The Clintons, New York Democrats, and the Gambino Family: Every Documented Connection, and What Each One Proves

The Gambino crime family has intersected with New York Democratic politics for more than half a century. It has done so through waterfront unions, Queens patronage jobs, construction contracts, campaign checks, and, in the most famous case, through the half-brother of a sitting president.

This post collects every connection between the Clintons, New York City-area Democrats, and the Gambino family that I could document from court records, congressional reports, and news archives. It starts with an evidence-graded research report on the Clinton administration and organized crime, then adds New York material the report didn’t cover. Each connection is labeled by how well it holds up:

  • VERIFIED: documented in a primary record or by at least two reliable sources
  • CREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED: reported by a reliable source but not corroborated
  • UNSUBSTANTIATED: alleged without reliable support
  • CONTRADICTED: the record shows otherwise

One note before starting: a connection is not a conspiracy. Many of the links below are real, and some are troubling. But knowing someone, taking a donation, or testifying for a friend doesn’t prove a mob family bought a political decision. Where the record shows that something was bought, this post says so. Where it doesn’t, the post says that too.

Part One: The Clintons

1. Roger Clinton and the Cherry Hill Gambinos (VERIFIED)

This is the strongest and best-documented link, and the attached report’s central finding.

Rosario Gambino was a Sicilian-born heroin trafficker convicted in New Jersey in 1984 and sentenced to 45 years. He belonged to the “Cherry Hill Gambinos,” a Sicilian faction based in South Jersey with ties to the New York family. The House Government Reform Committee’s 2002 report “Justice Undone” documented that from 1996 to 1999 Roger Clinton, the president’s half-brother, repeatedly called, wrote, and met with U.S. Parole Commission officials to seek Gambino’s release (H. Rept. 107-454, vol. 1).

The committee found:

  • In January 1996, a Commission lawyer wrote that Roger Clinton said his brother was “completely aware of my involvement,” and that Roger suggested contacting Chairman Michael Gaines, “a friend of ours from Arkansas.” Gaines had in fact been Governor Clinton’s pardon and extradition counsel from 1983 to 1986 (Justice Department, 1994). Gaines alerted the White House Counsel’s office about the call.
  • In September 1999, Anna Gambino, Rosario’s daughter, wrote a $50,000 check to “Odgie Music,” Roger Clinton’s company, with the payee written in his hand.
  • Roger Clinton told the FBI the money was a loan. The committee found no evidence it was repaid and called that claim false. He also gave the FBI three different stories about a Rolex the Gambinos allegedly gave him.
  • In late 2000, Rosario Gambino filed for a commutation, and a White House clemency lawyer ran a criminal-records check on him.

What it proves: a Gambino-linked family paid the president’s brother while he lobbied for their father. What it doesn’t prove: that it worked or that the president knew. Gambino was never paroled early and was not on Clinton’s clemency lists (Justice Department pardon list). The committee’s Democratic minority noted that an FBI-bugged January 1999 meeting with Roger Clinton produced nothing incriminating (H. Rept. 107-454, vol. 3). Roger Clinton was never charged with any of this conduct (Washington Post, 2024).

  • “The Gambinos paid Roger Clinton”: VERIFIED
  • “Bill Clinton knew”: UNSUBSTANTIATED (it rests on Roger Clinton’s own claim)
  • “Clinton pardoned a Gambino mobster”: CONTRADICTED

2. The New York Money Behind the Check (VERIFIED)

The Roger Clinton payment had roots in New York. The House report traced the funds to cashier’s checks Lisa Gambino bought with proceeds from a $499,000 mortgage on a Staten Island property. The same accounts also received money from Antonio Genovese, a partner in a concrete business with Rosario’s brother, John Gambino. That puts New York real estate and the New York-area construction trade inside the transaction that reached the president’s brother. No New York politician appears anywhere in that money trail.

