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…
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Stephen Miller confirms what anyone who studies Jan 6 knows: Trump's government wants to control education and impose a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It was OBVIOUS this was coming: Trump promised this in 2020 in exchange for support for his coup. But pundits ignored it. 1/
This account first called it in 2022. THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION Trump set up a commission on patriotic education. The people who led it - from Hillsdale & Claremont - then wrote his election-fraud lawsuits, arranged fake electors. They met on Jan 5. 2/
Education was Trump's barter with the religious right: public funds for private religious schools and a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It could have been stopped: Michigan should have indicted Larry Arnn, Hillsdale president, 176 Commission leader. 3/
Our new Navy Director of Communications watched the action at the Capitol on Jan 6 for Breitbart News. Her worst post might be this one: she flippantly captioned a video of people attacking the North Doors: "Things got a lil sporty here". To her it was a joke. Video tk. 1/
Here's Wong's video of the attack on the North Doors. She can claim she was just a reporter, but her caption shows that she thinks an attack on our Capitol and officers is funny. @SECNAV: is this the message you want to send to the troops, who swear to uphold the Constitution? 2/
Actual reporters, not Breitbart hacks, should ask @SecNav John Phelan: why was Kristina Wong picked? Is this the right message to send the US Navy? That attacking our own Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power is just "a lil sporty"? 3/
It's clear by now: we WILL lose US democracy without a civil society pushback. Today the universities finally rose up, bluntly denouncing "undue government intrusion". The coalition is is now top-heavy with establishment heavyweights. Summary follows. 1/ theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a…
Who signed? Let's start with the Ivies. Status-worship is gross, but it matters that they're nearly all leading now:
* Ivy: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Penn, Brown
NOT Columbia, Dartmouth
* Ivy-plus: MIT, Duke
NOT Stanford, Univ. of Chicago
2/
continuing... universities with big research arms:
* Other elite tech:
NOT Caltech, Rice, Georgia Tech
* Big state R1s: Rutgers, U WA, U MD, U WI Madison, U HI, UC Riverside, Stony Brook
NOT U MI, UIUC, other UCs, UT, etc.
3/
When Trump's goons threatened Harvard it was clear what would happen: first PR, then lawyers. Harvard has now filed suit, solo against 8 government agencies. Two main points: 1) government did not follow procedure, 2) government cannot dictate speech. 1/ harvard.edu/research-fundi…
As you'd expect, Harvard has also put out a smooth letter explaining their lawsuit. It starts by outlining the 5 attacks Trump has made on Harvard. Then pivots to defending research. Then thoughts on antisemitism - giving Trump an offramp he could take. 2/ harvard.edu/president/news…
More careful work: Harvard has kept the 2 ultra-Trumpy lawyers originally hired to negotiate, but added 14 more from 2 specialty law firms: Ropes & Gray, experts in life sciences & pharma research, and Lehotsky Keller Cohn, experts in federal regulations. Choose your fighter. 3/
The public needs to learn how Kristi Noem, a cabinet official with Secret Service protection, got her purse snatched with DHS badge, passport, maybe phone: now a security risk. If she'd asked the SS to stand down for privacy, we need to know who was she having dinner with. 1/
Either #1: Noem had an intimate restaurant dinner (on Easter?) she felt was so important she put US security at risk. Or, #2: Noem didn't ask the Secret Service to back off, and our elite agency let a purse-snatcher get within arm's length of a cabinet secretary. Or.. 2/
Or, #3: everyone is lying and something else happened that resulted in Noem losing her badge and passport. We cannot know without more reporting. Reporters should not let this story get lost in the deluge of scandal. It needs follow-up. 3/
The Trump admin now CLAIMS to have made a mistake. Not "acknowledges". Trump's clowns sent a letter signed by 3 government officials, got the predictable response (mighty Harvard swung into battle), tried to amplify and flopped, and so now are whining it's all Harvard's fault. 1/
The NYT article is pretty good. It repeats admin claims, but makes it clear that they're in chaos. They know they messed up and are scrambling. Predictably, Harvard had been negotiating, before that letter - but it sent them into battle. Unpaywalled link: archive.is/YsHpJ
The timeline: as soon as Harvard rolled out their resistance PR on Monday, the Trump admin knew they blew it. Immediately tried to walk it back. Harvard says no. On Wednesday, they escalated the threats. Still no. Now they're down to complaining it's all Harvard's fault. 3/