FISH OR BAIT

Today a superseding indictment was unsealed today against 15 defendants. This includes alleged members of La Cosa Nostra.  Among the charges are racketerring conspiracy.

Alleged Philadelphia mafia members ‘Joey Electric,’ ‘Tony Meatballs,’ 13 others indicted (nbcnews.com)

Here is why the timing of that matters. There are articles, quickly discredited by the MSM, that Skinny Joe Merlino was taking a victory strutt claiming that he helped steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden. The allegation is that Merlino and a team of associate ordered up to 300,000 election ballots for Joe Biden. That is easy to believe, because there were convictions for stuffing ballots boxes in Philadelphia during the late summer. Philadelphia has a long history of election fraud.

The following article was quickly dismissed by the MSM.

How A Philly Mob Boss Stole The Election — And Why He May Flip On Joe Biden – The Clover Chronicle

In this article the theory was that Merlino might be willing to flip on Biden, in exchange for a pardon from Trump.

“But now, Merlino might just be willing to flip on Biden — in primetime Congressional testimony — if President Donald J. Trump is willing to issue the longtime mobster a full expungement of his decades-long criminal record.  And, of course, Merlino wants to be pardoned for the election fraud itself and any crimes to which he may incriminate himself during his testimony.”

That was last week. That was before the DOJ indicted all these people. The only thing certain is that some of these people are looking at serious jail time and we can be guaranteed they are being offered the chance to sing. The question is what tune?

Merlino plead guilty to racketeering in 2018 and is on supervised probation in Florida. He may have a very strong incentive to avoid being charged with violating his probation.

The following article is from the Daily Beast, not exactly a right-wing rag:

Feds Charge ‘Tony Meatballs’ and Other Philly Mobsters With Drug Trafficking (thedailybeast.com)

“Prosecutors also describe how underboss Steven Mazzone, capo or “captain” Domenic Grande, and Salvatore Mazzone participated in a “making ceremony” in August 2015, when “several new soldiers” showed up to a home in South Philly to be initiated into the mob. “As part of a making ceremony, a soldier swears allegiance to LCN over and above all other interests and obligations, including his biological family,” the indictment says. “He swears a vow of secrecy, agreeing not to divulge LCN business to non-members, or even to acknowledge the organization’’s existence.

“He also agrees to commit violence on behalf of LCN if necessary,” the filing adds. “By rule, a made member of LCN must be male and of 100% Italian ancestry.”

Someone, who was at this ceremony, has been singing. The original indictment was sealed in January 2019. It clearly did not leak, which is why we have the unsealing of indictments today.

One thing is sure, William Barr knew about this and the timing is spectacular, just before the Trump campaigns lawsuit regarding election fraud is heading toward the Supreme Court.

Obviously the FBI was actively working this case before, during and after the election. People connected with the mob were convicted of election fraud late last summer. You don’t get an indictment like this unless you have evidence. That may include undercover agents or informers, It may also include wire-taps, video surveillance or subpoenaed documents. This is a reminder that if serious people are doing serious investigations you won’t know about that until someone is indicted.

The question today is did the FBI catch fish, or did they catch bait. Just when you thought 2020 could not get more weirder.

TDM