capitolhunters Profile picture
Jan 13, 2024 8 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Now that Trump has flashed a NY Mafia pal (murderer Sammy Gravano of the Gambino family) to threaten Judge Engoron, is it finally time to mention that Trump's NY mob ties also touch his "friendly" Judge Aileen Cannon? Her husband worked for John Rosatti of the Colombo family. 1/ Image
Trump palled around with Colombo buddies John Rosatti & John Staluppi in the 1980s - Staluppi went into business with Trump in 1988. Cannon's husband worked for Rosatti later, 2011-14; could be legit. She's not required to recuse - but she should have. 2/
web.archive.org/web/2021072621…
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Federal rules don't force a judge to recuse when a defendant is a former business partner of their spouse's ex-Mafia employer. But it looks unseemly. And when Cannon keeps granting Trump nonsensical delays on his case, we have to talk about it. 3/
Cannon's husband Josh Lorence seems to agree it looks unseemly, since he wiped his LinkedIn in 2022 when Cannon first got a high-profile Trump case. He was a senior exec at Rosatti's BurgerFi, a hamburger businesses oddly with branches in Saudi Arabia. 4/
Soon after the deal with Trump, Rosatti and Staluppi got mixed up in the bloody Colombo civil war that started in 1991 after boss Carmine Persico was jailed. John Rosatti, who supported rival Victor Orena, supposedly ordered a key hit on Persico's guy. 5/
caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-c…
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Smartly, Staluppi and Rosatti switched sides halfway through - they picked the winners. Note how they provide cars & helicopters to other mobsters - that was their semi-legit business. Staluppi would fly Trump's friends out to his Atlantic City casinos. 6/
thesmokinggun.com/file/mafia-sol…
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None of this has to mean Aileen Cannon is corrupt, but a reasonable judge would have recused. It's unseemly that the first criminal trial of a former US president has to mean thinking about Carmine "the Snake" Persico and Gregory "Grim Reaper" Scarpa. 7/
nypost.com/2011/01/30/the…

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These stories are old, but still relevant. Like Trump, wise guys Rosatti and Staluppi left New York for Palm Beach. Rosatti started BurgerFi; Staluppi bought a strip club; both sail luxury mega-yachts - and both are still part of Donald Trump's world. 8/
robertstolpe.net/Showboats-Rend…
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More from @capitolhunters

May 27
Today Trump froze ALL student visa applications. Let's be clear on what this is - it's an attack on knowledge. About half the graduate students who power U.S. research are foreign. (Compare dark blue & dark red in chart.) No students = no advances in science, medicine, tech. 1/ Image
Politico missed this point today, writing that revoking student visas would hit universities because "many... rely heavily on foreign students for funds". What it hits most is research: those visas go mostly to PhD-student researchers working in labs. 2/
politico.com/news/2025/05/2…
Nearly half of STEM PhD students in the US are foreign. They do not pay tuition - they are paid by their labs for their work. The ROI on research is so big, each yields over $10K/yr net benefit to the US. Foreign talent helps the US lead in innovation. 3/
csis.org/analysis/innov…Image
Read 7 tweets
May 19
CBS' 60 Minutes is airing a puff piece about weapons maker Anduril, a company backed by Peter Thiel, whose CEO is Matt Gaetz's brother-in-law. Let's remember that both the exec producer of 60 Minutes and the CEO of CBS recently quit saying they were losing editorial control. 1/
Palmer Luckey, Anduril CEO, is eagerly promoting it - it's not going to be hard-hitting. Ask why CBS, facing a bs lawsuit by Trump, is airing a promo for a wanna-be defense contractor deeply tied to the people now tearing apart the federal government. 2/
npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-…
Anduril was founded by Luckey and execs from Peter Thiel's Palantir - like all Thiel's companies, it got a name from "Lord of the Rings". Peter now has all your data - he wants to control your military too. He's leading a new funding round for Anduril. 3/
reuters.com/business/aeros…
Read 8 tweets
May 11
Everyone's talking about the bribery part of Trump's gift of a $400M superluxury airplane from the Emir of Qatar but no one's covered the security risk part. Trump will be doing private meetings in a vehicle provided by a foreign government. 1/
abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…
Is it likely Trump's folks can effectively sweep that plane for listening devices? Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff just walked into a meeting with Putin using a Russian intelligence officer as his translator. They're not the sharpest pencils in the box. 2/
OK, some are raising security fears, just not in the published articles. Garrett Graff calls it an "unmeasurable risk" and points out: the president can't even accept a helicopter ride from a foreign government. He travels with his own helicopter. But sure, use a Qatari plane. 3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
May 9
Ed Martin just got named Trump's "Pardon Attorney" (plus Associate Deputy AG). He does know the subject - in 2020, Martin brokered a pardon for Michael Flynn in exchange for Flynn's speaking at Stop the Steal rallies. Martin knows how to cut a pardon deal. 1/ Image
This 2023 thread covers the story. Nov. 4, the day after the election, Ali Alexander spun up Stop the Steal with Ed Martin as a top recruit. Nov. 7, Martin reaches out to the White House with a deal: pardon Flynn and he'll help with "base-rallying". 2/
People like to think of Michael Flynn as a villain but in 2020, it was Ed Martin leading. Flynn would do nothing til he got that pardon - a straight quid pro quo. But Ed Martin was all-in from the start, busily working to overthrow the rule of law. 3/
Read 4 tweets
May 6
Trump just declared Harvard ineligible for all grants and the NYT botches the story. It's not that "Harvard.. relies on federal money..[for] its projects". It's the federal government that relies on Harvard for its projects. Harvard provides services for you, the taxpayer. 1/ Image
The NYT's phrasing is as dumb as saying gosh, your plumber relies on your money for HIS plumbing projects! What happens is the federal government puts out a call for research in some area, on YOUR behalf. Individuals then submit proposals to do that work. Just like plumbers. 2/ Image
The NYT article is astoundingly backwards. You'd think @alanblinder, an education reporter, would know better, if he'd ever lifted his head beyond admissions grievances and culture wars to consider what universities actually do. Unpaywalled link. 2/
archive.is/Mcwtc#selectio…Image
Read 8 tweets
May 5
Reporters: yes, alt-right gadfly Ivan Raiklin says crazy stuff, but what's most interesting about him is the backstory, how he was groomed to be an influencer. Because Raiklin is of Russian origin: parents are Russian emigres, brother a Russian scholar, wife a Russian teacher. 1/
Ivan Raiklin could have been on a list since his summer in Moscow in 2002. His brother Ben would be known from his PhD ("Stalin’s Documentary Filmmaking Industry, 1926-1946"). And Ben's insecure little brother, an officer in the National Guard, would be such a tempting target. 2/
We have to stop pretending far-right influencers appear spontaneously. They have histories: normal childhoods, then they're recruited into the game. It's rarely natural. Always ask: how did this person become known, who set them onto this new path? That's the bigger story. 3/
Read 6 tweets

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