Donald Trump

Introduction

Donald John Trump is the 45th and former president of the United States, a business owner, and a former television personality. He has extensive connections with transnational organized crime, espionage and several mob leaders. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. As of October 2020, Trump is ranked 1,001st on Forbes's list of billionaires with a net worth of $2.5 billion. [1]

Donald Trump and Fred Trump

Connections:

• Fred Trump
• Genovese crime family

Trump was born in Queens, New York City. He attended Fordham University for two years and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He became president of his father Fred Trump's real estate business E. Trump & Son in 1971 and renamed it around 1973 to The Trump Organization. He expanded its operations to building or renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He later handed off its leadership on January 11, 2017, to his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump along with CFO Allen Weisselberg. [2] Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump had worked closely with construction entities associated and owned by the Genovese crime family since building the Shore Haven development in 1947. Every construction partner and union Fred Trump used to build his real estate empire, per public records, was owned and controlled by the Genovese crime family as was the territory in which Fred Trump built. [3]

Trump, the Genovese, and Gambino Crime Families

Connections:

• Roy Cohn
• S & A Concrete
• Genovese crime family
• “Fat Tony” Salerno
• HRH Construction Corp
• Gambino crime family
• Paul Castellano
• Trump property
• Trump Tower
• Trump Plaza

In 1973, Donald Trump met Roy Cohn, the lawyer and mob consigliere fixer, at Le Club, a members-only East Side hangout. He befriended Cohn, who had become famous as lead counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Cohn’s client list included clients Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, boss of the Genovese crime family, the most powerful Mafia group in New York at the time, and Paul Castellano, head of what was said to be the second-largest family, the Gambinos. [4]

Donald Trump ↔️ Roy Cohn

Donald Trump wanted to expand his business to Manhattan and build Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment. He recalled in a 2016 US election campaign Town Hall, "Even my father he said you don't want to go to Manhattan. That's not our territory." [5] At the time, that area was controlled by the Gambino crime family. [6] Roy Cohn facilitated a solution and created a joint construction company called S & A Concrete between Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, Genovese boss, and Paul Castellano, Gambino boss while giving Genovese companies HRH Construction Corp priority where possible. [7] According to a former Cohn employee, Trump and the Genovese boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno met face-to-face at Cohn's townhouse. [8] A US federal investigation concluded that the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering. Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno was later indicted on racketeering charges. An $8 million deal for concrete at Trump Plaza was listed as one of the acts establishing that S & A Concrete was part of a racketeering enterprise. Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno was sent to prison where he died alone from a stroke. [9]

Trump, Trump Plaza, the Philadelphia crime family

Connections:

• Daniel Sullivan
• Elliot Goldberg
• Philadelphia crime family
• Kenneth Shapiro
• Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo
• Salvatore "Salvie" Testa
• Phillip “Crazy Phil” Leonetti
• Scarf, Inc.
• Nat Nat
• Trump property
• Trump Plaza
• Le Bistro

In the early 1980s Trump went into business with SSG Inc, a drywall manufacturing business, with Daniel Sullivan, Kenneth Shapiro, and Elliot Goldberg [10], which was "among the firms implicated in a racketeering scheme involving the carpenters' union and the Genovese crime family" represented by Roy Cohn. Daniel Sullivan "dealt with labor problems at Trump's construction sites” and introduced Trump into an Atlantic City land-leasing deal with Kenneth Shapiro also an SSG, Inc partner, whom law enforcement authorities had identified as a financier and agent for Philadelphia Crime Family boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. [11]

To enlarge Trump Plaza, Donald Trump bought 'Le Bistro' nightclub that was owned by Salvatore 'Salvie' Testa, a chief enforcer and veteran hitman of the Philadelphia crime family, and Frank Narducci Jr, a Capo of the Philadelphia crime family. They were mob hitmen known as the Young Executioners, Testa was murdered in 1984 weeks after a dispute with mob boss Nicky Scarfo and Narducci, who transferred his stake in the club to Testa in 1982, was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 for his role in a mob murder. The two worked for Atlantic City’s mob boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo. Donald Trump bought the 5,000 square-foot nightclub lot that had been bought five years earlier for $195,000 for $1.1 million, more than twice its market value. [12] Nicademo “Little Nicky” Scarfo and his nephew Phillip “Crazy Phil” Leonetti controlled two of the major construction and concrete companies in Atlantic City. Both companies, Scarf, Inc. and Nat Nat, did work on the construction of Harrah’s, according to the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation’s 1986 report on organized crime. [13] Also, Scarfo controlled the bartenders union, which represented Trump’s workers in Atlantic City. [14]

Donald Trump ↔️ Dan Sullivan

Trump, Trump Tower, Undocumented Immigrant Exploitation

Connections:

• Daniel Sullivan
• Genovese crime family
• House Wreckers Union Local 95
• Trump property
• Trump Tower

In 1979, when Trump hired a demolition contractor to take down the Bonwit Teller department store to make way for Trump Tower, he hired non-union men to work alongside the House Wreckers Union Local 95, the union, ran mainly by the Genovese crime family, which hired a large swath of nonunion, undocumented Polish and South Korean demolition workers to work alongside its union members. [15]

