Organized crime

But they argue that the West and the CIA never really engaged in sexual espionage or that kind of operation because of the legalities that it would impose.

interfere with and the the the rights that people have but we hear all kinds of stories as well about operation midnight climax where this is kind of farmed out to you know the organized crime and this kind of stuff and we hear about epstein and the possible connections with various intelligence agencies throughout the world so is it a situation where it's not on the books but it's done kind of on the side can you speak to that

Oh, I can speak to it.

The CIA, since its inception, has been involved in sexual operations, sexual espionage.

That's a joke, but make fun of a guy that Peaky Blinders that that was there was a situation where, you know, the British government with my secret SIS at that time, I guess, was working with.

uh, you know, Killian Murphy's or Irish criminal gang.

Uh, and together they're having to combat the IRA and the communists and they're using the organized crime.

Some in some cases to, to do a hit.

You know, and as I previously kind of touched upon within unionism, political unionism itself, there is this vulnerability there.

to the agitator to the sort of emergence of what you know what we have like the big man um politics or politicking um as such you know the far right um even nativism and you know as we've seen as well the organized crime groups over the years you know they're still some aspects of media still like to call them paramilitaries but really they're just violent organized crime groups who hold their own communities and you know oppress their own communities exploit their own communities um and sort of enrich themselves uh from that oppression of their own community you know and the same principle applies to nationalist communities as well you know i don't want to get bogged down but as a society in northern ireland we have come to freely even to some extent happily kind of live with and accept the existence of organized crime violent very violent organized crime groups within our community um i guess you with some republican Communities, it's sort of a case of, you know, there are boys, they're looking after us.

Okay, you know, they might kneecap such and such, but he deserved it or whatever.

You know, they still come round the doors, maybe sometimes looking for funds or whatever, or they get away with this, that and the other, but there are boys.

You know, it is that kind of mindset.

It's kind of been not so much imbued, I suppose, into republicanism and into republican communities where any communication whatsoever or to be seen in any communication whatsoever with police, if you are not seen basically telling police the way things are or the way things are going to be.

you know if it's seen as a kind of a moderate engagement um with police well then there's a suspicion you know oh you're a toy or it's even you know just for name calling uh I guess you know in those terms are used as a slight um but you're a tight uh so you have you know so organized crime groups I said both sides uh of the community are tolerated and some they're welcomed and you know nobody i suppose in loyalism nobody goes against the organized crime the violent organized crime groups because of fear and because they've just been conditioned to turn the other way say nothing keep your head down don't get into trouble you know and trouble won't come to your door so you know even if your neighbor's been um exploited in some way or even put out of their house by a valid organized crime group you say nothing and you don't get involved with the police same goes for the republican community as well but it has it's also tends with that you know uh element of being a tout or being seen as a tout where you're up your fur game um and those elements but also as well you know uh the anti-britishness and still seeing um i suppose policing here or still wishing to see policing here as part of um i suppose the overspill of colonialism and even post-colonialism but even in saying that aspect of cultural loss um and sort of focusing momentarily on unionism.

We can say that the same principle also applies to nationalist communities where residents may feel that their neighbourhoods have historically been treated as just spaces through which others could parade or assert their authority without any real regard for local consent.

Yeah.

However, SVU organized crime.

Okay.

This is probably the craziest one.

The head of the mafia gets killed because he's racist.

And then you never really hear about the mafia that much other than that.

That's the organized crime.

You don't really hear much more about the mafia after that.

Kennedy was much older than she was and obviously the most powerful person in the country, possibly one of the most powerful people in the world.

And he knew very well the risks that he was putting her in, both in terms of organized crime and again with the FBI.

The FBI was horrible in their treatment of her.

Anything could have happened to Judith as a result of what he was asking her to do.

The evidence on that isn't as solid as I would like it to be, but I think it's fair to note that two mobsters, during their lifestyles, did make that allegation that they worked with Joe Kennedy in bootlegging operations.

And I suspect all the dealings that Joe Kennedy had in the city of Chicago that he must have rubbed a lot of elbows with shady types.

So I do believe his father probably himself had dealings with organized crime figures during his lifetime.

And Mark, why would, I mean, if indeed the Mafia was involved in the assassination of JFK, Why would they want to get rid of him, given that they had these back channels? Presumably they didn't have back channels with all presidents.

But I do plan to reach out to him, but I was...

I was going to talk to him about it, but, like, I think part of what brought down a lot of organized crime, which is why most organized crime now is revolving around drugs that emanate from another country, right? You know, heroin in the East and cocaine down South.

It's a different group.

Or cybercrime, right? That's going on, like, in the Eastern Bloc countries.

You don't get fucking robbed.

You don't get in a fight because you don't have to deal with like his guys will fuck you up.

Well, that was the thing about organized crime.

I've always said

That's the organization famously depicted in Goodfellas.

McManus brings a unique perspective to fraud, organized crime, financial deception, and the intersection of legitimate business and criminal activity.

James, it's great to have you back.

And getting your perspective on this, I think, is important because you know what turns people to a life of crime.

And if you go back to when I was convicted of racketeering in the early 90s, we all know Rudy Giuliani.

That was the agenda.

You couldn't open up a newspaper and you couldn't see anything about organized crime.

There was cases coming on a weekly basis.

I'm Rick Fowler.

Jim Trustee is with us, partner at IFRA Law here in D.C., former chief of the organized crime and gang section at the U.S. Department of Justice, and a former member of the Trump legal team.

Jim, good morning.

Good morning.

Virginia State Senator Lily Louise Lucas has been indicted on about 15 minutes worth of charges here.

Some are saying it's politically motivated.

You being the chief of the organized crime section at the U.S. Department of Justice, tell us a little bit about this case and is it politically motivated or is there substance here?

Yeah, I think this is one where we can safely say there's fire beneath the smoke.