Donald Trump has been known to lie about, well, just about everything—from sniffles to charity. Now he's been busted in yet another apparent fib. A recently discovered video shows Trump at WrestleMania with an alleged mobster—who Trump previously claimed he didn't know.
Yahoo News unearthed a video from 1988 showing Donald Trump at WrestleMania in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with mob-linked gambler Robert LiButti. Not only were they seen together, LiButti's daughter, who was also there, claims, "We were [Trump's] guests."
Previously, Trump consistently denied knowing LiButti, who died in 2014. When asked about LiButti back in 1991, Trump said, "If he was standing here in front of me, I wouldn't know what he looked like." Just earlier this year, Trump claimed: "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."
David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, explained to Yahoo News, "The 'WrestleMania' event is just one of many times that Trump was close to Bob [LiButti], who was the biggest loser at Trump casinos and therefore Trump’s most important customer." LiButti's daughter said earlier this year that Trump is a "liar" and that "it pisses me off that he denies knowing my father." She says that her dad, who gambled millions of dollars at Trump's casinos, often flew on Trump's private helicopter and also partied on Trump's yacht.
It would make sense for Trump to want to distance himself from LiButti. In 1991, LiButti was banned from New Jersey casinos for his connections to John Gotti, a mafia boss who ran the Gambino crime syndicate at the time. In that same year, Trump's hotel was fined $200,000 for violating anti-discrimination laws. LiButti had demanded—and Trump's hotel accepted—that black people and women (whom he described using the "vilest" terms) wouldn't be around while he was gambling.
The video shows Trump, his ex-wife Ivana, and the alleged mobster sitting in the front row together for WrestleMania, which lasted for over three hours. Despite the undeniable evidence, Trump's camp is still denying it. "This was obviously a massive event, which took place decades ago. Mr. Trump attended many similar events with thousands of people during this time period," Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks told Yahoo News.