Daniel Sullivan was a labor activist and mafia informant for the FBI and he dealt with labor problems at Trump's construction sites. In June 1980, Trump confided in Daniel Sullivan about a problem he was having at a construction site on Manhattan’s East Side where he was tearing down the Bonwit Teller building to make way for Trump Tower. Trump told Sullivan that his demolition subcontractor was relying on illegal Polish workers and that the workers were unhappy about their nonunion wages and hours. Trump worried that the building was not coming down quickly enough and that he faced heavy real estate taxes if the demolition was not finished soon. [16]

The Polish workers were paid only $4 per hour, far below union wages, and they were working seven days a week in 12-hour shifts, sometimes longer, court documents show. The Polish immigrants were required to use jackhammers and wheelbarrows to take down the building by hand. Sullivan testified against Trump during a civil lawsuit brought forward by the workers, he had warned Trump about the implications of using illegal immigrants and going against the union contract. In the late 1980s Sullivan testified that he had told Trump, “Don’t exploit them like that. . . . Don’t try to f--- these poor souls over.” [17] “They were undocumented and worked ‘off the books,’” Manhattan federal Judge Charles Stewart said of the workers after they became the subject of a 1983 lawsuit. “No records were kept, no Social Security or other taxes were withheld. [18]

Trump, Trump air, and cocaine

Connections:

• Maryanne Trump Barry
• Weichselbaum crime fammily
• Joseph Weichselbaum
• Franklin Weichselbaum
• Damin Aviation
• Nimad
• American Business Aviation
• Trump Property
• Trump Air
• Trump Castle
• Trump Plaza

Donald Trump was close friends with Joseph Weichselbaum, a drug smuggler who in 1979 had been convicted of felony embezzlement and felony car theft. Joseph Weichselbaum was hired to maintain Trump’s private helicopter a black Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma named Ivana and manage a helicopter service Damin Aviation owned by him and his brother Franklin. They were getting paid more than $2 million a year for ferrying high rollers to and from Trump's casinos. [19]

Joseph Weichselbaum lived in an apartment in Trump Plaza when he was indicted for heading a Colombia-Miami-Middle U.S. cocaine ring in 1985 and pleaded guilty to federal charges of cocaine smuggling in 1986. The 1985 indictment alleged that he ran a narcotics operation from Miami, where he would buy kilos of cocaine from two Colombian brothers, Francisco and Walter Ramirez, which he would then sell to smaller dealers in the parking lot of a car dealership owned by Franklin Weichselbaum. The drugs would be distributed throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and North Carolina, prosecutors alleged. [20]

The head of one of Trump’s casinos was notified of the indictment in October 1985, but Donald Trump continued employing Weichselbaum; Just two months later Trump rented an apartment he owned in the Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan to Joseph Weichselbaum and his brother Franklin for $7000 a month with half of it paid in bartered helicopter services. [21] Trump also continued paying Weichselbaum’s helicopter firm $180,000 a month (Trump Plaza paid $100,000 per month and Trump's Castle paid $80,000 a month) even after it went bankrupt twice renaming itself Nimad (Damin spelled backward) the first time and American Business Aviation the second. The unusual paymements continued was despite Trump having purchased three helicopters of his own, to form Trump Air. [22]

The Weichselbaum cocaine trafficking case was initially prosecuted in Ohio but moved to New Jersey for unknown reasons and then assigned to federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. After three weeks Judge Barry recused herself, explaining to the chief judge that her husband, Trump casino lawyer John Barry, and she had been flown in Weichselbaum’s helicopters.[23] The case was swiftly reassigned to Judge Harold Ackerman. In 1987, Donald Trump sent a letter of reference to Newark federal court Judge Harold Ackerman vouching for Weichselbaum before his sentencing, writing that the drug trafficker is “a credit to the community” who was “conscientious, forthright, and diligent.” [24] Weichselbaum got only three years, serving 18 months before he was released from the urban prison that the Bureau of Prisons maintains in New York City and moved to his new home in Trump Tower. [25] Judge Harold Ackerman later oversaw a separate cocaine smuggling case in 1988 where 20 alleged members of the Lucchese crime family were acquitted. [26]

Weichselbaum’s girlfriend bought two adjoining apartments at Trump Tower for $2.4 million in cash, while he was in prison and left no public record of the transaction or where the money originated from. [27] When Trump was asked in 1990 by casino officials about his letter to the judge on Joseph Weichselbaum’s behalf, Donald Trump claimed that he could not remember having written it. [28] Trump and Weichselbaum were so close, that Weichselbaum told his parole officer, long before it was publicly revealed, about how he knew Trump was hiding his then mistress, Marla Maples, from his first wife, Ivana Trump, and tried to persuade Trump to end their years-long affair. [29]

