[ad_1]
- Former FBI official Frank Figluizzi likened Matt Gaetz, Roger Stone, and Trump to the Sicilian mob.
- Figliuzzi said Gaetz and Stone’s hot mic conversation made him think of “wiretaps of mobsters.”
- “It’s a criminal organization,” he said of Trumpworld.
A former FBI official on Monday likened Trumpworld figures Rep. Matt Gaetz and Roger Stone, as well as former President Donald Trump, to the Sicilian mafia.
Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, weighed in on MSNBC regarding The Washington Post’s recent bombshell exposé of a hot mic conversation between Gaetz and Stone.
In the tape from 2019, Gaetz was heard reassuring Stone that “the boss” — presumably a reference to Trump — would still offer the latter a pardon.
Figliuzzi also noted how Stone, a long-time Trump associate, had said he was looking to Gaetz and “dozens of others” to help him escape his legal troubles.
“It’s a much larger conspiracy than I think even those of us who followed it every day could have imagined,” he added.
Figliuzzi also said that the conversations between Gaetz and Stone echoed the “we’re all in this together” mentality that Trumpworld seems to function on.
“You know, the Cosa Nostra, the Italian mafia, translates as, ‘this thing of ours,'” he said. “That’s all I keep hearing here: ‘We’re all in this together.'”
Figliuzzi added that the wiretaps of mobsters’ conversations that he’d heard in the past sounded “just like” Gaetz and Stone’s discussions.
“And they’re part of a criminal enterprise,” he said. “It’s a criminal organization. They know it. They know they’re screwed with regard to legality, and they know the only way out is for the boss to get them out of it.”
Gaetz and Stone were talking about Stone’s trial in 2019, which followed the latter’s indictment on one count of obstruction, five counts of making false statements to the FBI and congressional investigators, and one count of witness tampering in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
In the hot mic recording, Stone was also heard telling Gaetz that he might have to “appeal to the big man” because the majority of jurors surveyed for his trial despised him.
Gaetz was then heard agreeing with Stone, saying the latter was “fucked” where the trial was concerned. The congressman added, however, that he believed Stone wouldn’t go to prison because the “big guy” would not let that happen.
Stone was found guilty in November 2019 and sentenced to 40 months in prison. However, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence before leaving office.
Meanwhile, Gaetz has been the subject of a sex-trafficking investigation that kicked off the early last year. The FBI and the Justice Department have been looking into whether Gaetz broke sex-trafficking laws and had sexual relations with a minor. The congressman has denied all wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.
Representatives for Gaetz, Stone, and Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
[ad_2]
Source link
