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/
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Alex Pretti's killers are identified by ProPublica. The man who shot Pretti in the back ("A4") is Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa. The man who instigated the confrontation ("A1") is CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Not new hires: 8 & 12 years service. 1/
ProPublica is terse about the sourcing but says "government documents" - likely a leak. Public video, public outrage, and news coverage all encourage leaks. Now the next step is obtaining the footage from the bodycam that Gutierrez ("A1") was wearing. 2/ propublica.org/article/alex-p…
A pushback on this statement by @davidmcswane. Sure, it's hard to sort out what agent did what in the chaos, but many people have done it: this account, CNN, NYT, WaPo. Just be methodical, label & describe them, and work frame by frame. People need to see the full story. 3/
The Epstein files show his wild geopolitical schemes, but realize: he was a huckster who conned his way up; his friends called him dumb. He may have been a tool. @TVolscho digs up early details: Epstein lied to get a Dalton job, got fired mid-semester since he couldn't teach. 1/
The Epstein files show him reaching out to Putin in 2013 to suggest tearing up the world's financial system. But a friend said that Epstein couldn't understand the talk at his science dinners, so would blurt out "what does that got to do with pussy". 2/ motherjones.com/criminal-justi…
As Epstein's emails show the extent of his ties to global elites, we have to manage the contradictions. Epstein curated his image, working the press. He was a genius at the con. But he was not likely the creator of all the schemes he pitched. Who was? 3/ substack.com/home/post/p-18…
New video implies one of Alex Pretti's shooters wore a bodycam that day - and shows his face.
Two agents at Pretti's murder - "A1" (NS-919), the instigator who fired at his prone body, & "A12" (NS-909) - are now seen earlier attacking another observer. The bodycam is clear. 1/
There is no suggestion that agents have changed their identifier numbers. The details of A1 / NS-919's vest match on both days, though it's seen more clearly in the new video. build. His build is the same. The new video also shows his face, partially. 2/
The new video is now linked in the summary document covered in this thread. (See Tweet 2 for link to Google Doc.) 3/
Bari Weiss is a propagandist, but not a talented one who knows how to tune her messaging by audience. She's now installed the bootlicking Niall Ferguson in all 3 of her vehicles: the University of Austin, The Free Press, and now CBS News. Same message, same tone everywhere. 1/
CNN on the same Davos speech that Ferguson gushed about: Trump was "subdued", the speech "winding, antagonistic", "filled with grievances"; the crowd "restless". Ferguson, like many rw pundits, seems to have a Daddy complex, wanting to be dominated. 2/ cnn.com/2026/01/21/pol…
Anyway, that's what CBS News will be feeding their viewers now. It's so clearly going to flop that people are speculating the point of hiring Bari Weiss was to destroy CBS: that she's Ted Lasso without the charm, filling a mission to kill a franchise. 3/
The murder of Alex Pretti is seen in at least 5 videos. The incident unfolded over less than a minute. One agent instigated. One shot. Pretti held only a camera. He had a gun, but never touched. it. The shooter saw him get disarmed, then shot him in the back, point blank. 1/
As promised, here is a multi-camera timeline, with sources and screenshots. Other people have drawn the same conclusions - that it was murder, that Pretti's shooter saw his gun removed - but this document can serve as a general reference. 2/ docs.google.com/document/d/1Yv…
It's important to understand not just the shooting but what happened before it: how the hyper-aggressive Agent 1 chased and repeatedly pushed two women, followed them when they walked over to stand with Pretti, then turned his rage on Pretti instead. He was the instigator. 3/
The NYT has a new video analysis of Renee Good's shooting which is careful, accurate, and clear - he walked across the path of a moving car, then leaned in and shot her with his feet well clear of the vehicle. 1/ nytimes.com/2026/01/15/vid…
Not many media outlets have specialized video analysis teams. CNN posted a video last week that showed Ross crossing in front of Good's car, but they missed the significance. The NYT's multicamera, frame-by-frame analysis is what's needed to understand. 2/
The NYT gets exactly right those parts of the sequence this account had separately verified, including 1) Ross switches his phone from R to L hand as he leans into his own car, and 2) Ross places his phone hand on Good's hood. They are solid. 3/ docs.google.com/document/d/1sB…