🧵We KNOW Donald Trump is a criminal. But not enough Americans know what happened to the criminals around him. You’re not going to like the answer.
What if I told you that the New York City mob never disappeared, and it’s alive and well in the GOP? /1
In the later half of the 1980s, U.S. District Attorney Rudy Giuliani… Yeah, that guy…managed to convict the heads of all five of New York City’s Italian mob, and it decimated their criminal empires. But contrary to popular belief, it didn’t end organized crime in the city. /2
Giuliani cleared NYC of the Italian mob, and Brighton Beach’s Russian mafia to move in. This time, organized crime had his support. Just ask Trump. /3
In 1988, Giuliani’s office opened an investigation into Donald Trump for using two Trump Tower apartments for money laundering. They knew Trump was guilty of the crime; a Russian mafia member was caught using Trump Tower for money laundering a couple years before this. /4
But Giulani’s office suddenly dropped the case, and Trump promised to help fund his campaign for New York City mayor in return.
Seven years later, some of their associates would become so powerful that the U.S. government warned the public. /5
In 1995, President Bill Clinton gave an address warning that transnational crime rings – transnational meaning operating in multiple countries – had become so powerful and so organized that they were a threat to national security. /6 ndsn.org/dec95/unconf.h…
Clinton had a plan to sanction any country that aided transnational organized crime groups – countries like Russia and China – unless those countries adopted strict anti-money-laundering measures.
In the U.S., Donald Trump was aiding organized crime groups. /7
Just four months before Clinton’s speech, the FBI concluded a years-long search for a man named Vyacheslav Ivankov, who they called “the Godfather of the Russian mob in America.”
Guess where they found him hiding… Ready?...
Trump Tower. /8
trumpfile.org/fbi-finds-lege…
As Clinton and the FBI worked to tackle the threat of organized crime in the ‘90s, Rudy Giuliani exacerbated it.
In New York City, methadone programs saw an estimated 34,000 Americans begin recovery from drug addiction, get off the streets, and re-enter the workforce. /9
34,000 recovering drug addicts meant a financial loss for drug traffickers.
So in 1998, Rudy Giuliani took efforts to ban all methadone programs in NYC. Giuliani wasn’t just cutting deals with criminals any more; he was supporting them. /10
nytimes.com/1998/07/25/nyr…
It was later revealed by the FBI that a major donor to Giuliani’s campaign and one of his top advisers worked for Vyacheslov Ivankov, the “Godfather of the mob” that the FBI found living in Trump Tower. /11
Why was Rudy Giuliani, a known collaborator of the Russian mafia, free to make all those trips to Ukraine to look for dirt on Hunter Biden?
Why did he have a license to practice law when he was challenging the 2020 election with bogus lawsuits?
There’s a simple answer… /12
...9/11 happened, and all U.S. law enforcement resources were directed towards the war on terror.
Ten years later, in 2011, FBI Director Robert Mueller tried to pull focus back to organized crime. But, he warned, the mafia had transformed. /13
“They may be former members of nation-state governments, security services, or the military… They are capitalists and entrepreneurs… In some cases, these organizations [operate as publicly] as Fortune 500 companies.” /14
archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/…
“These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the HIGHEST levels of government.” /15
That year, Obama signed an executive order freezing all assets of international criminals.
The FBI warned that the same group that had operated out of Trump Tower and found its way into Rudy Giuliani’s administration was the greatest single threat to U.S. democracy. /16
Mueller put the head of that org, Semion Mogilevich, at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
In 2016, he was removed from the list, Donald Trump won the election, and those of us paying attention had to ask ourselves: did organized crime just take the White House? /17
It’s no wonder the Republican Party is willing to risk WWIII to let Putin take Ukraine.
They let the only known mafia associate TV star run for president, infiltrate our government, weaken democracy, play cheerleader to dictators, and sabotage their entire party. /18
This is basically the guy we elected in 2016, and they want to re-elect him this year. /19
This isn’t the kind of issue I’m supposed to talk about to run for office, but at least I can say I did something today to better equip voters and shed some light on the deeper, long-term issues impacting our country. /20
I’m running for Congress because we need this level of transparency from the people who are supposed to help us. If you can chip in to get me there, I’d really appreciate it. Maybe I’ll get to bring some hard truths to the House floor next year. secure.actblue.com/donate/j_twitt…
I wasn't expecting this thread to blow up! Thank you so much to everyone who's shared and pitched in to the campaign. Here's my last explosive thread for anyone who missed it and hasn't heard of the Council for National Policy.
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