Editorial page of the wall street journal writing about as you see the headline there, trump and the goodfellas. Donald trump says hell succeed as president because he has succeeded in business. So its appropriate to scour his business record. One area in particular that deserves scrutiny is his business relationship with companies controlled by the mafia. And then it goes into some of the detail. In 1988 anthony fat tony salerno, boss of the genovese crime family was among those convict nad scheme to profit from concrete projects for numerous buildings in manhattan including trump plaza. We asked trump about these ties on his recent visit to the journal. Since the mafias in the business of stealing, we figured mr. Trump would be angry that he had to build essentially a mob tax into the cost of his projects. But he seemed to be a satisfied customer. Atlantic city brought more transactions with wise guys. 2ru7s casino license was delayed as he was developing the Trump Plaza Hotel and casino in part because of ties to a reputed associate of the scarfo crime family. The Journal Editorial Board says they asked him about the contractors he had work for him in south jersey. Trumps answer was some of them may have been moboriented. I dont know. The journal concludes this editorial, his see no evil he had no choice explanation worked for him as a businessman. The question is whether this is adequate for someone who wants to be president. So conservative wall street journal editorial page. That wasnt an oped published. That was the editorial board, unsigned effort, two years ago december 2015, raising some serious and some specific questions about trump and the mafia. December 2015. They just did that one. They didnt go back to that topic. But now in a new article for esquire magazine they had a followup ready to go. They had a second hit on trump and the mafia to follow that barn burner of a first one. But apparently they killed it. This new report from a santana house describes a staff exodus from the editorial pages of the wall street journal, and the reason according to several defectors was the journals skidding reversal once the papers owner, Rupert Murdoch realized that trump could win the election. Several sources pointed to editorials by one writer who wrote a strong attack on mob dealings and had a second ready to go, but as trump got closer to clinching the nomination, the journal kept delaying publication, saying that the second piece on trump and the mafia, quote, needed work. It never ran. So that top down decision at the wall street journal to hold fire on trump, even on substantive concerns about trump and his ties to organized crime, that appears to have led to a large at least reportedly according to esquire magazine this week, that led to a large number of departures, staff departures from the conservative editorial page of that newspaper. Now, the wall street journal is an august and very wellrespected nationalcaliber paper. Its editorial page has always been conservative. But its editorial page has recently not just been conservative, it has jumped right into the deepest deep end of the most radical even desperate defenses of trump. The editorial page of the wall street journal has recently called on Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating russia, called on him to resign. Since that staff exodus from that paper of conservative writers who were troubled about the protrump turn at that paper being directed from the papers ownership, the paper has even published calls for President Trump to issue blanket preemptive pardons for everybody implicated in the russia scandal. And of course theres a dividing line between the editorial page of a newspaper and the News Division of a newspaper, but its hard not to notice that hard news and investigative journalists and particularly National Security specialist journalists at the wall street journal have also been flying the coop in unusual numbers recently at the wall street journal. Just this week the wall street journal lost this guy, you recognize him, from National Reporting this year that has been of intense interest, particularly on the russia scandal. This is shane harris. National security reporter at the wall street journal. Hes the one who broke that bombshell story about peter smith, the republican activist who actually contacted Russian Hackers during the campaign to try to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the hackers to help the Trump Campaign. Youll also remember that peter smith mysteriously committed suicide not long after talking to shane harris for that story. The wall street journal just lost shane harris. The journal this week also lost paul sonne, whos the one who broke that remarkable story about kaspersky software. Thats how we learned that before trump National Security adviser mike flynn took money from kaspersky, his own agency, the Defense Intelligence agency, had published multiple reports and even a pentagonwide warning saying that kaspersky was a front for russian intelligence. Thats how we found out that mike flynn knowingly took money from a company that he himself knew was a front for russian intelligence. Now both paul sonne and shane harris are leaving the wall street journal as of this week. The journal has also shed devlin barrett, who has been a scoop machine on a lot of stories over the years but in particular on this trump russia scandal. The wall street journal also lost adam entis, whos