Document:The Clown with the Russian Credit Card

In 2011, after four bankruptcies, Donald Trump's claims of billions of $ were laughed out of a court. Russian money and Mobsters filled the gap.

 Article  by David E. Scheim dated 13 October 2016

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Subjects: Donald Trump, United States/Mafia
Source: Campaignwatch.org (Link)

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What keeps Donald Trump awake at night about his leaked^[1] billion dollar tax loss of 1995 is the growing realization that this loss was not a gimmick. Four bankruptcies^[2] drained Trump’s wealth. In 2011, his wildly fluctuating^[3] claims of billionaire worth were laughed out of court,^[4] which examined five years of his tax records. As actual billionaires describe him, he was now just “a clown with a credit card.”^[5]

In 1990, the year of his first of four bankruptcies,^[6] Trump touted his net worth at $3 billion.^[7] Actually, though, he couldn’t pay bills^[8] and an audit found his balance to be $295 million in the red.^[9] In 1993, he twice begged his siblings for loans.^[10] Yet he deadpanned later that in 1993, his financial affairs “were going really great.”^[11]

After unloading some billion dollars in personal debt on a public company^[12] in 1995 and 1996, its stock price plunged to four cents on the dollar^[13] before it too went bankrupt.^[14] Shareholders and bondholders lost $1.5 billion,^[15] just as Trump had stiffed^[16] hundreds of subcontractors, paying them fifty cents or less on the dollar. Yet afterwards, Trump touted this public stock offering as “one of the great deals.”^[17]

In 2005, Trump’s net worth was estimated at $150 to $250 million^[18] by New York Times editor Timothy O'Brien based upon sources intimately familiar with Trump’s finances. Then touting his wealth at $5 to 6 billion,^[19] Trump sued^[20] O’Brien for libel. That prompted a court-ordered close examination of his financial records,^[21] including five years of tax returns.^[22] In a two-day deposition of December 2007, Trump was caught inflating assets,^[23] understating liabilities^[24] and lying 30 times.^[25] Even his own accountant wouldn’t vouch for the reliability of his figures.^[26]

“My net worth fluctuates,” Trump explained in the deposition, “with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”^[27] His libel suit was dismissed,^[28] this dismissal upheld on appeal in 2011^[29] with a stinging rebuke by the judge.^[30] Barring his release of recent tax returns, as presidential candidates have done for the past 40 years,^[31] this valuation of Trump’s net worth as millions, not billions, is credible. Consistent with limited means, Trump took a middle income New York State tax deduction^[32] in two quarterly filings in 2016.

Trump rarely actually made^[33] the charitable donations he touted in recent years, as other poses of billionaire status also proved bogus. His Mar-O-Lago estate in Florida was secretly mortgaged^[34] for its full $8 million value. A Trump property in Scotland bills itself as “the world’s greatest golf course.”^[35] But that credit was from a shadowy rating service^[36] upon whose board Trump himself served.^[37] It is run by “Joey No Socks,”^[38] a convicted, Mafia-linked felon.^[39]

Trump in fact had many underworld entanglements, as detailed in two dozen media reports^[40] such as the Wall Street Journal’s “Donald Trump and the Mob.”^[41] Emblematic was the structural concrete used in both Trump Tower and Trump Plaza in New York City. It was purchased at inflated prices^[42] from a company secretly owned^[43] by two New York Mafia bosses.^[44] Concrete is rarely used as a structural material for tall buildings due to key disadvantages^[45] compared with the typical structural steel.

Trump, a “serial liar,”^[46] uses the crude and violent speech of his underworld cronies. He spoke several times daily^[47] with his closely Mob-linked lawyer^[48] whom Trump praised as “vicious,” someone who would “brutalize for you.”^[49] He declared in January that he could “shoot someone”^[50] in the street “and not lose any voters.” He said that “second amendment people”^[51] could take care of Hillary Clinton. As for five young teenagers of color convicted of a 1989 rape in New York, Trump ran full-page newspaper ads calling for their execution.^[52] After serving sentences of up to 13 years, all were freed when the actual rapist confessed, confirmed by DNA evidence.^[53] But Trump still insists^[54] that the teenagers were guilty.

Trump was more lenient with himself for skipping military service through assorted deferments. Accepting a Purple Heart medal from an attendee at a rally, Trump said, “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”^[55] Trump told Howard Stern in 1993 that with the danger of venereal disease, his dating was “the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam.”^[56] And in a 1997 television interview^[57] (see video^[58] and transcript),^[59] Trump told Stern that avoiding venereal disease “is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”

Although a national official of the Southern Baptist Convention, Russell Moore, described Trumpism as “moral sewage,”^[60] Trump extols his moral perfection. He declared, “Why do I have to repent or seek God’s forgiveness if I am not making mistakes?”^[61] He also claims to attend Sunday church services, where “I drink my little wine” and “have my little cracker.”^[62]

Given Vladimir Putin’s record as head of the Russian “Mafiocracy”^[63] and of killing dissidents at home^[64] and abroad,^[65] Trump’s effusive, reciprocated praise^[66] for Putin might seem incongruous. But the back story may be the shadowy Russian money behind Trump’s enterprises. Trump’s son, Donald Jr., declared in 2008 that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section^[67] of a lot of our assets.” He added, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”^[68] Some of these investors are linked to the Russian underworld or to Putin interests.^[69] Most prominent of these, repeatedly by Trump’s side, was Felix Sater.