3. Hillary Clinton at the Teamsters Local 282 Hall, 2000 (VERIFIED event; no Gambino involvement shown)

In September 2000, during her first Senate race, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa introduced Hillary Clinton at a rally in the parking lot of Teamsters Local 282’s hall in Lake Success, Long Island. She put on a white Local 282 jacket and twirled for the crowd (The American Prospect, December 2001).

Local 282 represents construction-materials drivers, and for decades it was considered one of the country’s most mob-controlled locals. In July 1993, the Brooklyn U.S. attorney indicted five current or former Local 282 officers on racketeering charges, including $1.2 million in payoffs to Gambino boss John Gotti (UPI, July 1, 1993).

Context matters here. By 2000, the local had been under a government-backed trusteeship led by reform Teamsters president Ron Carey. Some members at the rally told the Prospect they resented being called gangsters. The rally is real, and the local’s Gambino history is real, but no source ties the 2000 event or Clinton’s campaign to the Gambino family.

4. Clinton-Era Prosecutors Against the Gambinos (VERIFIED, and it cuts the other way)

The Justice Department under Clinton went after the Gambinos repeatedly:

  • Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter brought the 1993 Local 282 indictment over the Gotti payoffs in the administration’s first year (UPI).
  • Rosario’s brothers John and Joe Gambino pleaded guilty in January 1994, according to New York Times reporting cited in the House report.
  • John A. “Junior” Gotti, then acting head of the family, pleaded guilty to racketeering in April 1999 (United States v. Gotti).

Any honest account of “the Clintons and the Gambinos” has to include the fact that Clinton appointees were sending Gambinos to prison while Roger Clinton was taking their money.

5. The 1992 New York Primary and the Gotti Verdict (no connection)

John Gotti was convicted on April 2, 1992, days before the New York Democratic presidential primary. The verdict knocked Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown off the tabloid front pages (“Don Voyage,” “Gone Fella”), and both campaigns hoped the Gotti coverage would die down before Tuesday (Baltimore Sun, April 4, 1992). It’s a colorful coincidence of timing, nothing more.

6. Clinton Links That Are Not Gambino Links

Two other well-known Clinton-era mob stories often get lumped in with the Gambinos, but they involve different families:

  • Arthur Coia, president of the Laborers’ union, met President Clinton in the Oval Office in 1994 after the FBI described him as a “criminal associate” of the New England Patriarca family, not the Gambinos.
  • Eric Wynn, a stock swindler who attended a 1995 White House coffee, was described in SEC testimony as a Bonanno family associate (SEC, 2000).

Calling either one a Gambino connection would be an error.

Part Two: New York City Democrats

The attached report focuses on Washington and says little about New York’s local Democratic organizations. The material below comes from additional research. These links mostly predate the Clintons. They show how long the Gambino family has worked alongside New York’s Democratic machine, but none connect directly to the Clintons.

7. Anthony Scotto: The Gambino Capo Who Raised Money for Governors (VERIFIED)

The deepest documented Gambino-Democratic relationship in New York history belongs to Anthony Scotto, president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1814 on the Brooklyn waterfront.

  • In 1969, mob informant Joseph Valachi identified Scotto in Senate hearings as a member of the Gambino family; Scotto called the accusation a Justice Department vendetta (Newsday). Former federal prosecutors told a Senate subcommittee in 1981 that he had begun in the Genovese family and later pledged allegiance to the Gambinos (UPI, February 25, 1981).
  • At his 1979 racketeering trial, Democratic Governor Hugh Carey testified as a character witness, calling Scotto “reliable, dynamic, intelligent, effective, and committed.” Carey testified that Scotto had helped him in “every campaign” and that longshoremen’s groups gave more than $70,000 to his 1978 campaign (New York Times, October 27, 1979).
  • Former New York City mayors John Lindsay and Robert Wagner also testified as character witnesses (UPI, 1981).
  • Scotto claimed he was responsible for nearly $1 million in contributions to Carey’s 1974 campaign. A union vice president testified that Scotto gave him $25,000 in cash for Carey’s campaign, and another witness testified that Scotto gave him $50,000 in cash for a mayoral campaign. The New York Times reported that Scotto had also helped the campaigns of Nelson Rockefeller, John Lindsay, Jimmy Carter, and Abraham Beame, and that Brooklyn and Queens prosecutors were investigating the cash donations (New York Times, December 17, 1979).
  • Scotto was a prominent supporter of Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign. He reportedly bragged that an investigation of him would go nowhere because Carter had invited him to a labor lunch. The prosecutor said the White House didn’t know about the investigation, and that Scotto “may have thought he had White House influence, but he didn’t” (UPI, 1981).
  • His daughter later said he developed political relationships with Governor Mario Cuomo and with President Carter (Newsday). That is a family recollection: CREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED.

