The lawyer for Anthony Comello, the 24-year-old Staten Island man accused of murdering Gambino family mob boss Francesco “Frank” Cali, has pinned his client’s problems directly on Donald Trump.
Comello, who appeared in court last week with the phrases “United We Stand MAGA” and “MAGA Forever” written on his palms, unveiled his, shall we say, “unorthodox” defense strategy on Monday, when his attorney Robert Gottlieb spoke to reporters following an arraignment hearing for the murder case.
Claiming that his client would plead “unequivocally not guilty,” Gottlieb said that Comello had been influenced by rhetoric from the internet and Trump administration, telling reporters that: “Hate words that have been spewed by citizens, including politicians, including right at the White House—those words matter, and they have an effect.”
“The truth and the reasons for whatever happened here will become so clear and will be shown to be directly related to the impact of the hate that people are bombarded with every day, on the internet and elsewhere,” Gottlieb added.
We have reached out to the White House for comment and will update if we hear back.
In addition to his MAGA ink, Comello also scribbled a large “Q” on his palm during his hearing—likely a reference to the batshit-insane QAnon theory swirling around the internet’s slimy underbelly, which insists that President Trump is fighting a clandestine war against the deep state and child sex abuse at the highest levels of Hollywood and the Democratic party.
“I don’t think I’m being cryptic,” Gottlieb said, when asked to go into detail about his defense plan. He added, “Nor do I think what was on [Comello’s] hands was cryptic in any way.”
Nefarious internet suggestions to murder a local crime boss? Not cryptic at all!