Trump and the Mob By Tom Robbins 04.27.2016
The budding mogul had a soft spot (but a short memory) for wiseguys.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/04/27/trump-and-the-mob#.WOabbz5Bz
Donald Trump’s views on criminal justice remain one of those mysteries he will presumably carry with him, if elected, into the Oval Office, where he’ll sort it all out with the help of the nation’s best minds. We do know that he’s a “huge fan” of the police, and that he’d like to see them get more power. But he hasn’t suggested what kind of power, or how he’d do that. More jobs would solve the problem of mass incarceration, he told the Washington Post editorial board last month. And he’s been crystal clear on the death penalty, which he would make harsher by eliminating lethal injections since they’re “too comfortable.”
But one helpful lens for determining Trump’s views on crime and law enforcement is via his past encounters with those alleged to be on the wrong side of the law. That’s his history with the mob. And for all of his tough law and order rhetoric, the record shows the GOP frontrunner has been remarkably tolerant. In the course of his forty years of business deals, Trump has encountered a steady stream of mob-tainted offers that he apparently couldn’t refuse.
On the campaign trail, Trump has been coy about his past dealings with unsavory characters. But he couldn’t resist a Trump-style boast: "I've known some tough cookies over the years," he told Chris Matthews in February. "I've known the people that make the politicians you and I deal with every day look like little babies."
Actually, there’s an old FBI memo that puts a different spin on Trump’s attitude about the mob. It is a classic example of a young but already shrewd Trump hard at work. It was written in 1981 by a veteran Bureau agent, reflecting meetings that he and a fellow FBI official were having with the 35-year-old developer from Queens, then a rising star in New York's business firmament. The topic of the meetings was Trump's pending plunge into the Atlantic City casino industry. And while the memo was written in the stilted language of FBI-bureaucratese, Trump's wide-eyed comments were recorded with what seems like barely suppressed amusement. "Trump advised agents that he had read in the press and media and had heard from various acquaintances that Organized Crime elements were known to operate in Atlantic City,"
the memo states...
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