the reporter who wound up breaking that big story that during the transition eric prince had held a secret back channel meeting in the seychelles with a guy whod been sent from vladimir putin, right . So a big chunk of their Editorial Staff we now know fled that paper in the wake of its turn towards supporting trump, and it may or may not be related but we are also watching them lose a ton of reporting fire power from the news side. Now that we know that they spiked a second followup editorial piece on trump and his mafia ties after that really good first one, im curious to know what was in that piece that they spiked that they never ran. Most mafiarelated stories about the Trump Organization and donald trump feature some amount of involvement from this man. This was felix saters Trump OrganizationBusiness Card, you see him listed there, Senior Adviser to donald trump. In the year 2000 felix sater was one of a dozen people arrested in a mafia stock scam. This got a lot of attention at the time because it was a gigantic swindle, about a 40 million scam that involved a lot of people. The fbi, federal prosecutors made a lot of arrests in this scam and it ended up involving like every freaking corner of the mafia universe. The indictment in that stock scam where felix sater got indicted included people from the gambino crime family and the gravano crime family and the genovese crime family and the columbo crime family. In addition to all those different Italian Mafia figures it also involved as the New York Post so subtly put it at the time, it involved the borscht boys. So not just the Italian Mafia but the russian mafia as well. When felix sater was arrested in 2000 as part of this goodfellas and borscht boys organized crime roundup, part of this 40 million stock scheme, the governments case against him in particular followed a very interesting path. Sater got arrested along with all of those mobsters in the year 2000. He did end up pleading guilty in conjunction with that case that they brought against all those mobsters, but they treated him in a very different way. After he pled guilty, they did not lock him up. In fact, they didnt even sentence him after his guilty plea for more than ten years. They arrested him, they secured his cooperation, they got him to plead guilty to something but then instead of sentencing him for that guilty plea, instead of putting him in prison for that guilty plea, they turned him back out into the wild. They let him go back into new york city so he could become an informant for the government about organized crime. He did that work for, again, more than ten years. It actually ended up becoming a sidebar minor controversy during the confirmation hearings for attorney general Loretta Lynch because she had been the prosecutor in brooklyn who brought that big mob case whod overseen this decadelong informant deal with felix sater. But for that decade while prosecutors left him out in the wild, left him out there collecting information and giving the government information about the workings of the mob, what he was doing during that decade razz real estate deals with the Trump Organization. That was his day job while he was a mob informant for the government. He worked with the Trump Organization on a trump tower project for phoenix, arizona that never ended up getting built. He worked with the Trump Organization on a trump tower in ft. Lauderdale that did get built but then it got foreclosed. And smosomewhat famously felix sater, this excon mob informant, he also worked on putting together the financialing for the trump complex in soho city, which this week dropped the name trump off the front of the building. But trump soho opened in 2008. In 2010 we know felix sater was still working for the Trump Organization as a Senior Adviser to donald trump. But thats a problem because hes an excon. Actually served time in prison before the whole stock scandal thing for which he got arrested. In the financial industry and in the real estate business it can be legally dicey to have somebody whos a convicted felon involved in any of your business dealings. Hes a convicted felon and very much involved in the Trump Organization and its business dealings. In november 2014 in a deposition donald trump repeatedly played down any connections he might have with his Senior Adviser felix sater, and he certainly declaimed any knowledge of felix sater having any connections to organized crime. I dont think he was connected to the mafia. He got into a bar room fight. And in fact, he was supposedly very close to the government of the United States as a witness or something, but i dont think he was connected to the mafia. About how many times have you conversed with mr. Sater . Over the years . Over the years. If you could estimate. Not many. If he were sitting in the room right now, i really wouldnt know what he looked like. 2013 donald trump proclaiming that his Senior Adviser, he wouldnt know what he looked like. That was 2013. By 2015 donald trump apparently was refreshed because he came to know him again because we now know that in october 2015 felix sater was working with the Trump Organization once again, this time to put together the financing and approvals necessary to build a trump tower in moscow. Donald trump insisted throughout the campaign that he had no current and no pending business deals with russia. We now know despite those denials he and the Trump Organization were pursuing what would have