Donald Trump ↔️ Joseph Weichselbaum

One high roller, referring to the Trump Plaza and Trump Castle, told Spy in 1991, “Sure, I was offered coke gambling down there,” and a Trump Castle employee confirmed that VIPs were supplied with cocaine at parties, “It happened all the time.” [30] From 1988 until 1992 Donald Trump hosted cocaine-fueled parties featuring trafficked women and children as young as 15. A photographer who attended some of those parties said that the models were groomed with promises “you’ll meet rich guys who will help you.” According to the witness “There were always dramas because the men threw money and drugs at them to keep them enticed. It’s based on power and dominating girls who can’t push back and can be discarded. There’s always someone to pick them back up. Nobody wants to call home and say ‘Help me.’” [31] Trump would allegedly wander through the parties enjoying himself. “Trump was in and out. He’d wander off with a couple of girls. I saw him. He was getting laid like crazy,” Andy Lucchesi, a male model who allegedly organized the cocaine parties, later confessed that there were “a lot of girls, 14, look 24. That’s as juicy as I can get. I never asked how old they were; I just partook.” [32]

Trump, Trump Tower, the Russian mob, and the Colombo Crime Family

Connections:

• Russian Mob
• David Bogatin
• Jacob Bogatin
• Simon Mogilevich
• Colombo crime family
• Michael Franzese
• Carmine "The Snake" Persico
• Salvatore " Sammy the Bull" Gravano
• John Rosatti
• John Staluppi
• Dllinger Charter Services
• Millennium Super Yachts
• US Politicans
• Tom Cotton
• Mitch McConnell
• Cory Gardner
• Ron DeSantis
• George W. Bush
• Republican National Committee
• Trump Property
• Trump Tower
• Trump Make America Great Again Committee

In 1984, former Soviet Army pilot and a leading member of the New York Russian mob David Bogatin, bought five luxury condos in Trump Tower for $6 million. At the time, Russian mobsters were investing in high end New York real estate for money laundering purposes, and Trump Tower was accepting anonymous buyers. [33] Bogatin's brother Jacob (Yacov) Bogatin had run a $150m stock scam with Russian mob boss Simon Mogilevich. In 1987, Bogatin pleaded guilty to “evading millions of dollars in state fuel taxes in what state officials called one of the largest gasoline bootlegging operations in the nation” and claimed was connected to the Colombo crime family. [34] The luxury condos in Trump Towers were seized by the U.S. government, claiming that he had used the purchase to launder money and was part of a Gas cartel operated under the direction of Michael Franzese, a reputed captain of the Colombo crime family. [35]

In 1988, Donald Trump did his first personal branding name-licensing deal with a luxury limo rental company owned by John Staluppi who was a business partner of John Rosatti. At the time John Staluppi went into business with Trump he had been under investigation by U.S. law enforcement for over a decade and investigators followed him to meetings with Colombo family boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico. [36] Staluppi also operated a company called Dillinger Charter Service alongside Trump’s pilot Joseph Weichselbaum, which supplied helicopters to the Trump Organization.[37] Staluppi and Rosatti started a luxury yacht business called Millennium Super Yachts, buying custom-built high-speed megayachts, renaming them after James Bond films, and selling them after a couple of years for a profit, considered unusual since new yachts are generally more valuable than used ones. [38]

Donald Trump ↔️ John Staluppi ↔️ John Rosatti

In 2020, according to US Federal Election Commission records, John Staluppi and John Rosatti, formerly of the Colombo crime family donated at least $40,000 to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. John Staluppi has made a pair of $1000 donations to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising operation benefitting Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee. Staluppi has also donated $580 directly to the RNC. John Staluppi’s wife gave $35,000 to Trump Victory, a joint committee whose fundraising principally benefits Trump’s reelection committee, and the RNC. The John Staluppi contribution corresponds with a private Florida fundraiser attended by Trump that costs $35,000 per couple for a photo with the president.[39] US Federal Election Commission records show John Rosatti donated $1000 to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee. FEC records show that the couple has donated to multiple state Republican organizations, as well as officeholders like Tom Cotton, Mitch McConnell, Cory Gardner, Ron DeSantis, and George W. Bush.The bulk of political contributions made by Rosatti and Staluppi came after the pair moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where they live in waterfront mansions, blocks from each other. [40]

In 2016, Donald Trump received an endorsement from former Gambino family underboss, originally a soldier of the Colombo crime family, Salvatore " Sammy the Bull" Gravano. He is known as the man who helped bring down John Gotti, the family's boss, by agreeing to become a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) government witness. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder; other conspirators included John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone. After Castellano's death, Gotti elevated Gravano to consigliere, a position he held until he became underboss in 1990 around the time he became a government witness. Gravano stated that the United States "doesn't need a bookworm as president, it needs a mob boss." [41] Salvatore Gravano insinuated a relationship with Trump during a 1997 interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. "I literally marvel at the sight of Manhattan when I see it, because I controlled it," Gravano said. "I literally controlled Manhattan. When I see it at night — those lights and everything about it — I think of Donald Trump and Tishman and everybody else who couldn't build a building if I didn't want them to build it. That got me off. Plus, I made a lot of money with it." [42]

