Interview · moment 10 of 14
Mogilevich Off the Most Wanted List and the Trump-Morgan Lewis Conflict
from Boss of Bosses (with Russ Baker) · #38
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Discussion of a DOJ official who both sought leniency for Sater and later became involved in removing Mogilevich from the FBI's most wanted list, plus the revelation that Trump hired the same firm, Morgan Lewis, to vet his own finances despite its ties to Sater.
- 34:58A hyper injunction was issued to gag lawyers from discussing what they found about Felix Sater and FBI operations.
- 35:33A federal appeals court in 2010 secretly ordered an attorney not to inform Congress about Sater, possibly the first hyper injunction in American history.
- 36:46Semyon Mogilevich, the Russian mob boss, got a judge in Russia to release an emissary named Ivankov who then traveled to the United States.
- 37:16The FBI got word that Ivankov had arrived in the country and launched a manhunt for him.
- 37:27They discovered Ivankov was living in Trump Tower, but he vanished before they could move on him.
- 37:45Ivankov was tracked down at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
- 38:20During Sater's sentencing in a closed proceeding, prosecutors told the judge Sater had been a tremendously important asset for national security and organized crime investigations.
- 38:57Two U.S. attorneys from the Eastern District of Manhattan who prosecuted mob cases then left government and joined Morgan Lewis law firm as Felix Sater's lawyers.
- 39:24The same prosecutors who worked in government to get Sater leniency then became his private attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
Felix SaterFederal Bureau of InvestigationTrump TowerSemion MogilevichMorgan LewisTrump Taj MahalVyacheslav Ivankov