“FBI agents subpoenaed Trump in 1980 to ask about his dealing with John Cody, a Teamsters official described by law enforcement as a very close associate of the Gambino crime family…But a female friend of Cody’s, a woman with no job who attributed her lavish lifestyle to the kindness of friends, bought three Trump Tower apartments right beneath the triplex where Donald lived with his wife Ivana. Cody stayed there on occasion and invested $500,000 in the units. Trump, Barrett reported, helped the woman get a $3 million mortgage without filling out a loan application or showing financials. In the summer of 1982 Cody, then under indictment, ordered a citywide strike—but the concrete work continued at Trump Tower. After Cody was convicted of racketeering, imprisoned and lost control of the union, Trump sued the woman for $250,000 for alteration work. She countersued for $20 million and in court papers accused Trump of taking kickbacks from contractors, asserting this could “be the basis of a criminal proceeding requiring an attorney general’s investigation” into Trump. Trump then quickly settled, paying the woman a half-million dollars.” Politico
Late July 1980: October Surprise: Finally, Time for the Truth Robert Parry “Jamshid Hashemi still claims that in the summer of 1980, he and his brother, Cyrus, participated in secret meetings involving William J. Casey and Iranian intermediaries representing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In a recent interview with The Consortium, Jamshid Hashemi repeated his account that meetings in Madrid, Spain, in late July and then in August, 1980, resulted in an agreement to release the 52 American hostages only after Reagan took office. In exchange, the radical Iranian government got commitments for secret shipments of U.S. military supplies. “It was ordered that all these monies be transferred to an account of my brother, into his bank, which was done. The order of the transfer was from Admiral [Ahmad]] Madani [Iran’s defense minister]. We went to the admiral with the telex and then we went to the war room of the navy in Teheran and we faxed it … so he [Cyrus] could take over all the money, in late 1979, $30 to $35 million, to the account of the First Gulf.”
1981
1981: The Religious Right‘s Council for National Policy-CNP is founded by Paul Weyrich and Rev. Tim LaHay, T. Cullen Davis, Nelson Bunker Hunt, John Bircher William Cies, an offspring of the John Birch Society.
1983
1983: “In his book, Barrett quoted a Cohn aide’s recollection of a meeting between Trump and Genovese crime family boss Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno that occurred inside Cohn’s Manhattan townhouse. The 1983 get-together came around the time that a concrete firm controlled by Salerno was building a Trump condominium tower in Manhattan. Cohn’s East Side residence was a safe haven for hoodlums seeking to meet in private with their associates.” The Smoking Gun
Elena A. Baronoff, VP of Customer Relations for and the exclusive realtor for Trump Grand, “she had originally come to America as a “Cultural Attaché in Public Diplomacy for the Russian Government,” a title almost exclusively used by spies of the Russian government trying to infiltrate business circles in the 1980’s.” The Nation
1984: David Bogatin, a 38-year-old former Soviet Army pilot and Russian émigré who arrived in America seven years earlier with just $3 in his pocket, pays $6 million for five condominium units in a luxurious new Manhattan high-rise, Trump Tower. At the time, Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end US real estate as a way to launder money from their criminal enterprises. Three years later, Bogatin — eventually revealed to be a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York — pleads guilty to a money laundering scheme. According to prosecutors, the scheme involved a network of Russian and Eastern European immigrants acting with Michael Franzese, an admitted captain ofthe Colombo organized-crime family. (In 1986, Franzese pleads guilty and receives a 10-year sentence for the scheme.) In 2003, Bogatin’s brother, Jacob, is indicted for allegedly running a $150 million stock scam and money-laundering scheme with Semion Mogilevich, whom the FBIconsiders the “boss of bosses” of Russian organized crime. [Added July 17, 2017] Bill Moyers
1985
Steve Bannon graduated from Harvard Business School and started working for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. Bannon on Biography.com
1986
1986 1st Trump Tower Moscow Reference Arranged by Leonard Lauder: “Donald Trump is seated next to Russian Ambassador Yuri Dubinin at a lunch organized by Leonard Lauder, the son of cosmetics scion Estée Lauder, who at the time is running her cosmetics business. “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, Trump later writes in his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal. Also present at the event is Russian diplomat Vitaly Churkin, later the Russian ambassador to the United Nations. (Churkin died in February 2017 at 64.)” Mother Jones
November 1986: “The billionaire was among dozens of wealthy customers of Bulgari, the Italian jeweler, who avoided paying sales tax on their purchases via the “empty box” scam. While customers walked out of Bulgari’s store in the Hotel Pierre with their baubles, employees would mail an empty box (or a package with a worthless trinket) to an address outside New York, allowing the buyer to dodge a state “use” tax. As reported by The Village Voice in November 1986, Trump made at least two buys from Bulgari–a $50,000 necklace and a second purchase for $15,000. According to two former employees cited by the Voice, following the smaller purchase, an empty box was mailed to Trump at [Roy] Cohn’s Connecticut home.” The Smoking Gun
1987
“In Atlantic City, a portfolio of properties along the boardwalk that bear the Trump name are the source of the widespread misconception that Trump at one point went personally bankrupt. Trump bought the portfolio, now known as Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino, in 1987. The property’s ownership entity, Trump Entertainment Resorts.” The Real Deal
January 1987: “Intourist, the Soviet agency for international tourism, expresses interest in meeting with Trump.
July 1987: “Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, fly to Moscow to tour potential hotel sites. Trump spokesman Dan Klores later tells the Washington Post that during the trip, Trump “met with a lot of the economic and financial advisers in the Politburo” but did not see Mikhail Gorbachev, then the USSR’s leader.” Mother Jones
1988
1988: “they [Steve Roth-Interstate Properties/Vornado Realty Trust] each raised their stakes to 27% but Trump pledged his interest as collateral for a personal loan from Citicorp.” Wikipedia
December 1, 1988: “The Soviet Mission to the United Nations announces that Gorbachev is tentatively scheduled to tour Trump Tower while the Soviet leader is visiting New York and that Trump plans to show him a swimming pool inside a $19 million apartment. ” Mother Jones
1989
January 1989: “For $200,000, Trump signs a group of Soviet cyclists for the Albany-to-Atlantic City road race, dubbed the Tour de Trump, that will take place that May. ” Mother Jones
July 6, 1989 Atlantic City Attorney Patrick T. “Paddy” McGahn, Jr.,hosted a party for Atlantic City Mayor James Usry’s wife on the Trump Princess followed by dinner at Trump Castle, sparking an investigation. h/t @knowledgevendor
