Does Donald Trump have mob ties in Atlantic City?

As his quest for the White House gains steam, Donald Trump’s attitude toward minorities, disputed finances and hand size have all been questioned by journalists. A stone still unturned? His alleged history with gangsters, according to author Tim O’Brien.

O’Brien appeared on Alter Family Politics on Thursday, describing how his reporting for his book Trump Nation: The Art of Being Donald contradicts the presumptive Republican nominee’s past claims that he had no ties to the Mob.

“People should look long and hard at how Donald Trump entered Atlantic City,” O’Brien said of the real estate tycoon. “He went on the record in my book acknowledging that his original business partners in Atlantic City had mob ties. One of them was a bag man for the Scarfo crime family of Philadelphia. The other guy was an Irish labor racketeer from New York. Under oath in the early 1980s, Trump told casino regulators that he didn’t believe his partners had mob ties, and then as we flew in his jet to Los Angeles, into my tape recorder in 2005 or so he told me in fact he thought they did have mob ties.”

That could spell trouble for Trump, who just met with House Speaker Paul Ryan in an attempt to unify the party.

“Outside of any questions that raises about his own business judgment and how he got launched into his casino career, the larger issue is, is someone who had ties like that in the past suitable for the Oval Office?” O’Brien explained. “There’s this whole issue in Washington now of him getting security debriefings from the national security apparatus in Washington, and I would imagine there’d be some apprehension about turning that kind of information over to someone who had, charitably, a checkered past.”

Trump, 69, unsuccessfully tried to sue O’Brien for libel in 2009 because the book cited sources calling him a millionaire instead of a billionaire.

Alter Family Politics airs Thursdays at 10 am ET on SiriusXM Radio Andy (Ch. 102).

For a free 30-day trial, check out http://www.siriusxm.com/freeTrial