newspaper reported that the blaze broke out on the middle floors of the 33-storey building, which is locally known as Trump Tower, and spread.

Etibar Mirzoev, deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said there were no injuries and authorities were working to establish the cause of the of the fire.

He said it took more than three hours to extinguish the flames and suggested the response was delayed because of road closures put in place for Sunday’s Grand Prix, on the Baku City Circuit.

It came after an apartment fire at Trump Tower in New York left a prominent art dealer dead and six firefighters injured earlier this month.

Development was started on the tower in Baku a decade ago but it has never opened.

Originally planned as a luxury apartment building by local developers, the project was taken over by the future US President’s company in 2012.

The Trump Organisation announced that a hotel would occupy the first 13 floors, with flats on the storeys above, but pulled out of the project in December 2016 following Mr Trump’s election.

There was controversy over affiliation between the company that owned the project, Baku XXI Century, and a local family associated with corruption. Every paragraph has at least one mistake, some so shockingly incorrect that it destroys the meaning of what actually happened. So... let me go back to

a post we wrote over a year ago.

Monday, both Rachel's researchers and New Yorker writer Adam Davidson made a few small-- but significant-- errors (and omissions) in the report that each filed on the Trump Azerbaijan scandal. Maddow's long, circuitous dramatic report-- once she got to it-- was just based on Davidson's article. As usual, she had nothing substantive to add, just some entertainment-value drama and random superfluous facts barely-- at best-- related to the matter at hand. The video above came after the long circuitous thing, which I won't bore you with, and is her interview with Davidson who spent more time in Baku than I did-- but must have not talked to the right people there... which I did... back in June.

Last summer I visited Azerbaijan for the first time, at the suggestion of first Alan Grayson and later Ted Lieu. Both had been there and both recommended it highly, especially since I was going to be in the "neighborhood" (Moscow) anyway. I did a few posts here and a few posts at my travel blog. The top takeaway was that Trump was in business-- not just in Azerbaijan, but literally everywhere in the world-- with the most corrupt criminal elements in the world. Both Davidson and Maddow got that.

What Davidson missed (he got it wrong) was that Trump Tower Baku did open (albeit without a "Grand Opening") and did start renting out rooms-- and was almost immediately shuttered-- and that eventually-- after it was clear it would not be in business in time for the week long festivities around the Formula 1 Race (the 2016 European Grand Prix), the Mammadov mafia tried burning it down, presumably for the insurance money. Davidson messing up on that caused Maddow to go off on her theory about how if the business was never meant to make any financial sense, it must have had another reason to exist. She isn't necessarily wrong about the money-laundering aspect from Iran's Revolutionary Guard-- the CIA had been talking about that and that relationship with Trump's partners, the Mammadovs, for years. But Trump Tower Baku was very much meant to be-- at least by Trump and Ivanka-- a profitable, on-going enterprise.

What they didn't quite understand was that Baku is a "with it" cosmopolitan and highly-educated and connected city/society. Other than the politics of a kleptocracy/kakistocracy, the city is not some impoverished backward backwater. As soon as Trump went on a campaign-related rampage against Muslims, this progressive and relative secular city realized he was shit-talking them. And that was the end of any chance Trump Tower Baku could be a success. By the time I got there, they were already debating how long it would take before they could change the name and re-open.

Here's the stuff Davidson missed that my sources in Baku told me. A team claiming to be part of the Trump Organization went through Baku's 5-star hotels hiring away many of the best employees. How could that have happened? They offered to pay people high salaries that included 6 month advances. Nothing like that had ever happened in the Baku hotel industry and Trump Tower was soon far more filled with employees than Trump doddering administration has been.

Now, remember, the crooked Transportation Minister, Ziya Mammadov, who went from a lowly railway worker to a billionaire/Mafioso, owns a lot of Azerbaijan. His son, Anar, is a shady character and a perfect fit for The Donald. It was only a matter of time before they found each other, which they did when Anar decided to rent Trump's name for his glitzy new hotel. He paid Trump between $2.5 and $2.8 million for the right to slap "Trump Tower" on his building and to get some "consultations" from Ivanka. In November, 2014, the Trump Organization announced that Trump Tower Baku was part of it's hotel empire and The Donald himself boasted that "Trump International Hotel & Tower Baku represents the unwavering standard of excellence of The Trump Organization and our involvement in only the best global development projects. When we open in 2015, visitors and residents will experience a luxurious property unlike anything else in Baku-- it will be among the finest in the world." Ivanka added that "This incredible building reflects the highest level of luxury and refinement, with extraordinary architecture inspired by the Caspian Sea and sophisticated interiors that seamlessly blend contemporary style with timeless appeal. We are looking forward to bringing our unparalleled Trump services and amenities to Azerbaijan.”