The son of^[70] a reputed Russian Mob boss, Sater was jailed for stabbing a broken glass into a commodity dealer’s face.^[71] In 2000, Sater pled guilty^[72] to a $40 million stock fraud and money laundering scheme linked to four New York Mafia families. As Trump spoke at the gala opening of a New York hotel in 2007, Sater, who helped develop it,^[73] stood right by his side.^[74] Sater partnered with the Trump organization^[75] in other projects. In 2010, Sater was given^[76] an office in Trump Tower, a Trump company phone number and email address, and business cards listing him as a “senior advisor to Donald Trump.”^[77]

During the mid 2000's, as Sater traveled with Trump and family members^[78] in Colorado and Moscow, he reportedly made grisly death threats^[79] against business associates. Forbes recently uncovered emails and sworn statements “that indicate Sater was closer to Trump, his organization and his children than previously revealed.”^[80]

A recent lawsuit against Sater and partners that was privately filed on behalf of New York State charges that they sought to launder as much as $250 million to evade taxes and conceal foreign ownership interests.^[81] The plaintiff’s attorneys told Forbes “that new information leads them to believe that Trump misrepresented his knowledge and involvement, and was a participant in the schemes.”^[82] Sater was last spotted in Trump Tower in July 2016,^[83] declaring the visit’s purpose “confidential.”^[84] Sater is a $5,400 Trump campaign donor.^[85] “I think he’ll make the greatest president of this century,” declared^[86] the convicted stock swindler and money launderer.

Trump’s résumé is thus running his family fortune^[87] into the ground while enmeshed with underworld figures. Given the increased role of financial fraud as an international Mob money maker in recent years, the role of this Russian money in propping up Trump’s collapsed fortune is particularly chilling. With carte blanche to the New York and Russian Mob in a Trump White House, other than a global tsunami of drained banks and a catastrophic financial crash, what could possibly go wrong?

By David E. Scheim. Scheim is the author of the 1989 New York Times bestseller, "Contract on America".

Acknowledgement

This article is based upon the distinctive reporting in the sources cited below. Particularly valuable were the books and articles by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Johnston and those by Tim O’Brien, now the publisher of Bloomberg View and formerly a business editor of the New York Times. Also to Wayne Barrett, currently a Fellow with the Nation Institute and previously a senior editor of the Village Voice for twenty years. Barrett first delved closely into the underworld entanglements of Trump in his 1992 book, "Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth".

