Does Donald Trump have mob ties? It’s a question that was briefly explored in “Trumpology,” but neither affirmed nor denied by the experts who provided the information in that piece. Timothy O’Brien concluded with, “There’s a lot to be explored there.” However, both authors O’Brien and Wayne Barrett reported some pretty damning evidence which point to possible ties Trump has had with mob characters.

O’Brien said that he obtained the original casino regulatory interviews with Donald Trump inquiring about his business partners in Atlantic City when he was planning his first casino. Two of the names which emerged were Danny Sullivan and Ken Shapiro:

“He assembled a real estate site with a guy named Danny Sullivan. . . he was essentially a labor racketeer in the construction trade — and Ken Shapiro, who was a bag man for the Scarfo crime family in Philadelphia. Atlantic City was petrified of becoming Vegas. They wanted to make sure people coming in were clean. They asked him about these relationships, and he said he thought they were good guys, he didn’t see anything untoward about any of them, and so on.

And then, when I was reporting my book, we were on his plane, somewhere over the Midwest, and we began talking about these guys, and I said, “Did you ever think that Ken Shapiro or Dan Sullivan had mob ties?” And Trump said to the effect that. . . “Oh, sure. I was definitely worried. There were rumors that Dan Sullivan killed Jimmy Hoffa. And, uh, yeah, maybe because I was wary of these guys, that’s what saved me,” which was completely at odds with his reported testimony in the early 1980’s.

And in New York City, there were connections with the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, Donald Trump, and the Genovese crime family. Wayne Barrett explained:

It wasn’t just Genovese. The heads of all five crime families, according to federal files, used to meet in Roy Cohn’s office, because they could all claim lawyer-client privilege, and the feds couldn’t eavesdrop on any of the conversations. So Roy was pivotal with all five crime families in New York. Absolutely, totally the face that I reported in my book is that the head of the Genovese crime family at that time, Fat Tony Salerno. . . met with Donald in Roy Cohn’s offices, and Donald winds up using a concrete company that Fat Tony controlled, at Trump Plaza.

Barrett and O’Brien aren’t the only journalists suspicious of possible Trump-Mob connections. Earlier this year investigative reporter David Cay Johnston appeared on CNN reporting on his findings on Trump and organized crime. He reported on much the same information as O’Brien and Barrett, plus added additional information:

https://youtu.be/Stie3b7fWHc?t=1s

As we showed in Part 1 of our series, Donald Trump’s influential father Fred was adept at attaining his wealth and power through shady political deals. It appears that his famous son, now running for President, may have taken one step further and at some point developed connections with organized crime.

What a noble character this is who just might become the Republican standard bearer! Paging Tony Soprano.

Part 3 in our series “Trump 101,” based upon Trumpology: A Master Class,” and “Tales from the Tabloids,” both from Politico Magazine online May/June editions.

Tomorrow our final installment: Trump 101, Part 4: Tabloids, and the Seduction of America