It sort of opened. Trump's partner, Anar, has been described by U.S. diplomats as "notoriously corrupt" and as working to launder money for the Iranian military. The hotel hired a full staff and started renting rooms but never had a promised grand opening. Everyone in the Baku hotel industry knows someone who worked there... briefly.

Trump often talks of hiring the best people and surrounding himself with people he can trust. In practice, however, he and his executives have at times appeared to overlook details about the background of people he has chosen as business partners, such as whether they had dubious associations, had been convicted of crimes, faced extradition or inflated their resumes.

...In the Azerbaijani case, Garten said the Trump Organization had performed meticulous due diligence on the company's partners, but hadn't researched the allegations against the Baku partner's father because he wasn't a party to the deal.

"I've never heard that before," Garten said, when first asked about allegations of Iranian money laundering by the partner's father, which appeared in U.S. diplomatic cables widely available since they were leaked in 2010.

Garten subsequently said he was confident the minister alleged to be laundering Iranian funds, Ziya Mammadov, had no involvement in his son's holding company, even though some of the son's major businesses regularly partnered with the transportation ministry and were founded while the son was in college overseas. Ziya Mammadov did not respond to a telephone message the AP left with his ministry in Baku or to emails to the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington.

Garten told the AP that Trump's company uses a third-party investigative firm, which he did not identify, that specializes in background intelligence gathering and searches global watch lists, warrant lists and sanctions lists maintained by the United Nations, Interpol and others.

...Any American contemplating a business venture in Azerbaijan faces a risk: "endemic public corruption," as the State Department puts it. Much of that money flows from the oil and gas industries, but the State Department also considers the country to be a waypoint for terrorist financiers, Iranian sanctions-busters and Afghan drug lords.

The environment is a risky one for any business venture seeking to avoid violating U.S. penalties imposed against Iran or anti-bribery laws under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

...Garten said the Trump Organization had performed background screening on all those involved in the deal and was confident Mammadov's father played no role in the project.

Experts on Azerbaijan were mystified that Trump or anyone else could reach that conclusion.

Anar Mammadov is widely viewed by diplomats and nongovernmental organizations as a transparent stand-in for the business interests of his father. Anar's business has boomed with regular help from his father's ministry, receiving exclusive government contracts, a near monopoly on Baku's taxi business and even a free fleet of autobuses.

"These are not business people acting on their own-- you're dealing with daddy," said Richard Kauzlarich, a U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s who went on to work under the Director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration.

"Whatever the Trump people thought they were doing, that wasn't reality," Kauzlarich said.

Anar Mammadov, who is believed to be 35, has said in a series of interviews that he founded Garant Holdings' predecessor-- which has arms in transportation, construction, banking, telecommunications and manufacturing-- in 2000, when he would have been 19. Anar received his bachelor's degree in 2003 and a master's in business administration in 2005-- both from a university in London.

Mammadov's statement that he founded the business in 2000 appeared in a magazine produced by a research firm in partnership with the Azerbaijani government. In other forums, he has said he started the business in 2005, though several of its key subsidiaries predate that period.

As Davidson wrote, "After Donald Trump became a candidate for President, in 2015, Mother Jones, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and other publications ran articles that raised questions about his involvement in the Baku project. These reports cited a series of cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2009 and 2010, which were made public by WikiLeaks. In one of the cables, a U.S. diplomat described Ziya Mammadov as 'notoriously corrupt even for Azerbaijan.' The Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, Alan Garten, told reporters that the Baku hotel project raised no ethical issues for Donald Trump, because his company had never engaged directly with Mammadov."

Late in the presidential campaign, after he had beaten all the Republicans and was facing Clinton, Trump had a visit from American intelligence officials who explained to him the ramifications of being in business with Mammadov was so overwhelmingly disqualifying that he had to end the relationship immediately. I don't know what they showed him exactly, but Trump Tower Baku completely disappeared from Trump World.

No evidence has surfaced showing that Donald Trump, or any of his employees involved in the Baku deal, actively participated in bribery, money laundering, or other illegal behavior. But the Trump Organization may have broken the law in its work with the Mammadov family. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, passed in 1977, forbade American companies from participating in a scheme to reward a foreign government official in exchange for material benefit or preferential treatment. The law even made it a crime for an American company to unknowingly benefit from a partner’s corruption if it could have discovered illicit activity but avoided doing so. This closed what was known as the “head in the sand” loophole.

...Even a cursory look at the Mammadovs suggests that they are not ideal partners for an American business. Four years before the Trump Organization announced the Baku deal, WikiLeaks released the U.S. diplomatic cables indicating that the family was corrupt; one cable mentioned the Mammadovs’ link to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. In 2013, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project investigated the Mammadov family’s corruption and published well-documented exposés. Six months before the hotel announcement, Foreign Policy ran an article titled “The Corleones of the Caspian,” which suggested that the Mammadovs had exploited Ziya’s position as Transportation Minister to make their fortunes.