References

• 1. New York Times, 10/1/2016, “Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades,” by David Barstow, Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner And Megan Twohey.
• 2. See notes for “first of four bankruptcies” below, and also the clarification that there were actually a total of six bankruptcies, with the last two having only minor impacts on Trump’s holdings.
• 3. Indeed, as David Johnston Reports in The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 77, in the spring of 2015, prior to running for the Republican presidential nomination, “Trump declared his net worth, on different days, to be $ 8.7 billion, $ 10 billion, and in one case $11 billion.” In Bloomberg, 7/21/2015, “Dear Mr. Trump: I'm Worth $10 Billion, Too,” Timothy O’Brien recounted that “On a single day in August 2004, [Trump] told me his net worth was $4 billion to $5 billion, then revised that later the same day to $1.7 billion. Forbes said at the time he was worth $2.6 billion. A year later Donald told me he was worth $5 billion to $6 billion, but a brochure left on my nightstand at his Palm Beach resort said he was worth $9.5 billion.”
• 4. Trump’s lawsuit for libel was scornfully dismissed by the judge, as detailed below in this article.
• 5. Huffington Post, 8-14-2016, “Republicans Got Totally Scammed By Donald Trump’s Creation Myth,” by S.V. Dale.
• 6. These bankruptcies (1991, 1992, 2004, 2009) are detailed in many sources, including Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 93. There were actually six bankruptcies, the most recent in 2014, but only minor stakes held by Trump were affected by the last two (ibid). See also Washington Post, 10/3/2016, “Trump’s tax mystery points toward the dealings around his first bankruptcies,” by Drew Harwell and Robert O'Harrow Jr. New York Times, 6/11/2016, “How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions,” by Russ Buettner And Charles V. Bagli. Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, pp. 133, 137, 229-30, 299; Barrett, Greatest Show, 2016, Kindle Locations 223-33, 863-74, 5107-9, 8873-81. The Atlantic, 10/3/2016, “The Many Scandals of Donald Trump,” by David Graham, section on “The Four Bankruptcies.” Washington Post, 6/12/2016, “As its stock collapsed, Trump’s firm gave huge bonuses and paid for his jet,” by Drew Harwell. CNNMoney, 10/2/2016, “Donald Trump and the art of losing money,” by Jill Disis and Matt Egan.
• 7. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 77, 86.
• 8. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 87.
• 9. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 89; AP, 6/28/2016, “'Little guy' contractors still angry at Trump Taj bankruptcy,” by Bernard Condon.28, 2016; Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 230. The Washington Post reported that “by 1990, his casinos, hotel and other assets had piled up more than $3 billion in debt, according to a confidential document produced at the time by Kenneth Leventhal & Co.” (Washington Post, 10/3/2016, “Trump’s tax mystery points toward the dealings around his first bankruptcies,” by Drew Harwell and Robert O'Harrow Jr.). See also New York Times, 6/11/2016, “How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions,” by Russ Buettner And Charles V. Bagli. In books of 2004 and 2010, Trump reported that during a low period in the early 1990s, his total debt load was $9 billion (Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story.” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr.). See also Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 90.
• 10. O’Brien, TrumpNation, 2015, Kindle Loc. 2527-2537.
• 11. Washington Post, 10/3/2016, “Trump’s tax mystery points toward the dealings around his first bankruptcies,” by Drew Harwell and Robert O'Harrow Jr.
• 12. New York Times, 6/11/2016, “How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions,” by Russ Buettner And Charles V. Bagli. Washington Post, 6/12/2016, “As its stock collapsed, Trump’s firm gave huge bonuses and paid for his jet,” by Drew Harwell.
• 13. Washington Post, 6/12/2016, “As its stock collapsed, Trump’s firm gave huge bonuses and paid for his jet,” by Drew Harwell. This article notes, “A shareholder who bought $100 of DJT shares in 1995 could sell them for about $4 in 2005. The same investment in MGM Resorts would have increased in value to about $600.” But if the lucky investor had sold those same $100 shares bought in 1995, earlier, in 2000, its value would have been $8.72, a loss of only 91% (CNNMoney, 10/2/2016, “Donald Trump and the art of losing money,” by Jill Disis and Matt Egan.).
• 14. Washington Post, 6/12/2016, as cited above; New York Times, 6/11/2016, as cited above.
• 15. New York Times, 6/11/2016, as cited above; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 93.
• 16. USA Today, 6/9/2016, “Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills,” by Steve Reilly. Also AP, 6/28/2016, “'Little guy' contractors still angry at Trump Taj bankruptcy,” by Bernard Condon.28, 2016.
• 17. Washington Post, 6/12/2016, “As its stock collapsed, Trump’s firm gave huge bonuses and paid for his jet,” by Drew Harwell.
• 18. O’Brien, TrumpNation, 2015, Kindle Loc 78-79; Bloomberg, 5/20/2016. “Trump's Financial Report? That's Rich,” by Timothy L. O’Brien. Bloomberg, 7/21/2015, “Dear Mr. Trump: I'm Worth $10 Billion, Too,” by Timothy L. O’Brien. Forbes, 10/31/2016, “How Donald Trump Exaggerates and Fibs About His $4.5 Billion Net worth,” by Chase Peterson-Withorn. Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr. Also Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 78.
• 19. Bloomberg, 5/20/2016. “Trump's Financial Report? That's Rich,” by Timothy L. O’Brien; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 78.
• 20. As cited for note #18, two entries above. Donald Trump is strictly averse to even jokes questioning his wealth. A comedy writer for Trump’s 2011 Comedy Central roast reported that the one topic that Trump communicated to comedy writers was off limits were jokes about his wealth. (Huffington Post, 8/3/2016, “Donald Trump Really, Really Doesn’t Like People Joking About His Wealth,” by Sara Bobolz).