been one of the biggest real estate deals of his life. Donald trump himself in october 2015 signed a letter of intent to pursue a trump tower in moscow. This is a project that was spearheaded by Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen and by felix sater. The New York Times obtained felix saters emails about the trump tower moscow project this past august and they showed that in addition to the exciting financial prospects for this trump tower in moscow, for some reason felix sater thought it would be a big political payoff too. He believed if that project, that real estate tower in moscow, if it got off the ground it would have great political consequences for donald trump. He wrote to Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen, quote, our boy can become president of the usa and we can engineer it. I will get all of putins team to buy in on this. I will manage this process. I will get putin on this program and we will get donald elected. Now, whats the connection between trump getting elected president and some big real estate deal in moscow . I dont know, hard to say. Why on earth would the president of russia be involved either in a real estate deal or in making trump president or in something that connects the two . No idea. The Trump Organizations defense about its ties to felix sater over the years is that sometimes they deny they have any idea who he is. He must have made that Business Card at the kinkos. Do they still have kinkos . They either say we dont know who he is when they do have to acknowledge their dealings with him, they tend to dismiss him as somebody who brags a lot, maybe he shouldnt be believed. To that point, my favorite detail in all the felix sater mob russia trump reporting is when felix sater bragged to Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen that he really could get this trump moscow thing off the ground and he really could get putin on board and he thereby could get trump connected, in making these connections and writing it out in emails that we can read in the New York Times, he just bragged about how much juice he had to make these connections and do this kind of stuff in russia. He said, quote, michael, i arranged for ivanka to sit in putins private chair at his desk and office in the kremlin. I know how to play it. We will get this done. So the New York Times obtains that email and then doing Due Diligence they contact ivanka trump to find out if what felix sater said about her was true. Her response to the times was that, yes, she in fact had gone to moscow with felix sater. She said she had taken a, quote, brief tour of red square and the kremlin. And although she took care to insist she was only there, quote, as a tourist, quote, she said it is possible she sat in mr. Putins chair. Its possible. Who among us can say whether or not for sure weve sat in putins chair . This could be his chair, i dont know. So if youre interested in the Trump Campaign and its connections to russia, if youre interested in the scandal and figuring out if there was anything done between the Trump Organization and russia that might have had some later connection to what happened between russia and the president ial election, if you are trying to figure that stuff out, felix sater would be a pretty good guy to talk to. Even if he is a little nutty, hes right there in the bulls eye in terms of figuring this story out. Well, heres the amazing thing. Two days ago, wednesday of this week, the House Intelligence Committee finally decided that maybe we should do an interview with felix sater while were investigating this russia thing. They scheduled it during the house vote on the tax bill and they scheduled it not in washington d. C. Which means when it came time finally to talk to this incredibly central, interesting figure with all sorts of long, lurid, fascinating criminal organized crime, russia, trump, real estate history, the republicanled House Intelligence Committee decided that that witness should be interviewed specifically at a time and place where no member of congress could attend the interview. They had staff do the interview instead and they had it happen out of state. We know for sure that no members of Congress Went to the interview. Not because theyll tell us but because we have the roll call vote for the house when they were voting on the tax bill that day and you can see from the time stamp that it happened at 12 55 p. M. Thats when they finalized the vote. There were Seven Members of the house who werent present and didnt vote on the tax bill, but none of them are members of the Intelligence Committee. All the Intelligence Committee members were there in person for that tax vote, so we know they werent in new york interviewing felix sater. Then there was a second vote that day at 6 47 p. M. For that vote there were a total of 11 members of the house who didnt cast a vote. It was the seven who missed in the morning plus four more. None of the people who missed that vote were members of the Intelligence Committee either. All Intelligence Committee members were present and voted then too. That means none of them, republican or democrat, were in new york interviewing felix sater. They were all in washington. No members of congress get to interview felix. How come he gets that privilege . Why do that particular interview with that particular witness in a way that no member of congress could go to . 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