Scotto was convicted of racketeering in November 1979 for taking more than $200,000 in payoffs and sentenced to five years (New York Times, November 16, 1979); the conviction was upheld on appeal (United States v. Scotto, 641 F.2d 47). The jury rejected his defense that he was passing the cash to politicians as campaign money.

What it proves: a reputed Gambino capo was a significant fundraiser for New York Democrats, and a sitting Democratic governor vouched for him under oath. It does not prove that Carey or the mayors knew of his crimes. Carey testified that he had no knowledge of the evidence in the trial.

8. Carlo Gambino’s Godson in the Queens Democratic Machine (CREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED)

In a 1986 New York magazine investigation, “The Mob and the Machine,” Nicholas Pileggi reported that Dominick Santiago, identified as Carlo Gambino’s godson, served under the name “Nick Sands” as a Democratic state committeeman in Queens’s 33rd Assembly District (New York magazine, republished 2008). Pileggi reported that Santiago:

  • had been sentenced in 1975, under his real name, to six months in federal prison for embezzling $500,000 in union pension funds;
  • was appointed in 1978 by Queens Borough President and Democratic county leader Donald Manes to direct the city’s Public Development Corporation (Manes later said he was “shocked” to learn Santiago’s background);
  • was a fundraiser for Governor Carey and organized a 1979 fundraiser for Representative Geraldine Ferraro, the Democrat who became the 1984 vice-presidential nominee;
  • survived being shot nine times outside his Middle Village home in May 1980.

Pileggi made no allegation that Carey or Ferraro knew of or took part in any wrongdoing. This account rests on a single, highly regarded magazine investigation, so it is labeled CREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED.

9. John Gotti’s City-Contracts Employer (VERIFIED as reported; no politician named)

The same Pileggi article reported that John Gotti was on the payroll of Arc Plumbing and Heating, a company holding more than $22 million in city contracts, including work at Shea Stadium. The Queens district attorney’s office learned of the arrangement through a 1981 wiretap, but the information apparently never reached the city officials who awarded the contracts (New York magazine). The city government was Democratic at the time, but the article names no Democratic official responsible for the contracts.

10. A Bronx Democrat and Gambino-Linked Donors, 2019 (VERIFIED)

In December 2019, Politico reported that Bronx City Councilman Mark Gjonaj, a Democrat, had received $3,750 in campaign contributions from two men federal prosecutors charged as Gambino affiliates. One, Mark “Chippy” Kocaj, was charged with loansharking and fraud; the other, John “Smiley” Simonlacaj, was a construction executive accused of taking bribes to steer contracts to a reputed Gambino capo’s company. Gjonaj’s spokesman said the councilman would not return the money and could not vet every donor (Politico New York Playbook, December 12, 2019; City & State). Gjonaj did not run for reelection in 2021 (City & State). No one alleged that the donations bought any official action.