• 21. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 78-80; Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr. Bloomberg, 5/12/2016, “I Saw Trump's Tax Returns. You Should, Too,” by Timothy L. O’Brien.
• 22. Bloomberg, 5/12/2016, “I Saw Trump's Tax Returns. You Should, Too,” by Timothy L. O’Brien. O’Brien notes that these tax returns, the disclosure of which was ordered by the court, was initially delivered in a form “so heavily redacted that they looked like crossword puzzles. The litigation ran on for five years, and during that time we had to petition the court to compel Trump to hand over unredacted versions of the tax returns — which he ultimately did.”
• 23. Trump claimed that one property in which he held a token share was “largely owned by me” (Forbes, 10/31/2016, “How Donald Trump Exaggerates and Fibs About His $4.5 Billion Net worth,” by Chase Peterson-Withorn; Wall Street Journal, 5/18/2009, “Trump on Trump; Testimony Offers Glimpse of How He Values His Empire,” by Alex Frangos.) He inflated a 30 percent stake in another property to 50 percent (Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr.; Wall Street Journal, 5/18/2009, as cited above).
• 24. Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr; Wall Street Journal, 5/18/2009, as cited above. Trump also admitted that a figure of 22,000 that he had cited for the number of Trump employees included employees of his suppliers and of his subcontractors (Washington Post, 8/10/2016, as cited above). That is equivalent to you, the reader, going out and buying a pen from Office Max and then claiming to be a mogul with 56,000 employees.
• 25. Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr.
• 26. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 78-80. See below for “stinging rebuke by the judge” for the remarks of Trump’s accountants as quoted by the judge.
• 27. This is quoted in many sources, including, e.g., Wall Street Journal, 5/18/2009, “Trump on Trump; Testimony Offers Glimpse of How He Values His Empire,” by Alex Frangos; Bloomberg, 7/21/2015, “Dear Mr. Trump: I'm Worth $10 Billion, Too”; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 78-79.
• 28. Washington Post, 8/10/2016, “Trump: A True Story,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr. Bloomberg, 7/21/2015, “Dear Mr. Trump: I'm Worth $10 Billion, Too,” by Timothy O’Brien.
• 29. Washington Post, 8/10/2016, as cited above; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 79-80.
• 30. The New Jersey appeals court judge’s 2011 ruling to dismiss the libel suit cited the “Statement of Financial Condition” that Trump had introduced as evidence. The judge wrote of caveats offered by the accountant that prepared it: “The accountants cautioned that they had ‘not audited or reviewed the accompanying statement of financial condition and, accordingly, do not express an opinion or any other form of assurance on it.’ Further, the accountants noted significant departures from generally accepted accounting principles, and stated “the effects of the departures from generally accepted accounting principles as described above have not been determined’” (Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 79-80). The judge quoted one accountant who helped prepare that statement, Gerald Rosenblum, who testified: “I asked the client to provide me with a list of liabilities as they existed at June 30, 2005.” Rosenblum added, “The client presented me with a list, in essence. I’m not certain to this day that I was aware of all of Mr. Trump’s liabilities at that point in time, and I sought no corroboration” (Johnston, p. 80).
• 31. Washington Post, 10/3/2016, “Trump’s tax mystery points toward the dealings around his first bankruptcies,” by Drew Harwell and Robert O'Harrow Jr; USA Today’s Editorial Board, 9/30/2016, “Trump is ‘unfit for the presidency’”
• 32. This tax break was reserved for individuals with annual incomes of $500,000 or less. Bloomberg, 5/20/2016. “Trump's Financial Report? That's Rich,” by Timothy L. O’Brien. CNN, 6/6/2016, “Trump campaign insists income-based New York tax credit is in error,” by Tal Kopan.
• 33. Washington Post, 6/28/2016, “Trump promised millions to charity. We found less than $10,000 over 7 years.” by David A. Fahrenthold. Washington Post, 8/18/ 2016, “Trump promised personal gifts on ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’ Here’s who really paid,” by David A. Fahrenthold and Alice Crites. Washington Post, 7/3/2016, Mr. Trump’s fake charity, by the Editorial Board. Washington Post, 8/8/2016, “Watch Donald Trump say ‘thank you’ as a crowd cheers him for a $20 million gift to charity. Does that gift even exist?” by David A. Fahrenthold. Washington Post, 6/28/2016, “What we know about Trump’s charitable giving,” video, by David Farenthold; Politico, 6/20/2016, “Trump’s charity claims could violate fraud laws,” by Ben Schreckinger. Jane Mayer summarized in the New Yorker, 7/25/2016, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All,” that “in the past seven years, Trump has promised to give millions of dollars to charity, but reporters for the Washington Post found that they could document only ten thousand dollars in donations—and they uncovered no direct evidence that Trump made charitable contributions from money earned by The Art of the Deal,” as he had pledge.
• 34. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 81-82. In 1985, when Trump purchased the property, he said he paid cash for it. In testimony by Trump five years later, he revealed that Chase Manhattan Bank had loaned him the entire purchase price: “They put up the eight million dollars, I believe it was eight million purchase price.” Trump added, “It’s a mortgage, a non-recorded mortgage.” He elaborated, “And because it’s non-recorded, I personally guaranteed it.” (Johnston, 2016, pp. 81-82).
• 35. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 155.
