Presidents frolicking with mob is not unheard of. But John Kennedy’s reported frolic with the mistress of Sam (Momo) Giancana did not make the practice acceptable.

New Years’ video reveals Trump partying with mob associate Joey ‘No Socks’ Cinque. Where is the media? Written by Tom Cahill in US Uncut, January 3, 2017, Facebook Twitter

The next President of the United States partied with a convicted felon and mob associate on New Years’ Eve, but the media has so far given him a free pass.

In a video captured (http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/president-elect-donald-trump-2017-new-year-eve-party-mar-lago/nXhmOI7okreSHd1wJUomWL/) by the Palm Beach Daily News, President-elect Trump, clad in a tuxedo, is seen delivering a speech onstage at his New Years’ party at his Mar-a-Logo estate. Standing to Trump’s left is Joseph Cinque — a known mafia man colloquially referred to as “Joey No Socks” — who is seen enthusiastically cheering at all of Trump’s declarations about building a wall and repealing Obamacare. As of this writing, no major media outlets have reported on the two sharing a stage together just two nights ago.

Cinque has longstanding personal and business ties to Donald Trump, some of which were laid out in a Chicago Tribune article in May of 2016. “Joey No Socks” runs a sham organization called the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS), which has bestowed its “Five Star Diamond Award” on three of Trump’s hotels — the Mar-a-Logo resort in Palm Beach, the Trump International Hotel in New York City, and the Trump Taj Mahal hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which closed permanently last year. The AAHS’ YouTube page shows Trump accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization on New Years’ Eve.

However, as celebrity gossip site Radar Online reported, the AAHS is essentially a phony front run by Trump, with the help of Cinque, who is the President and CEO of AAHS, to bestow awards upon his own properties:

In addition to three of Trump’s own staffers, his close pal Cinque, Cinque’s girlfriend, Susan Bender, and Trump’s old crony, labor leader Ed Malloy, all sit on the board of trustees–exactly the number needed to bestow an award.

“You see these big plaques in his places, but very few people know that the whole board is controlled by Trump,” says a source. “He’s basically giving himself those awards.”

Cinque’s shady past and his apparent closeness with Trump should give Americans pause about how influential the mob will be in the Trump White House. According to Uproxx, Cinque was a “business associate” of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. Cinque was also forced to plead guilty to a felony in 1989 for possessing stolen works of priceless art.

While most presidents have shied away from working with the mob, Trump has said that in business, working with the mob has always been “an option,” but has yet to admit to doing so. However, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has previously covered Trump for the New York Times, said the reality TV host-turned-President has a shady past involving mob figures.

“Donald has done business with people with the Russian mob. He’s done business with con artists,” Johnston said in a September interview with Democracy Now. “The guy who supplied his helicopters and managed his personal helicopter, called the Ivana, from his first wife back then, was a major cocaine trafficker, who actually handled the drugs. And after he went to prison, Donald wrote a letter pleading for mercy for him, so he got 18 months as the head of the ring. The little fish who delivered the drugs, they got 20 years.”

“Donald continued to do business with him after he was indicted. Donald has done business all his life with mobsters and criminals, because it’s a way to make money,” he continued.

Trump will officially be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States in less than three weeks.

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com, or friend him on Facebook.