Mueller Has Referred Another Trump Criminal Case to the FBI

Special counsel Robert Mueller has referred an immigration-related case involving one of President Donald Trump‘s businesses to the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). And now multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation of illegal hiring practices at one of the president’s golf clubs.

According to the New York Daily News, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office has obtained evidence that supervisors at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster committed federal immigration crimes and are currently working closely with the FBI after receiving the referral from Mueller’s office.

New information about the case came from Anibal Romero, an attorney who represents undocumented immigrants previously employed by Trump National. Romero told the Daily News that he met with New Jersey state investigators recently and gave them fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers used by his clients Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz. Those false pieces of documentation were allegedly secured by management employees working at Trump National and then furnished to Romero’s clients.

An article in early December published by the New York Times detailed the conflicts felt by Morales and Diaz due to Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, while they were aware of the widespread use of undocumented immigrants at his Bedminster club.

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As the Times noted in that report:

“There are many people without papers,” said Ms. Diaz, who said she witnessed several people being hired whom she knew to be undocumented…

Ms. Morales expects she will have to leave her job as soon as her name and work status are made public. She understands she could be deported. But she also says she is certain that her employers — perhaps even Mr. Trump — knew of her unlawful status all along.

“I ask myself, is it possible that this señor thinks we have papers? He knows we don’t speak English,” Ms. Morales said. “Why wouldn’t he figure it out?”

Prior to his meeting with New Jersey prosecutors, Romero contacted Mueller’s office. The Newark-based attorney said he went this route because he had serious concerns about the anti-immigration agenda of the Department of Justice under then-attorney general Jeff Sessions.

“I wasn’t sure, one, if they’d take me seriously and, two, if this could backfire on my clients,” Romero told the Daily News.

Mueller’s office told Romero they had concluded that the Trump National case was beyond their jurisdiction. They said immigration-related criminal investigations in New Jersey were not something the special counsel would investigate.

Several weeks later, however, an FBI agent contacted  Romero, the attorney told the Daily News:

“He said to me that he had received a referral from Robert Mueller’s office and that he already knew the specifics and that he wanted to meet with me in person.”

After that, Romero met with two FBI agents at an office in New Jersey and went over the same evidence that was, by then, in the hands of state prosecutors.

Romero said he turned over fake green cards and Social Security numbers that supervisors at the golf club allegedly gave one of his clients, Victorina Morales, a 44-year-old Guatemalan national. He also gave investigators the pay stubs of Sandra Diaz, a 46-year-old Costa Rican native who now has legal status but said she was undocumented when she worked at the club for three years.

Romero said the agents told him they would “coordinate” with the New Jersey State Attorney General’s office.

“I’m confident that federal and state authorities will conduct a complete and thorough investigation,” Romero said.

Donald Trump is known for hiring hundreds of cheap foreign workers at his hotels and resorts. And now finally the truth may come out that he has been routinely violating immigration laws in order to increase his profits at these properties. No more evidence is needed that Donald Trump is the biggest hypocrite ever to hold the office of President of the United States.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.