• 36. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 155-160. This entity is “the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences,” which unlike well-known rating services such as Zagat or Michelen, gives ratings not based upon opinions of the public or expert reviewers, but on the decisions of its board. Donald Trump served on its board for years as the service was giving high ratings to others of Trump’s properties. Other recent trustees include Ivanka, Trump’s daughter, and his son Donald Jr. Trump is shown in a 2013 photo grinning as he posed with its president, Joseph Cinque, alias “Joey No Socks.” Cinque presented Trump with the Academy’s lifetime achievement award in a 2014 ceremony at Mar-A-Lago. Trump was listed on the Academy’s website as “Ambassador Extraordinaire” and trustee just weeks before announcing his bid for the presidency in 2015.
• 37. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 156-57, 160.
• 38. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 158. Another alias of Cinque is “The Preppy Don.”
• 39. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 158-160. In 1989, New York police with a search warrant entered Cinque’s home with a battering ram after he refused to let them in and found an assortment of stolen art, including Marc Chagall prints worth $40,000. A further investigation revealed, as the prosecutor charged, that Cinque (“Joey No Socks”) “was dealing drugs out of his apartment and fencing stolen artwork.” Cinque pled guilty to the felony count of receiving stolen property. Johnston writes that, “Cinque was seen talking to John Gotti, the “dapper don” who became head of the Gambino crime family by arranging the murder of his predecessor, Paul Castellano — one of the secret owners of the company that supplied concrete for many Trump buildings. Gotti told Cinque that he would ‘take care of the DA,’” an apparent reference to the prosecutor in the case. That prompted the district attorney to amp up its investigation and prosecution of Cinque, leading to his felony conviction.
• 40. The Wall Street Journal article cited below and: New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler,” by Richard Behar; Washington Post, 10/16/ 2015, “Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer,” by Robert. O’Harrow; The Atlantic, 10/3/2016, “The Many Scandals of Donald Trump,” by David Graham; Politico, 8/26/2016, “Trump’s mob-linked ex-associate gives $5,400 to campaign,” by Ben Schreckinger; Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; BillMoyers.com, 6/21/2016, “The Donald Trump Story You’re Not Hearing About,” by Todd Gitlin; ABC News, 12/10/2015, “'Senior Advisor': Trump and the Man Once Linked to the Mob. Memory Lapse? Trump Seeks Distance From 'Advisor' With Past Ties to Mafia,” by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Trump And The Oligarch ‘Trio,’” by Richard Behar; CNN, 7/31/2015, “Donald Trump and the mob,” by Chris Frates; The Daily Mail (UK), 7/31/2016, “How Trump made the Mob an offer they could not refuse,” by David Cay Johnston; Mother Jones, 9/23/2016, “The Many Times Donald Trump Has Lied About His Mob Connections,” by David Corn. Bloomberg, 8/5/2016, “The Company That Donald Trump Keeps,” by Timothy O’Brien; Newsweek, 5/1/2016, “The Truth About Trump And The Mob,” by Tom Robbins; The Daily Beast, 2/29/2016, “The Klansmen and Mobsters in Donald Trump’s Closet,” by Michael Daly; US News, May 7, 2016, “Mob Ally's Daughter: Trump Was Close to My Dad,” by Gabrielle Levy; Pensito Review, 9-18-2015, “Why the Silence about Donald Trump’s Mob Ties,” by Joe Ponder; The Independent (UK), 7/8/2013, “Donald Trump walks out over questions about his mafia connections during BBC Panorama interview,” by John Sweeny; The Federalist, How Close was Donald Trump to the Mob? David Marcus, July 28, 2015. The Federalist, 7/28/2015, “How Close was Donald Trump to the Mob?” by David Marcus; Yahoo, 3/7/2016, “Trump challenged over ties to mob-linked gambler with ugly past,” by Michael Isakoff; The Telegraph (UK), May 26, 2016, “Donald Trump exclusive: Russian mob-linked fraudster a 'key player' in presidential hopeful's business ventures.” by Edward Malnick and Ruth Sherlock; New York Post (AP), 12/5/2015, “Donald Trump’senior adviser is a stock fraud felon with mob past.” Trump’s ties and dealings with organized crime and other criminal figures are also covered extensively in Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016; Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, and Barrett, The Greatest Show, 2016. Barrett’s book, which first appeared in 1992, was the first to delve extensively into these underworld entanglements of Trump. David Johnston summarized that it concludes that “throughout his adult life, Donald Trump has done business with major organized crime figures and performed favors for their associates” (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/8/1992, “Book Alleges Trump Did Business with Mob,” by David Johnston). Johnston wrote in 2016 (Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston), “No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks.”
• 41. Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon.
• 42. Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; Washington Post, 10/16/ 2015, “Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer,” by Robert. O’Harrow; Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 82; Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 4026-9, 4072-86; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 45-48;
• 43. Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 82; The concrete contract between Trump and S&A Concrete for Trump Tower became one count in the federal racketeering indictment and subsequent conviction of Salerno (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 846-50, 3953-58; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 47-48; Washington Post, 10/16/ 2015, “Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer,” by Robert. O’Harrow). Two witnesses reported a 1983 meeting at attorney Roy Cohn’s house that was attended by both Donald Trump and Mafia Boss Salerno; both Trump and Salerno clients of Cohn (Ibid., Kindle Loc. 5112-22; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 46-47; Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston).
• 44. As cited in the note above; these two Mafia bosses were Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano.