Trump and Casablancas rape network

Connections:

John Casablancas

Roy Cohn

Studio 54

Steve Rubell

Ian Schrager

Michael Gross

Elite Model Management

Trump Model Management

Elite Europe

Trump Realty Brazil

Ivanka Trump

Gerald Marie

Donald Trump ↔️ John Casablancas

Donald Trump and John Casablancas were introduced at some point during the mid ’70s through Roy Cohn. [43] Trump gained access to Manhattan’s mobbed up and drug infested social scene through Roy Cohn who was the legal advisor and attorney to Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the owners of Studio 54 where Trump would spend much of the 1970s. They would later be sentenced to 3 ½ years of prison for tax evasion. [44] According to Trump, John Casablancas tutored him in the “modeling agency” business. During this period, Trump engaged in such excess of debauchery that he deemed it “my second business” according to author Michael Gross. According to Donald Trump during an interview with Michael Gross, “You had drugs, women, and booze all over the f--kin’ place ... If I hadn’t got married, who knows what would have happened? ... I don’t think anybody had more sex than I did. Sex was all over the fucking place ... I would watch supermodels getting screwed, well-known supermodels getting screwed, on a bench in the middle of the room. There were seven of them and each one was getting screwed by a different guy.” [45]

John Casablancas, was a prolific child rapist, trafficker, and founder of Elite Model Management. He had a reputation for using his influence to abuse, coerce, and/or rape aspiring models, including children, and was openly embraced by the New York social scene. [46] He openly admitted that he often raped children, “that was the business I was in ... many of us are fascinated by the idea of a woman-child, like Brooke Shields in the movie Pretty Baby.” Shields played a child rape trafficking victim being sold to adult men. [47] Ivanka Trump, age 15, became a model at Elite Model Management directly under the management of John Casablancas. Monica Pillard, the president of Elite, had been eyeing Ivanka since she spotted her on Donald Trump’s lap, when Trump was a judge of a new-talent contest for Elite, the agency often held events at Trump Tower. Pillard served as a judge in the Miss Universe pageant, which was jointly owned by Donald Trump and CBS, as was the Miss Teen USA pageant. [48]

Donald Trump was often spotted at Elite Model Management parties as far back as 1982. Trump hosted events for Elite’s modeling contests, provided lodging for the contestants, and at times acted as a contest judge alongside John Casablancas, Gerald Marie, and others. According to a witness, Patty Owen, an Elle and Cosmopolitan cover star, “He would always be at the bar. That’s where he would stay and that’s where all the new models would hang out ... Whenever I saw him, I was always like: why does John have to invite him?”. According to another witness Barbara Pilling, an Elite model, Donald Trump asked her out for dinner in the summer of 1989. She recalls Trump asking how old she was. “I said 17 and he said, ‘That’s just great – you’re not too old, not too young.’” She also witnessed seeing girls aged 14, 15 years old from Europe. [49]

In 1999, Trump started a modeling agency, Trump Model Management later shorten to T-Models, cloned after John Casablanca's own Elite Model Management. [50] In 2000, Casablancas retired from the Elite Model Management, after then-president of Elite Europe, Gerald Marie, was featured in a BBC exposé grooming a young model and was later accused of rape by several models. [51] Marie Anderson Boyd, who was an agent and vice president at the Elite Model Management’s Chicago office between 1985 and 1990, said models would regularly report sexual misconduct they experienced on go-sees. She never passed the reports to her managers at Elite, in part because executives like John Casablancas and Gerald Marie also engaged. “They established a culture of compliance with sexually predatory behavior ... That trickled down into everything everybody did.” [52] A 2012 study by Model Alliance, found that 52% of models are rarely or never accompanied by guardians to a shoot, even though the majority of models start working between age 13 - 16, and 50% are exposed to cocaine.[53] Anderson Boyd told New York Magazine that she remembered watching two female executives plead with Gerald Marie and John Casablancas to stop raping children. They responded “We are men. We have our needs.” [54] In 2004, Elite filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after two lawsuits were brought against it by a group of former models and employees [55], it was bought by Creative World, which is owned by Eddie and Jules Trump. No relation to Donald Trump, the Trumps outbid ID Models boss Paolo Zampolli and child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.[56]

Teenage Elite models in the late 80s and early 90s were required to attend private dinners with Donald Trump, John Casablancas, and other men. Heather Braden, an Elite model, in the late 90s, alleges that she was instructed to go to a party in a mansion on one of the islands near Miami Beach where she witnessed Donald Trump and three famous actors, who she refused to name, prey on dozens of young models isolating many into bedrooms or other parts of the mansion, “Clearly, we were there for one reason. We were just pieces of meat.”. According to witness Shayna Love, an Australian model who was 16, “It was presented as our duty as models at the agency. It wasn’t an invitation. It was like, you have to go and do this.” Love recalls attending a dinner with John Casablancas and Donald Trump “This time it was a private area, a big table and lots of girls – I’d say around 10 to 15 of us, all between the ages of 14 and 18,” she said. “It was just us models, Trump and John. We were all underage, but we were offered drinks,” Love said she went home early, but other children stayed. Eli Nessa, an Elite Model, stated, “We were a bunch of kids, just put there with all these older men.” [57]

