Feds probing Trump’s ‘crime family’ may use RICO Act -- that was created to take down mob bosses: Ex-prosecutor

Federal prosecutors may be targeting President Donald Trump and his family using a law created to go after mob bosses, former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade explained on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with guest host Ari Melber on Friday.

"Many critics say that Donald Trump seems to act like the head of a crime family," Melber noted. "Could he be charged like one, though?"

"A former federal prosecutor, Barbara McQuade, makes this case in a new column, writing recent developments in the New York federal prosecution investigation suggests they could be building the case against the president and his family under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known colloquially as RICO, a statue you've probably heard of because it is used against organized crime syndicates," he continued.

"When you look at the Southern District of New York -- who are the experts in RICO, taking down mob families -- it makes a little bit of sense," McQuade explained.

"RICO essentially was a statute passed in 1970 to go after the mob, because mob bosses would insulate themselves by having underlings commit crimes," she continued. "It's a crime for someone to participate in the affairs of an organization either directly or indirectly through a pattern of racketeering activity."

"Those predicate crimes could be wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering -- some of the very same kind of crimes we're seeing the Southern District look at," she noted.

"Could they be building a RICO case? I think there's a possibility that they are," she concluded.

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