The daughter of a reputed New Jersey mob figure says her late father had a longtime relationship with Donald Trump that included gambling millions of dollars at one of his casinos, flying on his helicopter and partying aboard his private yacht.
In 1991, Trump first faced questions about his dealings with Robert LiButti, a plump, balding and nationally famous horse breeder with an explosive temper who would later be banned from New Jersey casinos for his ties to Mafia boss John Gotti. At the time, New Jersey state regulators had launched an investigation into allegations by nine employees of one of Trump’s Atlantic City casinos, the Trump Plaza, that the hotel had repeatedly removed African-Americans and women from craps tables after LiButti, one of the highest-rolling gamblers in the city’s history, loudly complained about their presence when he was playing.
The probe resulted in a $200,000 fine against the Trump Plaza by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for violating state anti-discrimination laws. Investigators found that LiButti had, on multiple occasions, berated blacks and women using what one state official described as the “vilest” language — including racist slurs and references to women in obscene terms — and that the Trump Plaza, in order not to lose his substantial business, sought to accommodate him by keeping the employees away from his betting tables, according to commission documents recently obtained by Yahoo News under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act.
“It was a substantial fine at the time,” said Mitchell A. Schwefel, then a New Jersey assistant attorney general who brought the state’s case against the Trump Plaza on behalf of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement. “That was a red-flag issue for us because that was conduct [by the hotel] that was not going to be tolerated.”
Trump was not held personally liable for the violations of his hotel, and there is no indication that he was ever questioned by state officials as part of their investigation. When asked about LiButti by a reporter, the casino mogul suggested he barely knew the foul-mouthed gambler. “I have heard he is a high roller, but if he was standing here in front of me, I wouldn’t know what he looked like,” Trump told the Philadelphia Inquirer in February 1991.
But Edith Creamer, LiButti’s daughter, told Yahoo News in two recent telephone interviews that Trump’s account was false and that Trump and her father knew each other quite well. “He’s a liar,” said Creamer. “Of course he knew him. I flew in the [Trump] helicopter with [Trump’s then wife] Ivana and the kids. My dad flew it up and down [to Atlantic City]. My 35th birthday party was at the Plaza and Donald was there. After the party, we went on his boat, his big yacht. I like Trump, but it pisses me off that he denies knowing my father. That hurts me.”
Asked for comment for this story, Trump, through his spokeswoman, sent this email to Yahoo News: “During the years I very successfully ran the casino business, I knew many high rollers. I assume Mr. LiButti was one of them, but I don’t recognize the name.”
Trump’s response to questions about LiButti underscores what critics say is a recurring theme in his career — a tendency to minimize or deny associations with unsavory characters with whom he has done business. Indeed, throughout his career as a real estate mogul there have been frequent allegations of interactions with reputed mob figures — something that may have been inevitable given the mob’s influence in the New York construction industry during that era. (Trump has consistently denied ever knowingly doing business with organized crime.)
However, in the case of LiButti, Creamer’s account of direct dealings between her father and Trump would appear to be corroborated by a 1991 book written by John R. O’Donnell, the former president of the Trump Plaza casino. In the book, “Trumped!: The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump — His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall,” O’Donnell recounts a meeting between Trump and LiButti aboard Trump’s private helicopter, a Super Puma, in the spring of 1988. Trump, according to O’Donnell, agreed to pay $500,000 for a racehorse named Alibi after LiButti showed him color photos of the “luxurious brown colt” and assured him he was going to be “another Secretariat.”
By Michael Isikoff.
Culled from Yahoo News.
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