Donald Trump later hired John Casablancas to be on the board at Trump Realty Brazil, a $40 million project aimed at the Brazilian wealthy elite, as a "lifestyle consultant of sorts." [58] The project was pitched by Ricardo Bellino with the help of John Casablancas and they were partners alongside Ricardo Samuel Goldstein the founder of Security Beverages Americas and Gold & Bell. In 2007, Goldstein co-founded with John Casablancas, the StarSystem model scouting project, and previously assisted Ricardo Bellino and John Casablancas in the implementation of Elite Models in Brazil. [59] The Trump Realty Brazil project, dubbed Villa Trump was Donald Trump's first foray into Latin America included an 18-hole golf course, a luxury hotel, and spa, and up to 500 memberships, 350 of which came with plots of land for personal mansions and it never got built. [60]

To carry out the project, Bellino created the company Trump Realty Brazil, of which he is the CEO, and initially raised about 8 million dollars from partners, mostly two of Brazil's wealthiest families the Meyerfreunds, who made a fortune in the chocolate business, and the Depieris, founders of the Brazilian pharmaceutical giant Aché Laboratórios, among other investors. Bellino when on to explain, “We bought the rights to the Brazilian Golf Open and, at the time, we partnered with Traffic for sports marketing”.[61] Traffic Group is the company of Jose Hawilla, who became one of the biggest sports marketing entrepreneurs in Latin America and was at the center of the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of FIFA officials in 2015. [62] John Casablancas died of cancer in 2013. [63]

Trump, KGB, and Ivana Trump

Donald Trump married Ivana Marie Trump, previously Ivana Zelníčková, in 1977 and divorced her in 1992. [64] She held key managerial positions at Trump Organization in the capacities of vice president of interior design, CEO and president of Trump's Castle casino resort, and manager of Plaza Hotel. [65] He has three children with Ivana Trump: Donald Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977), Ivanka Trump ( born October 30, 1981), and Eric Trump (born January 6, 1984).[66] Ivana Trump's mother worked as a telephone operator and her Czech father was an intelligence informant for the Státní bezpečnost (StB). [67]

In 1977, the StB initiated an espionage operation against Donald Trump when he married Ivana. [68] Intelligence officers in Czechoslovakia were said to be skilled and nimble-minded speakers of English who were a challenge for their peers in the CIA and MI6. [69] The operation was set up in Ivana's hometown of Zlín in Czechoslovakia and collected information from Ivana's father Miloš Zelníček. He was an informant for the StB and turned over information on Donald Trump's career and social circles, which his daughter provided to him, to the StB. [70] At the time, the StB was formally cooperating with Russia's KGB, Poland's SB, East Germany's Stasi, and other Soviet bloc intelligence agencies. These agencies often exchanged data with each other on request. [71]

The StB spied on Donald Trump throughout the 1980s as part of a mission to gain information about the US government, archive files have revealed. [72] The StB often obtained information through a series of practices that included blackmail, telephone tapping, permanent monitoring of apartments, intercepting private mail, house searches, and surveillance. [73] A former StB official, Vlastimil Daněk confirmed the Trump operation and said, “Trump was of course a very interesting person for us. He was a businessman, he had a lot of contacts, even in US politics ... We were focusing on him, we knew he was influential. We had information that he wanted to be president in future ... It wasn’t only us who paid attention to him. The first department of the StB were interested in him. I don’t know if the first directorate shared information on Trump with the KGB. I can’t verify or deny.” The StB routinely shared intelligence with their Russian counterparts, the KGB. [74]

In a memo dated February 1, 1984, the KGB wanted wider utilization of confidential and special unofficial contacts. Contacts were chiefly "prominent figures in politics and society and important representatives of business and science.” They also sought contacts to “actively influence” a country’s foreign policy “in a direction of advantage to the USSR.” The KGB distributed a secret personality questionnaire for “prominent figures in the West” intending to draw contacts “into some form of collaboration.” Contacts were targeted by appealing to their ego or obtaining compromising information to use as blackmail. Potential blackmail included, "illegal acts in financial and commercial affairs, intrigues, speculation, bribes, graft … and exploitation of his position to enrich himself." The KGB also sought information on the target's "sexual relationships" or attitude towards women. KGB agents were urged to abandon "stereotyped methods" of recruitment and use more flexible strategies if necessary, such as getting their wives or other family members to help. [75]