...To this day, the Trump Organization has not provided satisfying answers to the most basic questions about the Baku deal: who owns Baku XXI Century, the company with which they signed the contracts; the origin of the funds with which Baku XXI Century paid the Trump Organization; whether the Mammadovs used their political power to benefit themselves and the Trump Organization; and whether the Mammadovs used money obtained from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to fund the Trump Tower Baku.

...More than a dozen lawyers with experience in F.C.P.A. prosecution expressed surprise at the Trump Organization’s seemingly lax approach to vetting its foreign partners. But, when I asked a former Trump Organization executive if the Baku deal had seemed unusual, he laughed. “No deal there seems unusual, as long as a check is attached,” he said.

Remember, the first significant piece of legislation Trump signed was a bill repealing an Obama administration rule focring energy and mining companies to disclose any payments (bribes) they made abroad. Trumpanzee: "This is a big signing, a very important signing. And this is H.J. Resolution 41, disapproving the Securities and Exchange Commission's rule on disclosure of payments by resource extraction issuers. It's a big deal. And I want to thank Speaker Paul Ryan for being here. He's been tremendous. Jeb Hensarling very, very important and really worked hard. Representative Bill Huizenga and all of the friends-- Peter-- all of my friends are up here. And we really appreciate it." I'm sure he did-- and what's good enough for the Oil barons is certainly good enough for the hotel developing mobsters, no?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Well, guess what, Trump actually does know something: Mobsters take the fifth, as they are entitled to do under our judicial system. But, Señor Trumpanzee ought to know quite about about mobsters and their ways. He's associated with them for decades. 'Associated' may even be too mild of a word. Should we be surprised that Donald Trump tries to run the government like a don of another kind? Hell, we might as well refer to Mar-A-Lago as his 'Social Club." It's where he has the "biggest earners" come kiss his ring and give him his cut.

The New York real estate world was infiltrated by the mafia long, long ago. We all know who you're dealing with when you want to put up a tower in New York; carters, contractors, and no-show jobs. It's quite a sleazy swamp. Then there's the matter of renovating Atlantic City and building all of those casinos, never mind that Trump, genius businessman that he is, managed to actually lose money running casinos. And that's just the New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York mobsters. We may be hearing a lot really gory of details about Trump and the Russian mob real soon. Trump knows mobsters!

Every president knows mobsters, though. But, some more than others. You just don't get far in government without dealing with mobsters, traditional mobsters and otherwise. Washington even has a street dedicated to bagmen. It's called K Street. The problem comes when you embrace them and accept their money and favors. Then, you owe them. And they own you. In that sense, Trump and his massive corruption was an inevitable result of the way Washington has done things for so long. We now have a president who represents the nexus of both scummy worlds better than anyone who has gone before.

So yeah, Michael Cohen, the guy who talks tough and threatens people like any mafia wiseguy from central casting is taking the fifth. Cohen has served as Trump's fixer/lawyer. Think consigliere as in The Godfather. Reportedly, people in the Trump Organization (i.e. Trump Crime Family) even refer to Cohen as Tom, after Michael Corleone's fixer Tom Hagen. Cohen has always talked uber-tough and threatening in the service of the Donald, threatening to destroy people who might be a threat to his boss. There's the irony again. The tough talker suddenly goes silent. "I got nothin' to say."

The quote in tonight's meme has been getting a lot of justifiable attention the past few days. It's from September 2016. It's just one of many. Funny how Trumpanzee suddenly sees a difference between himself, his "organization," and the mob. He's never acted that way before.

Mikey Suits Can Win The GOP Primary... But Can He Win The General? Perhaps?

Staten Island is the most Mafia-friendly place in America. And the other portion of NY-11, south Brooklyn-- just happens to be the most Russian Mafia-friendly place in America. Put them together and you have a new poll the DCCC just released showing that Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, a Mafioso himself, is way ahead of incumbent Republican Dan Donovan in the Republican primary. "Things," wrote New York Daily News reporter Jillian Jorgensen over the weekend, "are looking Grimm for Rep. Daniel Donovan. Ex-congressman-- and ex-con-- Michael Grimm leads Donovan by 10 percentage points in the Republican primary in the district that covers Staten Island and part of southern Brooklyn, says a new poll." The Mafia wants Grimm back in Congress to protect their interests.

That makes the DCCC very happy. They feel their handpicked-- screw the primary-- Blue Dog candidate, Max Rose, will have a much easier time beating the ex-con than the incumbent.

Grimm is at 49% and Donovan at 39% among GOP voters, according to a poll by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which hopes to flip the seat.

Grimm’s ex-GOP constituents on Staten Island are especially willing to overlook his criminal record-- they favor him over Donovan by 11 points, the Democrats’ poll says.

