By Andrew Cohen:
For example, we know that he is an old-fashioned drug warrior who is almost certain to be more hostile to sentencing reform than his immediate predecessors. Even though he was a proponent of a law to ease sentencing disparities between crack and cocaine offenders, he was among a handful of senators this year who helped stop bipartisan sentencing reform legislation from coming to a vote on Capitol Hill. He has repeatedly insisted, despite statistics to the contrary, that rising crime rates are tied to lower sentencing for drug offenders.
He also consistently has criticized the Obama administration for what he considered its weak positions on drug law enforcement. Sessions has made it clear that he opposes legalizing marijuana, which the federal government still classifies as a schedule 1 drug. One question for the confirmation battle ahead: How aggressively will he assert federal authority over those states that have embraced marijuana reform?
“Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” Sessions has said, although it’s unclear how his view would square with Trump, who has expressed favor for medical marijuana but not necessarily recreational pot.
The Full Story (November 18, 2016)
Showing posts with label marshall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marshall. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Friday, July 8, 2016
The Marshall Project: Trump and the Mob
By Tom Robbins:
And then there was the person who had introduced Trump to the FBI agents in the first place. This was a 6-foot-5 bear of a man named Daniel Sullivan, a former Teamsters leader who was serving as what Trump called his "labor consultant" at the time. Sullivan wore other hats as well: He was partners with a reputed Atlantic City mobster named Kenneth Shapiro who controlled the local scrap market and who was in the process of selling Trump a large plot of land at top dollar on which to build his casino.
Sullivan, who had once been close to Jimmy Hoffa, was also secretly operating as an FBI informant, filling in the Bureau on the various mobsters who crossed his path. I know this because Sullivan, who died of a heart attack in 1993, told me all about it, proudly providing copies of the FBI memos as proof. And Sullivan wasn’t just bragging. The FBI agents confirmed to me both the authenticity of the documents and the meetings Sullivan had arranged for them with the budding casino kingpin.
* * *
On paper, the demolition contractor was a union company, as were all of Trump's vendors at the time. But Local 95 of the demolition workers was essentially a subsidiary of the Genovese crime family, and few union rules were enforced. Most of the workers were undocumented immigrants from Poland and they were paid so little and so sporadically that many were forced sleep on the job site. A rank and file union dissident later sued Trump for failing to pay pension and medical benefits required under the union contract. Trump denied knowing about conditions at the work site. Sullivan, who by now had his own gripes with Trump, said otherwise. He testified in the civil suit that he had repeatedly warned the developer about the problems. Trump, in a rush to clear the site, had dismissed his concerns, he said.
Despite Trump's insistence that he never settles lawsuits, he wound up settling that one for an undisclosed sum. Whatever the amount, it seemed to make the union dissident and his attorneys quite satisfied.
The Full Article (April 27, 2016)
And then there was the person who had introduced Trump to the FBI agents in the first place. This was a 6-foot-5 bear of a man named Daniel Sullivan, a former Teamsters leader who was serving as what Trump called his "labor consultant" at the time. Sullivan wore other hats as well: He was partners with a reputed Atlantic City mobster named Kenneth Shapiro who controlled the local scrap market and who was in the process of selling Trump a large plot of land at top dollar on which to build his casino.
Sullivan, who had once been close to Jimmy Hoffa, was also secretly operating as an FBI informant, filling in the Bureau on the various mobsters who crossed his path. I know this because Sullivan, who died of a heart attack in 1993, told me all about it, proudly providing copies of the FBI memos as proof. And Sullivan wasn’t just bragging. The FBI agents confirmed to me both the authenticity of the documents and the meetings Sullivan had arranged for them with the budding casino kingpin.
* * *
On paper, the demolition contractor was a union company, as were all of Trump's vendors at the time. But Local 95 of the demolition workers was essentially a subsidiary of the Genovese crime family, and few union rules were enforced. Most of the workers were undocumented immigrants from Poland and they were paid so little and so sporadically that many were forced sleep on the job site. A rank and file union dissident later sued Trump for failing to pay pension and medical benefits required under the union contract. Trump denied knowing about conditions at the work site. Sullivan, who by now had his own gripes with Trump, said otherwise. He testified in the civil suit that he had repeatedly warned the developer about the problems. Trump, in a rush to clear the site, had dismissed his concerns, he said.
Despite Trump's insistence that he never settles lawsuits, he wound up settling that one for an undisclosed sum. Whatever the amount, it seemed to make the union dissident and his attorneys quite satisfied.
The Full Article (April 27, 2016)
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