In 1986, Donald was introduced to the new Soviet Ambassador to the UN, Yuri Dubinin. Upon Dubinin's arrival in the U.S. he was picked up by his daughter, Natalia Dubinin, she took him from the airport straight to Trump Tower. [76] Natalia Dubinin was part of the Soviet delegation to the U.N. in New York, the Soviet mission she worked for was widely known to harbor KGB agents. [77] At the time Ambassador Yuri Dubinin was on a mission to create contacts within the U.S. business elite. General Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov, the KGB spy chief, had ordered KGB staff abroad to recruit more U.S Citizens. [78] Later that year Donald Trump and Ivana Trump met again with Ambassador Yurin Dubinin and his daughter Natalia Dubinin. They attended a private luncheon given by cosmetics magnate Leonard Lauder Son of Estée Lauder and elder brother of Ronald Lauder. According to Donald Trump in his book, Art Of The Deal, the Soviet Ambassador's daughter Natalia Dubinin “had read about Trump Tower and knew all about it ... one thing led to another, and now I ’m talking about building a large luxury hotel, across the street from the Kremlin, in partnership with the Soviet government.” [79]

In 1987, Donald Trump and Ivana Trump were invited by Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin to the USSR; they visited the cities of Moscow and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). [80] The trip was arranged by Intourist, a travel agency that was also an undercover KGB outfit [81], that publicly was interested in a joint venture with Donald Trump.[82] That same year a USSR law went into effect that allows joint ventures between Soviets and foreign investors. [83] Donald Trump, Ivana Trump, along with their assistant Lisa Calandra were treated as VIPs and were lodged in a suite at the National Hotel. [84] According to Viktor Suvorov, an agent for the GRU, Soviet military intelligence, “Everything is free. There are good parties with nice girls. It could be a sauna and girls and who knows what else.” At the time, it was a widespread practice for the KGB to use young women or girls to entrap visiting politicians and businessmen, and to use Intourist to monitor foreigners in the Soviet Union and to facilitate such “honey traps.” [85]

According to Donald Trump, he toured “a half dozen potential sites for a hotel, including several near Red Square ... I was impressed with the ambition of Soviet officials to make a deal.” [86] Two months after his Moscow visit to the Soviet Union, Donald Trump spent nearly $100,000 on a series of full-page newspaper ads that published a political manifesto critical of U.S foreign policy. “An open letter from Donald J. Trump on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves ... Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?” [87] Soon after the Moscow trip, Donald Trump changed his political affiliation to Republican and considered running for U.S. president but later backtracked. [88]

In 1988, during the US election, Donald Trump hosted a New York fundraiser for George H.W. Bush at the Plaza Hotel of which Ivana Trump was the manager and Donald Trump owned. [89] According to StB intelligence records Ivana Trump had "confidently" predicted George HW Bush's victory shortly before the 1988 election. [90] Ivana Trump was infiltrated in “the highest echelons of power in the US” and moved in “very top political circles” all the while passing on information to her hometown. [91]

Trump and Robert Maxwell

In 1989 Donald Trump attended a yacht party, aboard the Lady Ghislaine [92], hosted by billionaire, fraudster, member of MEGA Group, and suspected triple spy Ian Robert Maxwell. Whose favorite daughter was child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. [93] According to Epstein's former business partner, Steven Hoffenberg, Robert Maxwell introduced Ghislaine Maxwell to Jeffrey Epstein in the late 1980s. [94] And according to Maxwell and Epstein human trafficking collaborator, Jean-Luc Burnel, Robert Maxwell was one of the reasons why Jeffrey Epstein had money. [95]

Robert Maxwell, like Ivana Trump, was born in Czechoslovakia, [96] and he had known links to the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6, to the Soviet KGB, and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. [97] Robert Maxwell was also part of the Mega Group which was heavily linked to Israel and organized crime, founded by Charles Bronfman and Leslie Wexner, the latter being Epstein's main monetary source. [98] That same year, in 1989, Donald Trump and Leslie Wexner were reported to have met in Aspen Colorado, where they spoke among many things about their yachts. [99] The Lady Ghislaine yacht party was attended by Republican Senator John Tower, ex-Navy secretary John Lehman, lawyer Thomas A. Bolan, Literary agent Mort Janklow, UN envoy Thomas Pickering, Peter Kalikow, Helene Atkin, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Ivana Trump was not in attendance and according to reports Donald Trump and Robert Maxwell ‘compared notes’ about their yachts, [100] which were both previously owned by arms trafficker, and key Iran-Contra player, Adnan Khashoggi and his nephew Emad Khashoggi. Trump's future AG Bill Barr would later pardon most of the Iran Contra players except Khashoggi. [101]

Trump, Epstein, Russian mob, and Deutsche Bank

In 1990, the Trump Organization amassed $3.4 billion in debt; with Donald Trump liable for $832.5 million of debt.In 1991, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission declared Donald Trump could not be "considered financially stable.” He bought a yacht for $29 million, the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan for $407 million and a failing airline for $365 million which all were falling into millions more in debt. [102] In 1989, Donald Trump purchased the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle for $365 million, and formed Trump Shuttle which provided flights between New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. In 1992, Trump defaulted on the debt of Trump Shuttle turning it over to U.S. USAir Shuttle, which is presently known as the American Airlines Shuttle. [103] Donald Trump turned to Deutsche Bank (which provided accounts for the Russian mob and Jeffrey Epstein) and Bayrock Group (linked to the the Russian mob) for loans. [104] Deutsche Bank also helped wealthy Russians illegal funnel at least $10 billion offshore through money-laundering. The criminal scheme involved its Moscow, New York and London branches, for which it paid “about $630 million in penalties. During the Nazi era, Deutsche Bank also financed Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime and purchased stolen Jewish gold obtained through the holocaust. [105]

