Anthony Scaramucci to stump for Grimm in race to defeat Donovan

The Mooch is loose! Former Trump aide to stump for former felon

May 2, 2018 By Paula Katinas and Gersh Kuntzman Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Anthony Scaramucci (right) is coming to the congressional district to help Michael Grimm. Photo courtesy of Grimm campaign

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A controversial former White House aide who lasted all of 10 days as President Donald Trump’s communications director will headline a fundraiser for a pro-Trump former felon running for Congress in Bay Ridge.

Anthony Scaramucci, the investment manager and TV personality who was forced to step down after trashing his West Wing colleagues in an expletive-laced interview last year, will headline a fundraiser for former Rep. Mike Grimm as he tries to defeat his successor, Rep. Dan Donovan, in the June 26 GOP primary.

The fundraiser will be at the Staten Island Hilton on May 19. The 11th District seat, which comprises Staten Island and Bay Ridge, was carried by President Trump with 53 percent of the vote in 2016.

As such, Grimm and Scaramucci are highlighting their support for the president.

Scaramucci “is excited to meet the good people of Staten Island and Brooklyn who … came out so enthusiastically for our great president, Donald Trump in 2016,” a spokesperson for Scaramucci told the Brooklyn Eagle.

In the infamous interview with the New Yorker, Scaramucci had criticized then White House aide Steve Bannon, who has also endorsed Grimm in the race to win back his seat, which he surrendered after pleading guilty to tax evasion stemming from his time as a Manhattan restaurateur in the 2000s.

He served eight months in a federal prison.

Grimm, who is challenging Donovan from the right, said he is excited about Scaramucci’s appearance.

“President Trump needs Republicans in Congress who share his bold vision for our great nation,” he said. “Nobody knows that better than the president’s closest allies.”

The Scaramucci appearance comes as Grimm has been touting a poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showing him with a 10-point lead over Donovan, 49 percent to 39 percent.

But Donovan put no stock in a poll created by a group seeking to elect a Democrat to the seat.

“Of course the DCCC is desperate for Michael Grimm because they know he has zero shot of winning in November,” campaign spokesperson Jessica Proud told the New York Daily News.

For his part, Grimm told the newspaper that the poll is “consistent with our own internal analysis.”

Meanwhile, Donovan went on the offensive late last week by releasing his 2017 tax returns — a none-too-subtle shot at Grimm, for whom taxes may be a sore subject, thanks to his guilty plea on federal tax fraud charges in 2015.

In a plea deal that spared him a possible 30-month sentence, Grimm admitted to fraudulently underreporting $900,000 in receipts from Healthalicious, the health food restaurant he owned, and lowering his payroll taxes by paying workers off-the-books.

The scandal led to Grimm’s resignation and Donovan’s victory in a special election to fill the vacated seat. He won re-election in 2016.

President Trump famously did not release his tax returns during his election campaign, but the Republican congressman believes the issue can be used against Grimm.

“The hardworking people of Staten Island and South Brooklyn are struggling to pay their taxes, but Michael Grimm doesn’t think the same rules apply to him,” Proud said. “Voters deserve full transparency from a candidate who served prison time for felony tax evasion; enough with the excuses.”

Grimm’s spokesman Joe Shikhman said only that the candidate would “be happy to release his tax returns the day Donovan passes his first substantive bill into law.”

He claimed it was “an unheard-of standard” for congressional candidates to release their taxes — though many candidates do just that.

And what did the tax returns show?

Donovan is hardly the struggling Staten Islander of his spokesperson’s comment. His gross income was $366,855, which comprised his $161,342 congressional salary, plus $200,000 from liquidating a savings plan to buy a house in 2017, according to Proud. She said the move had to be reported on tax forms as income.

Donovan also earned $5,319 from I.R.A. distributions. He paid $35,598 in federal and state taxes.

Donovan is not especially generous in his charitable donations, giving $5,350 — or 1.4 percent of his gross income.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that New York State residents with incomes over $200,000 donated an average of 3.5 percent to charity in 2015, the last year for which statistics are available. Wealthy residents of Staten Island, however, donated just 1.7 percent to charity, the same report shows. The similarly well-to-do in Brooklyn allocated 4.4 percent to charity.

There are six candidates running in the Democratic primary: Michael DeVito Jr., Zach Emig, Radhakrishna Mohan, Max Rose, Paul Sperling and Omar Vaid.