• 45. Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 45. New York’s Trump Tower was the tallest building in the U.S. constructed using structural concrete at the time it was completed (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 64-67) and the most expensive private concrete job in history (Ibid., Kindle Loc 3941-53). The concrete in Trump Tower, for example, weighs fifty percent more than all the steel in New York’s Empire State Building (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 3941-53).
• 46. USA Today called Trump out as a “serial liar” in taking its first editorial position on a presidential election in its 34-year history, declaring Trump, “by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.” (USA Today’s Editorial Board, 9/30/2016, “Trump is ‘unfit for the presidency’”). Trump wrote that his German grandfather was of Swedish descent.88 He bragged about having bulldozers dig phantom holes at an inactive construction site89 to deceive a prospective partner. He called reporters under assumed names90 to boast of sexual conquests. In 1990 and again in 1991 he admitted making those creepy calls,91 but then denied them in 2016.92 He invented a story about thousands of Arabs93 celebrating in New Jersey after 9-11, then crudely mocked a handicapped reporter,94 Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times, who would not confirm his story. Trump then claimed that he wasn’t mimicking that reporter and never even knew him95 when, as Kovlacki noted, he and Trump were on a first-name basis for years96 and had spoken a dozen times over the years.
• 47. The New York Times reported that they spoke as often as five times daily (New York Times, 6/20/2016, “What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man,” by Jonathan Mahler And Matt Flegenheimer). But Cohn told a reporter that Trump would call him “fifteen to twenty times a day, always asking what’s the status of this, what’s the status of that?” (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 5112-22). Trump relied closely on Cohn’s help in his business deals (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 1937-52, 2820-27, 2843-47, 4072-86, 4966-4969 . Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 82) Trump and Cohn were friends, socialized together at different spots around New York and did favors for each other (Washington Post, June 17, 2016, “The Man Who Showed Donald Trump How to Exploit Power and Instill Fear,” by Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg; New York Times, 6/20/2016, as cited above; Washington Post, 10/16/ 2015, “Trump swam in mob-infested waters in early years as an NYC developer,” by Robert. O’Harrow). The relationship was so close that Trump was described as looking upon Cohn almost as a “second father” (Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 33).
• 48. This attorney was Roy Cohn, who represented several Mafia clients in ways that suggested much closer than a mere attorney-client relationship and was a notorious fixer ((Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 82; Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; (Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 5112-22). He was indicted four times and never convicted (Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, p. 88) but ultimately disbarred for coercing a dying multimillionaire client to amend his will to make Cohn the executor of his estate (New York Times, 6/20/2016, “What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man,” by Jonathan Mahler And Matt Flegenheimer). Cohn was a key aide to Wisconsin Senator of Joseph McCarthy, the architect of the infamous purges driven by allegations of Communist sympathies in the 1950s (The Daily Beast, 7/23/2015, “Trump’s Mobbed Up, McCarthyite Mentor Roy Cohn,” by Olivia Nuzzi). In that role, Cohn alleged that communists from abroad had blackmailed closeted gay U.S. government employees into disclosing state secrets. That allegation by Cohn led to President Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450, which permitted the government to deny employment to gays (The Daily Beast, 7/23/2015, ibid.). Cohn, a closeted gay man, died of AIDS at the age of 59 in 1986.
• 49. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 33.
• 50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTACH1eVIaA. Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth avenue and shoot somebody [points hand forward as gun, as if pulling trigger] and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay.”
• 51. Politico, 8/9/2016, “Trump’s loaded words fuel campaign freefall,” by Eli Stokols. Trump said, “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment.” He continued, “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is.” A month later, in September, Trump said in a rally that Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards “should disarm. Immediately.” He continued, “Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, O.K. It’ll be very dangerous.” (New York Times, 9/16/2016, “Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton’s Bodyguards Should Disarm to ‘See What Happens to Her,’” by Nick Corasaniti, Nicholas Confessore and Michael Barbaro) Trump had posted in May 2016, “Crooked Hillary wants to get rid of all guns and yet she is surrounded by bodyguards who are fully armed.” (New York Times, 9/16/2016, ibid). While Clinton wants to tighten background checking for gun purchases at gun shows and ban military-style assault weapons, she has never taken a position remotely related to getting rid of all guns.
• 52. Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 293-303; CNN, 8/18/2016, “Sessions: Central Park 5 case shows Trump's dedication to 'law and order,'” by Gregory Krieg.
• 53. CNN, 8/18/2016, as cited above.
• 54. CNN, 10/7/2016, “Member of 'Central Park 5' blasts Trump,” by Stephen Halmos; see also CNN, 10/10/2016, “Trump in 1989 Central Park Five interview: ‘Maybe hate is what we need,’” by Andrew Kaczynski and Jon Sarlin.
• 55. Politico, 8/2/2016, “Harrisburg rejects Trump’s ‘war zone’ line,” by Louis Nelson.
