President Trump’s lawyer puts Philadelphia mobster ‘Skinny Joey’ Merlino at center of election conspiracy
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Here’s the skinny from reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joey Merlino: He’s not cooperating with anybody, including Joe Biden.
A lawyer linked to President Trump retweeted a bizarre allegation that the Mafia veteran was set to flip and inform authorities about a supposed $3 million scheme to forge ballots in Philadelphia for President-elect Biden — prompting an adamant repudiation Tuesday from the famously close-mouthed wiseguy.
“My client categorically denies all the allegations and Joey would rather die than ever be a snitch,” said attorney John Meringolo about the report asserting the mobster known as “Skinny Joey” helped manufacture 300,000 illegal ballots in the battleground state.
The tall tale was first reported in The Buffalo Chronicle, which regularly publishes misinformation. That story was then retweeted Monday by attorney Jordan Sekulow, the son of one of Trump’s top lawyers, Jay Sekulow.
“These people are crazy!” Merlino told his attorney after reading the story.
Even one-time mob buster-turned-Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani scoffed at the supposed Mafia involvement on behalf of the Biden campaign.
"There is an allegation about a mobster, but I think it’s a far-fetched one,” he said in a Tuesday interview on Fox Business.
Merlino, 58, is currently serving supervised release in Florida after a 2018 plea deal. The son of South Philadelphia rose to head of the city’s crime family following a bloody mid-'90s internal war.
He has remained resolutely silent about the Mafia despite a pair of federal trials, and announced in a 2013 interview that he was out of the mob life and enjoying life in his Florida home.
The conspiracy theory of election theft emerged over the weekend, insisting Merlino was paid $10 per ballot and worked non-stop with his team for 60 consecutive hours.
Meringolo said the theory was “out of control” and he was fielding calls asking about its veracity.
Merlino memorably endorsed Trump’s loathing for snitches after he was sentenced to two years in prison for illegal gambling.
“President Trump was right," he said with a chuckle in October 2018. “They need to outlaw the flippers.”
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