Deutsche Bank also maintained its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein long after he was convicted for child trafficking despite multiple “suspicious transactions” and “red flags” according to the New York State’s Department of Financial Services. Epstein used Deutsche Bank to “send over 120 wires totaling $2.65 million to beneficiaries … including some transfers to alleged co-conspirators or women with Eastern European surnames,” Deutsche Bank failed to act even when Epstein’s account activity was flagged by its internal anti-financial crime department. Bank officers “escalated” concerns about Epstein-related transactions to bank executives, who permitted the activity to continue with minimal increased oversight. “Throughout the relationship, very few problematic transactions were ever questioned,” ... “and when they were, they were usually cleared without a satisfactory explanation.”[106] Deutsche Bank later cut ties with Epstein due to state and legal pressure and Donald Trump after a failed coup d'etat on the United States in 2021.

Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein

In 1991, After Robert Maxwell’s suspicious death aboard his yacht, Donald Trump seemingly kept in touch with Robert’s daughter, Ghislaine Maxwell, and her partner Jeffrey Epstein. In 1992, Donald Trump hosted an exclusive party with Jeffrey Epstein at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and it was just the 2 of them and 28 girls. The girls were flown in for a "calendar girl" competition that Trump had requested, according to former Trump associate, George Houraney. "At the very first party, I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming,'" Houraney said. "It was him and Epstein." He added: "I said: 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs. You're telling me it's you and Epstein?'" [107] George Houraney claims to have warned Trump about Epstein but his concerns fell on deaf ears. "Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can't have him going after younger girls," Houraney recalled telling Trump. "He said: 'Look I'm putting my name on this. I wouldn't put my name on it and have a scandal.'" [108] Houraney had a falling out with Trump after his girlfriend accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances in the early 1990s. [109] Footage from the NBC archives of that year also documented Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein while surrounded by young models. [110]

By 1995, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were running a major human and child trafficking network. Prosecutors allege that between 1994 and 1997 Ghislaine Maxwell helped Epstein lure, rape, and traffic girls as young as 14. She allegedly introduced Jeffrey Epstein to many of her wealthy and powerful friends, including President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York', and former US President Donald Trump. [111] According to Maria Farmer, a Jeffrey Epstein victim, in the early to mid 90’s she met both Ivana Trump and Donald Trump while they hung out with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Maria Farmer said she witnessed Ivana Trump visit, Ghislaine Maxwell, “Quite often, with people like Ivana – powerful [people] – Ghislaine would say ‘Hop in the car, you can go on a ride with us’ and it was supposed to be my special little treat.” [112] On another occasion she met Donald Trump in Jeffrey Epstein’s office, she reported Donald Trump was eyeing her before Jeffrey Epstein informed him that “she’s not for you.” Farmer’s mother, Janice Swain, collaborated with her daughter’s interaction with Donald Trump.[113] In January 2020, a California woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate and Ghislaine Maxwell, Doe also claims Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago when she was only 14 years old in 1995. At the meeting Jeffrey Epstein asked Donald Trump, “This is a good one, right?” Donald Trump smiled and nodded before sharing a chuckle with Epstein, according to court documents. [114]

In January 1997, Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet from Palm Beach, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey according to unsealed flight logs. Listed on the flight alongside Trump was Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Epstein, billionaire couple Glenn Dubin and Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin, and someone identified as "Didler" or "Didier." [115] In 2020, A man with a similar name Didier Raoult, a world famous French Physician, led research that President Donald Trump leaned on heavily to endorse hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid19. [116] Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin was a former model for Ford Models in the 1970s and won Miss Sweden in 1980 and is now a doctor and philanthropist. She also had a romantic relationship with Epstein for 11 years. [117] Glenn Dubin was later identified as one of the men Epstein rape trafficked his victims to. [118] The document confirms the 2009 testimony of Epstein's brother, Mark Epstein, who said in 2009 that he witnessed Donald Trump fly on Epstein's jets at least once. [119]

In the Autumn of 1997, Ghislaine Maxwell was spotted chatting with Donald Trump at the Ford Model’s 50th Anniversary Party. [120] The relationship between Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein lasted for more than 10 years, with all dining at Epstein’s mansion and attending many of the same dinner parties. [121] According to Mark Epstein, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were “good friends.” “I know [Trump] is trying to distance himself, but they were,” Mark said; reportedly Donald Trump used to comp Epstein’s mother and aunt at one of his casino hotels in Atlantic City. An anonymous source told the Post the Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were “tight,” and that they served as “each other’s wingmen.” [122] According to Jeffrey Epstein in 1998 he introduced Donald Trump to Melania Knauss, now Melania Trump, at a Manhattan nightclub during New York Fashion Week. [123] Although, Donald and Melania now claim they were introduced to each other by Paolo Zampolli the former UN ambassador for Dominica and founder of ID models, which he started on the advice of his friend John Casablancas. Paolo Zampolli was a regular in the circles of both Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He employed Melania Trump in Milan Italy, obtained her US visa, and according to him introduced her to Donald Trump in 1998 at a party at the Kit Kat Club. [124] In 1999, Avenue Magazine listed Jeffrey Epstein (“a rich guy”) and “Mar-a-Lago’s own” Donald Trump among the 157 most eligible bachelors in the United States.