• 56. BuzzFeed News, 4/28/2016, as cited above. In this 1993 Interview on the Howard Stern Show, Trump made remarks along similar lines to those of 1997, as quoted below with supporting video and transcript cited. “You know, if you’re young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam. We have our own Vietnam. It’s called the dating game,” Trump said in the context of the ongoing AIDs epidemic. “It’s pretty dangerous out there,” Trump added; “It’s like Vietnam,” Trump continued, “Dating is like being in Vietnam,” he said. “You’re the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam.”
• 57. This was a 1997 television interview with Howard Stern; see the note below for the video and transcript. These remarks are reported and excerpted in the following sources. Washington Post, 6/22/2016, “Republicans: Save your party, don’t give to Trump,” by George Will; Daily Mail (UK), 2/17/2016, “Draft dodger Trump says sex in the Eighties was 'his personal Vietnam' during Howard Stern interview in 1997,” by Hannah Parry; US Weekly, 8/1/2016, “Donald Trump Calls Sleeping Around, Avoiding STDs His ‘Personal Vietnam’ in Resurfaced 1997 Interview,” by Sierra Marquina; BuzzFeed News, 4/28/2016, “Trump In 1993 On Dating And STDs: ‘The Equivalent Of A Soldier Going Over To Vietnam,’” by NathanMcDermott and Andrew Kaczynski.
• 58. The video is shown in Daily Mail (UK), 2/17/2016, as cited above.
• 59. The transcript of Trump’s remarks on his avoidance of venereal disease as his equivalent of service in Vietnam follows. STERN: Now getting back to dating, and when you got to say to a woman, you gotta go to my personal doctor and I'm gonna have you checked out, is that a tough thing to say to a woman? TRUMP: It's amazing, I can't even believe it. I've been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there. It's like Vietnam, sort of. STERN: Hey it's your personal Vietnam isn't it? TRUMP: It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier! STERN: A lot of guys who went through Vietnam came out unscathed. A lot of guys going through the 80's having sex with different women came out with AIDS and all kinds of things. TRUMP: This is better than Vietnam, but it's uh... it's more fun. STERN: A little better, but every vagina is a landmine, haven't we both said that in private? TRUMP: [intense laughter] I think it is a potential landmine. There's some real danger there. This is from the video in the note above, with background from the sources cited preceding that.
• 60. Christianity Today, 5/9/2016, “Russell Moore: Trump, Clinton both represent ‘reality TV moral sewage.’” by Mark Woods. The article begins: The Donald Trump phenomenon is “reality television moral sewage", according to the head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Speaking on CBS News “Face the Nation,” Russell Moore said a key tenet of conservatism was that “character matters” and that “virtue has an important role to play in our culture and in our politics.” Now, he said, “we have a Republican party that seems ready not only to surrender on the culture wars but to join the other side.” Moore has been a trenchant critic of Trump, saying in an op-ed for the New York Times that opposition to the property mogul would put evangelicals “on the right side of Jesus” and that “The man on the throne in heaven is a dark-skinned, Aramaic-speaking ‘foreigner’ who is probably not all that impressed by chants of 'Make America great again.’”
• 61. Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 31.
• 62. CNN, 8/13/2015, “Trump: Drink my little wine, have my little cracker,” by Erin Burnett (see the last ten seconds of the video).
• 63. Galeolti, Mark, “Crime, Corruption and the Law,” pp. 135-150, in Mike Bowker and Cameron Ross (eds), Russia after the Cold War, see “Towards a Mafiocracy,” p. 148. This source notes (pp. 135, 142) that as reported in 1997, some 70-80 percent of businesses in Russia pay 20-30 percent of their profits in protection money to organized crime. Two sources involved in the Art world told this author of organized crime demanding 25% of profits in Russia.
• 64. Rebecca Favret, Back to the Bad Old Days: President Putin's Hold on Free Speech in the Russian Federation, 12 Rich. J. Global L. & Bus. 299 (2013). Favret writes (pp. 301-2), “Putin has pushed through numerous laws that stifle free speech and the media in an effort to stamp out criticism. Opponents of the President have been swiftly silenced-either through prosecution and imprisonment under the new laws or through extra-legal tactics, including the mysterious disappearances and blatant assassinations of vocal dissidents. A Washington Post editorial, 1-20-2009, “Two More Critics of Vladimir Putin Take Bullets in the Head,” notes that Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer, and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist, both critics of Putin, were both shot in the head in broad daylight by an unknown, masked assailant within a mile from the Kremlin. In 2010, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists listed Russia as the fourth-most dangerous nation in the world for journalists, which is suspected to be linked to the climate of terror fostered against critics of Putin (Favret, as cited above).
• 65. Putin is believed to be responsible for ordering the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. The Times (London), 12/4/2006. “British police arrive in Moscow to hunt for spy death clues,” by Philippe Naughton; The Daily Mail (UK), 11/25/2006, “Why I believe Putin wanted me dead,” by Alexander Litvinenko; Walker, Edward W. "Crime Without Punishment: The Litvinenko Affair and Putin's Culture of Violence." Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 8, no. 2 (2007): 97-105. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43133737. Scotland Yard also linked the Russian State to Litvinenko’s assassination (The Guardian (UK), 7-30-2015, “Litvinenko inquiry: Russia involved in spy's death, Scotland Yard says,” by Jamie Grierson).