11. Democratic Prosecutors Against the Gambinos (VERIFIED)

New York’s Democratic officials also prosecuted the family. In February 1992, Thomas and Joseph Gambino, sons of Carlo Gambino, pleaded guilty in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, a Democrat, over their control of trucking in the city’s garment district. They agreed to a $12 million fine and to sell their trucking interests (UPI, February 26, 1992). That December, a garment-industry charity still planned a fundraiser honoring Thomas Gambino as “instrumental in this industry,” though no politicians were reported to be involved (New York Times, December 2, 1992).

12. Brooklyn’s Democratic Boss and the Mob: The Wrong Families

Meade Esposito, who led the Brooklyn Democratic organization from 1969 to 1984, had well-documented friendships with mobsters. The Village Voice reported his 40-year friendship with Genovese figure Fritzie Giovanelli and regular meetings with Paul Vario, the Lucchese capo made famous by “Goodfellas” (Village Voice). Those are not Gambino connections, and they should not be presented as such.

Part Three: The Gambinos Never Picked a Party

Gambino-linked business also reached the other side of the aisle, and leaving that out would give a distorted picture:

  • S&A Concrete, a company owned by Genovese boss Anthony Salerno and Gambino boss Paul Castellano, poured concrete for Trump Tower (Chicago Tribune, 2015).
  • Interstate Industrial Corporation, which several city agencies barred from contracts in 1999–2000 over alleged Gambino ties, later hired former officials from Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration, including his former anti-mob deputy mayor and the consulting firm of his former police commissioner. The company’s chairman denied any mob ties (New York Sun, December 23, 2004).

Over 60 years, the pattern isn’t loyalty to one party. The family went wherever there was money, labor power, or construction work, and New York’s dominant party was usually the Democrats.

Connection Scorecard

#ConnectionEraStatus
1Roger Clinton lobbied for Rosario Gambino and received $50,0001996–1999VERIFIED
1aBill Clinton knew of the lobbying1996–2000UNSUBSTANTIATED
1bClinton granted Gambino clemency2001CONTRADICTED
2Staten Island mortgage and concrete-business money funded the check1999VERIFIED
3Hillary Clinton rallied at the Local 282 hall, a local with a Gambino history2000VERIFIED (event); no Gambino role shown
4Clinton-era prosecutors convicted Gambino figures1993–1999VERIFIED
5Gotti verdict overshadowed the NY primary1992VERIFIED; coincidence only
6Coia and Wynn (Patriarca and Bonanno, not Gambino)1994–1995VERIFIED; wrong family
7Scotto raised money for Carey; Carey, Lindsay, and Wagner vouched for him1974–1979VERIFIED
7aScotto’s ties to Mario Cuomo1980sCREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED
8Carlo Gambino’s godson was a Queens Democratic committeeman and fundraiser1975–1980CREDIBLE BUT UNCONFIRMED
9Gotti’s employer held city contractsEarly 1980sVERIFIED as reported; no official named
10Councilman Gjonaj kept $3,750 from alleged Gambino affiliates2019VERIFIED
11Morgenthau’s office prosecuted Carlo Gambino’s sons1992VERIFIED
12Meade Esposito’s mob friends (Genovese and Lucchese, not Gambino)1960s–1980sVERIFIED; wrong family

What It All Adds Up To

Taken together, the record shows the Gambino family has been close to the Democratic Party in New York for decades. A reputed Gambino capo raised money for a Democratic governor who then vouched for him under oath. Carlo Gambino’s godson held a Democratic committee post and a city job. A Bronx councilman kept donations from alleged Gambino affiliates. And the Gambinos paid the brother of a Democratic president while he lobbied for their father’s freedom.

The record shows no decision by Bill or Hillary Clinton that benefited the Gambino family. It shows the reverse: a parole board that refused to release Rosario Gambino, a president who denied his clemency petition, and federal prosecutors who spent the 1990s convicting Gambino leaders. The most serious open question is still the one the House committee couldn’t answer: what the White House Counsel’s office knew about Roger Clinton’s Gambino lobbying, and when. The deliberative documents that would answer it were withheld from Congress in 2001 and have not been released.

Sources

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