The poll is “consistent with our own internal analysis,” Grimm said.

Donovan’s camp ripped the results. “Of course the DCCC is desperate for Michael Grimm because they know he has zero shot of winning in November,” said campaign spokeswoman Jessica Proud.

Grimm, an ex-FBI agent, cruised to reelection in 2014 even as he faced a 20-count federal indictment for mail, wire and health care fraud, among other charges.

He ended up serving seven months on tax fraud charges related to his operation of a Manhattan health food restaurant.

The Feds let him off easy in return for him not spilling the beans on FBI wrong-doing. Now Grimm, who's mainstream conservtaive voting record, is basically identical with Donovan's mainstream conservative voting record. Both are tacking right and trying to identify with Trump, although Grimm is doing better with attaching himself to Trump core voters. Trump beat Hillary in only one NYC congressional district-- NY-11. He beat Hillary 53.6% to 43.8%. Grimm wants those voters and sought, and received an endorsement from Steve Bannon. Donovan is stuck with an endorsement from unpopular lame duck Paul Ryan. Jorgensen reported that Grimm "rips Donovan as not enough of a conservative or friend to President Trump."

Republican voters like his message, the Democrats’ poll shows. A whopping 67% of voters approve of Grimm’s job performance as congressman, and just 18% disapprove, the poll found.

That’s better than Donovan, of whom 47% of Republican voters approve and 27% disapprove.

The DCCC is pushing candidate Max Rose, who like Grimm is a combat veteran.

Despite Grimm’s popularity with GOP voters, Democrats would rather run against him and his felony record in the November election.

The poll surveyed 404 likely 2018 Republican primary voters from April 9 to April 11. The margin of error is 4.9%.

Remember when the Democratic Establishment really, really, really wanted Hillary to run against Trump rather than Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio? How that worked out for them? And us?

Does The Mafia Get Its Own Member Of Congress Again?

If the DCCC gets its way and Blue Dog Max Rose captures the Democratic nomination to run against Michael Grimm in November in the Staten Island/south Brooklyn district (NY-11) that is widely considered the most Mafia-friendly congressional district in America, Rose will have an immediate head start-- a website, The Grimm Reality. The site was put up over the weekend by Grimm's opponent, incumbent Congressman Dan Donovan (R). Donovan doesn't pull any punches, making Grimm sound a lot like Señor Trumpanzee:

Michael Grimm is a serial liar and con man who will do or say anything to get what he wants. He’s even gone so far as to lie under oath, which got him convicted of felony perjury charges. But his lies and excuses go way beyond his criminal convictions.

Since voters can’t trust a word Michael Grimm says, this website will set the record straight about his disturbing record as one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress and the numerous ethics scandals he’s embroiled in. We just can’t trust Michael Grimm.

The NY Post had a good ole time with it on Monday: "'It’s tax day in America, and while everyone has filed their taxes and paid their hard-earned money to the government, Michael Grimm still thinks he’s above the law,' the anti-Grimm website says. 'Even after serving prison time for hiding nearly $1 million in income from the IRS, Michael Grimm still owes approximately $900,000 in back taxes to New York State. 'He owes huge debts to the tax department, his campaign, and the people who paid off his criminal legal bills, but that hasn’t stopped him from driving around in a Lexus sports car. For Michael Grimm, the rules apply to everyone except him.'" Most of the website is devoted to 9 urls putting Grimm in a bad light. A DCCC contact laughed and told me they have "10 times more-- and much more damaging"-- oppo on Grimm than Donovan is using.



The Post was just as happy to publish Grimm's response: "Not surprising that Desperate Dan resorts to slander to distract from his own failed stint in Congress. Everyone knows I hired a few delivery boys off the books and was politically prosecuted by the Obama Justice Department for a violation other business owners get fined for, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was a much more effective member of Congress. I’ll be happy to release my tax returns when Dan has his first substantive bill signed into law or starts supporting our President when it actually matters."

NY-11 was the only New York City congressional district Trump won. Although Obama beat Romney there, Trump thrashed Hillary 53.6% to 43.8%. The PVI is R+3. Staten Island is filled with Italians and the Brooklyn part of the district is filled with Trump-loving Russians. June 25 in primary day. Donovan has been endorsed by the Staten Island GOP, the Staten Island Independence Party, the New York state Conservative Party, the New York state Reform Party and the entire Republican Beltway establishment. Grimm has been endorsed by... Steve Bannon.

Although Grimm-- as well as Donovan-- try painting themselves as a Trump fanatics now, both have virtually identical voting records: mainstream Republican. As of the March 31 FEC filing deadline, Donovan had raised $1,171,589 and had $739,476 cash on hand. Grimm had raised $366,460 and had $359,607 in cash.