• 66. Washington Post, 6/17/2016, “Inside Trump’s financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin,” by Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Michael Birnbaum. Putin said in December, 2015 that Trump was “colorful and talented,” after which Trump said that this compliment from Putin was an “honor.” In June 2016, Trump, when asked if he would renounce Putin’s support, said, “A guy calls me a genius and I’m going to renounce?” Trump said. “I’m not going to renounce him.” BBC, 9-8-2016 (“Trump says Putin ‘a leader far more than our president’”) reported that in September 2016, Trump said that Putin “has been a leader far more than our president [Obama] has been.” When Trump was asked about his previously complementary remarks about Putin, Trump said, “I think when he calls me brilliant I'll take the compliment, ok?.”
• 67. Washington Post, 6/17/2016, “Inside Trump’s financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin,” by Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Michael Birnbaum.
• 68. Ibid.
• 69. Felix Sater, who was closely linked to Donald Trump, as detailed below, was a prime example, linked to both the Mafia and loyalists of Vladimir Putin (Politico, 8/26/2016, “Trump’s mob-linked ex-associate gives $5,400 to campaign,” by Ben Schreckinger. For other such figures, see New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Trump And The Oligarch,” by Richard Behar; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler,” by Richard Behar.
• 70. Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. *67; Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 76-81;
• 71. Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; ABC News, 12/10/2015, “'Senior Advisor': Trump and the Man Once Linked to the Mob. Memory Lapse? Trump Seeks Distance From 'Advisor' With Past Ties to Mafia,” by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler,” by Richard Behar; Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 76-81.
• 72. Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 163; ABC News, 12/10/2015, “'Senior Advisor': Trump and the Man Once Linked to the Mob. Memory Lapse? Trump Seeks Distance From 'Advisor' With Past Ties to Mafia,” by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross; Politico, 5/22/2016, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” by David Johnston; Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 76-81.
• 73. New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger;
• 74. New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 165.
• 75. Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler,” by Richard Behar, see especially entries for the year 2005. Also New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire.
• 76. Sater was given the office by the Trump organization, and the phone number on his business card previously belonged to an attorney in Trump’s general counsel’s office (Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler,” by Richard Behar). See also Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger;
• 77. Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; Forbes, 10/3/2016, ibid; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 163.
• 78. Washington Post, 5/17/2016, “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump,” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger; Forbes, 10/3/2016, “Trump And The Oligarch,” by Richard Behar; Wall Street Journal, 9/1/2016, “Donald Trump and the Mob,” by Michael Rothfeld And Alexandra Berzon; Johnston, Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 21; ABC News, 12/10/2015, “'Senior Advisor': Trump and the Man Once Linked to the Mob. Memory Lapse? Trump Seeks Distance From 'Advisor' With Past Ties to Mafia,” by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross.
• 79. Washington Post, 5/17/2016, ibid; Forbes, 10/3/2016, ibid;
• 80. Forbes, 10/3/2016, ibid.
• 81. Forbes, 10/3/2016, ibid; New York Times, 4/5/2016, “Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed,” by Mike McIntire; Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 163.
• 82. Forbes, 10/3/2016, ibid.
• 83. Politico, 8/26/2016, “Trump’s mob-linked ex-associate gives $5,400 to campaign,” by Ben Schreckinger.
• 84. Ibid.
• 85. Ibid.
• 86. Ibid.
• 87. In 2003, a few years after the death of Trump’s father Fred, Donald and his siblings were reported to have sold some of their father’s holdings for half a billion dollars (New Yorker, 7/25/2016, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All,” by Jane Mayer). David Johnston, in The Making of Donald Trump, 2016 (p. 28) writes that news reports valued Fred Sr.’s estate at between $100 and $300 million. But “its real value was no doubt more,” as “wealthy people contemplating the end of their lives” typically juggle their assets, which “can lower estate values for tax purposes by two-thirds.”
• 88. New Yorker, 7/25/2016, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All,” by Jane Mayer; Buzzfeed, 8/17/2015, “Trump Mocks Warren’s Native American Heritage Claim, But Falsely Claimed His Family Was Swedish,” by Win Mcnamee. Barrett, The Greatest Show, Kindle Loc. 1009-12.
• 89. Johnston, Temples of Chance, 1992, pp. 84-85; New Yorker, 7/25/2016, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All,” by Jane Mayer;
• 90. Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, p. 135-152;
• 91. Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 137, 141, 150.
• 92. Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, 2016, pp. 148-150. Despite having admitted them in 1990 and 1991, in May 2016, Trump denied making any of these calls to the Suzannah Guthrie of the NBC Today Show and to the Washington Post. See also Today News, 5/13/2016, “Donald Trump denies posing as spokesman in recordings Washington Post uncovered,” by Eun Kim; Washington Post, 5/13/2016, “Donald Trump masqueraded as publicist to brag about himself,” by Marc Fisher and Will Hobson.
• 93. New York Times, 11/24/2015, “A Definitive Debunking of Donald Trump’s 9/11 Claims, by Jim Dwyer; Washington Post, 11/22/2015, “Fact Checker: Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks,” by Glenn Kessler.
• 94. Washington Post, 8/2/2016, “Fact checker: Donald Trump’s revisionist history of mocking a disabled reporter,” by Glenn Kessler.
• 95. Washington Post, 8/2/2016, as cited above.
• 96. Washington Post, 8/2/2016, as cited above.

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