There has been no shortage in coverage of Donald Trump’s many slip-ups on the campaign trail, lack of presidential qualifications, and at times outright appalling behavior. As far as election cycles go, this has definitely been one of the more eventful years based on various news stories and candidate back stories that have arisen from week to week. One of the major stories, although not as salacious as Trump’s plans to build a border wall or deport every Muslim if elected, is his refusal to release his tax returns for public perusal. According to Trump, this is due to an ongoing audit of his returns, but multiple people have asserted that an audit is not an excuse and that tax information can be shared even while under review by the IRS.
Some in the Republican party, most notably Ted Cruz, openly speculated that Trump’s failure to share his taxes on the campaign trail is due to the fact that they would explicitly connect him to notorious organizations like the Genovese Crime Family led by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno (who died in prison in 1992). Cruz’ guess about the Donald’s taxes was mostly a last-ditch effort to halt his competitor’s momentum than any sort of specific report (although he did cite some trusted sources), but his allegations didn’t exactly ring false. Now, a comprehensive report by Politico offers up more than a small amount of evidence that Donald Trump, someone who is one day of voting away from being the leader of the free world for at least four years, worked directly with Genovese crime boss Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno.
These allegations include, but are not limited to, Trump using a Salerno-owned construction company to build Trump Plaza and Trump Tower in New York City, benefitting from racketeering in the construction of both properties, and the mob helping him evade a number of investigations by law enforcement agencies in regards to dirty business deals and unethical operating practices. Of course, none of Trump’s representatives would respond with a comment and when Politico called the big man on campus directly they got a very Trump-ian answer.
In an April 27 phone call to respond to my questions for this story, Trump told me he did not recall many of the events recounted in this article and they “were a long time ago.” He also said that I had “sometimes been fair, sometimes not” in writing about him, adding “if I don’t like what you write, I’ll sue you.”
Whether Trump can recall the illegal activities he supposedly participated in or not aside, there is enough documentation and evidence now that it is more than likely these connections do exist and provided the businessman with undue advantages in multiple deals and projects. This report is just one more reason for Trump to release all of his tax returns once and for all to allow the public to use their best judgement once all the evidence is on the table.
(via Politico)