Trump and Prince Andrew

In February 2000, Donald Trump, then dating Melania Knauss (now Melania Trump), hosted a pro-am tennis tournament at Mar-A-Lago, which Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York', and Ghislaine Maxwell attended. [125] According to reports, “Even when Trump announced England’s Prince Andrew, many in the crowd doubted his presence. For one, he stayed in the background, introducing himself as Andrew York, and for two, he’s recently shed 20 pounds, making him a possible double for actor Rupert Everett.” Donald Trump was pictured with Melania and Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York', while Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were photographed with Michael Bolton at the same event. [126]

In the Summer of 2000, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell rode on Donald Trump's private plane from New York to Florida for a group trip to Mar-a-Lago. Former journalist Michael Corcoran of now-defunct Maximum Golf magazine was embedded with the group while on assignment to profile Donald Trump. He witnessed Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell arrive late to flight with an unidentified young female, Donald Trump allegedly yelled at Epstein, “You broke the cardinal rule, Jeffrey! Never be late for someone else’s plane!”. Corcoran: “They did board with a young woman of indeterminate age. I wouldn’t be able to tell if she was 15 or 20. She was quite dressed up and quite made up, so it was hard to tell.” “I honestly couldn’t guess her age, but she was young made up to look a bit older.” That same summer one of the Epstein rape networks, more outspoken victims who was trafficked to Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York', had been recruited at Mar-a-Lago according to court documents. During the group trip, Donald Trump singled out an unidentified "young socialite" at his club at Mar-a-Lago by telling a reporter, “there is nothing in the world like first-rate pussy.”[127][128] In September 2000, according to Christopher Mason, a former long-term acquaintance of Maxwell and journalist, Ghislaine Maxwell tried to recruit heiress Paris Hilton while she was a model at Donald Trump's modeling agency Trump Model Management (later shortened to T Management). According to Mason when Ghislaine Maxwell saw Paris Hilton at a party, she stopped, stared at the 19-year-old Paris Hilton, and asked, 'Oh my god. Who is that?'; when she was informed it was Paris Hilton, Maxwell responded, 'Ohhhh she'd be perfect for Jeffrey. Can you introduce us?' [129]

In October 2000, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Melania Knauss (now Melania Trump), Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew 'The Duke Of York' attended a 'Hookers and Pimps' themed Halloween party hosted by former Elite model Heidi Klum at Hudson Bar, New York. Witnesses confirm Donald Trump spoke with Ghislaine Maxwell at the party, "Prince Andrew was with Ghislaine and they were greeted by Heidi Klum,"..." While Andrew was chatting with Heidi, Ghislaine went over to speak with Donald Trump."..." Donald and Ghislaine were chatting for about 15 or 20 minutes."..."It seemed clear they already knew each other. " Donald Trump made the comments to People magazine after the party where he claimed Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York' was "a lot of fun to be with" and that "He's not pretentious,". [130] One of the Jeffrey Epstein rape network's victims stated that she was rape trafficked to Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York' on at least three occasions between 2001 and 2002. In court documents from a civil suit that were released from a seal in 2019, she named several others that she claims Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to, including hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, attorney Alan Dershowitz, politician Bill Richardson, MIT scientist Marvin Minsky, lawyer George J. Mitchell, and MC2 modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. According to the victim, she "couldn't comprehend how in the highest level of the government powerful people were allowing this to happen. Not just allowing but participating in it." Lawyers for five women who have accused Epstein of abusing them have called upon Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York' to give evidence about what he knows, they argue he could have important information about the Epstein trafficking network. [131] Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York' has repeatedly denied the allegations, which Buckingham Palace said were “false and without foundation” and described as “lurid and deeply personal”. Even though the UK Royal family claims the allegations are baseless Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York' is being shunned amid ongoing calls for him to speak to the FBI; the FBI claims he's refused to approach them. [132]

In 2015 Trump was questioned by media about his links to the Epstein rape network and the crimes that took place on Little St James, Epstein’s private Caribbean island. According to the Telegraph, Trump replied: ‘That island was really a cesspool, there’s no question about it, just ask Prince Andrew – he’ll tell you about it,’ adding, ‘The island was an absolute cesspool.’ [133] In 2018, then U.S. President Donald Trump and Prince Andrew 'The Duke of York attended multiple events together, including a breakfast meeting and a service at Westminster Abbey where they were photographed greeting each other effusively. Others at the event included Melania Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and various members of the UK Royal family. In 2019, Donald Trump claimed he did not know Prince Andrew, “I don’t know Prince Andrew, but it’s a tough story, it’s a very tough story.” [134]

To be continued…