Targets Staten Island DA’s Corrupt Machine and Anyone Connected

By M. Thomas Nast and Frankie Pressman with Michael Volpe and Richard Luthmann

The I-Card Ambush: Unconstitutional Tactics Unleashed

Staten Island’s political underbelly is on notice. Richard Luthmann – a former attorney-turned-journalist – is loudly accusing District Attorney Michael McMahon of running a “corrupt machine” that weaponizes law enforcement.

Luthmann says McMahon’s latest move was to sic the NYPD on him with a bogus arrest ploy. He discovered a supposed warrant for violating a protective order was not a real warrant at all – just an NYPD “I-card” alert, secretly entered to flag him for detention without a judge’s approval.

“An I-card… is just a BOLO. Be on the lookout for this guy… It’s not a warrant,” Luthmann explained, noting no neutral judge ever signed off. “They arrest people every day in New York City on these I-cards… violating the Constitution,” he said.

The I-card gambit appears designed to lure Luthmann from his Florida home into NYPD custody on McMahon’s say-so.

In a recorded call, NYPD Detective John Wilkinson admitted that because the complaining witness was “the Staten Island DA,” he could “get whatever I want” from judges.

Luthmann smelled a trap.

“They were trying to bluff you into showing up in New York City,” journalist Michael Volpe told Luthmann, “when in reality they had nothing.”

Luthmann agrees, calling the stunt a brazen abuse of power to fabricate a case.

“This guy is going to lose his gold shield,” Luthmann said. “I feel bad. Maybe he should talk to the Feds. They could probably set him up in DEA or ATF in exchange for testimony, and he won’t have to take a $50K pay cut and patrol the Coney Island Boardwalk in January. You know McMahon ain’t saving him.”

Luthmann Declares Media War: No Fingerprints, No Case

“They wanted me to show up so they could retroactively create a fake fingerprint card and stick it in the 2020 file,” he said, referring to a missing booking record that is now at the heart of his fight.

According to Luthmann, when he was prosecuted in Staten Island, the state never properly booked him—because he was in federal custody in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. That meant no fingerprint card was ever created, which, under New York law, is required to establish jurisdiction for the felony charges lodged against him.

Without the fingerprint card, the plea deal he took collapses, and the entire case unravels. The result would be that the millions McMahon spent on a “bogus vanity prosecution” would come to light.

Luthmann alleges McMahon’s team schemed to generate a backdated paper fingerprint card and slip it into the file to cover their tracks.

“All they gotta do is put a manila fingerprint card in Eric Nelson’s file and claim I was booked,” Luthmann said, warning that this falsification effort is part of a broader conspiracy of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

To Luthmann, the I-card ambush wasn’t just dirty pool – it was proof that cops, prosecutors, and judges on Staten Island will bend the law for McMahon.

The Judge on the case, Raymond Rodriguez, is a friend of the McMahons for thirty years, and is running for election to the Supreme Court bench in November for a full fourteen-year term.

Luthmann is firing back accordingly, framing this showdown as nothing less than war on “the Staten Island swamp.”

Luthmann Declares Media War: Feud Fueled by Lawfare and “Weaponized Justice”

This high-voltage feud between Luthmann and McMahon has been brewing for years. McMahon’s recent claim that Luthmann is a dangerous “stranger” who sent him a threatening email belies their long, tangled history.

In truth, the two men have sparred since 2015, when Luthmann – then an upstart Democratic insider – broke ranks and publicly backed McMahon’s rival for D.A.

He even exposed irregularities in McMahon’s campaign filings and helped shine a light on a judicial misconduct scandal involving McMahon’s wife, Judge Judith McMahon, who faced discipline as a result.

McMahon never forgot. After Luthmann lampooned him with a satirical “Smilin’ Jack” Facebook page, McMahon ensured a special prosecutor hit Luthmann with criminal charges for it.

Luthmann took a plea deal back then, but says it was legally invalid. He calls that prosecution a politically motivated “witch hunt” – an early example of McMahon’s lawfare.

Fast forward to this summer: McMahon personally swore out a felony complaint claiming he “feared for his life” over a mass-distributed Substack newsletter from Luthmann. The email wasn’t even about McMahon, and the DA had voluntarily subscribed to Luthmann’s posts.

Luthmann calls the complaint pure retaliation – a pretext for the I-card scheme to haul him in.

“In my view, the erasure of my case is an example of ‘weaponized justice’ being used against me,” Luthmann said, after a court mysteriously made his recent motion challenging that old plea disappear from the docket.

Observers note that McMahon’s move to label Luthmann a stranger was likely a strategic lie to escalate police action. If so, it could constitute perjury or a false instrument – even racketeering if done in coordination with judges and cops.

Luthmann isn’t alone in seeing a pattern. Across the country, voices are decrying the “weaponization” of justice for political ends. A group of state attorneys general – backing newly appointed U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin – have urged a return to honest rule of law, saying America needs prosecutors who replace “the rule of lawfare with the rule of law.”

Luthmann’s battle cry on Staten Island echoes that sentiment. He insists he’s fighting “a judicial and political machine” that has operated with impunity for too long.

“We’re not afraid to hit the bullies in the nose,” Luthmann proclaims – casting himself as a bare-knuckle reformer ready to upend a courthouse cabal. Every move McMahon makes to silence him, he says, only proves his point.

Luthmann Puts McMahon Swamp in Crosshairs

Luthmann has escalated his campaign from courtroom motions to a full-blown public crusade. He’s penned blistering exposés and taken to The Unknown Podcast airwaves (which he co-hosts) to detail what he calls the “incestuous” alliance keeping Staten Island’s elite above the law.

“The Staten Island machine has its fingers in everything,” Luthmann warned, naming names without fear.

Michael Tannousis, the borough’s Republican party boss (and a former McMahon underling), is singled out as a key culprit.

Luthmann alleges Tannousis traded judicial nominations in backroom deals – even ensuring Judy McMahon (the DA’s wife) ran unopposed with both parties’ endorsements for a judgeship. That cozy arrangement put McMahon’s family and allies on the bench, cementing their power.

“He used to be an ADA for Mike McMahon – and now he’s the GOP leader. It’s incestuous… just the tip of the iceberg,” Luthmann seethed.

He claims to have amassed a trove of evidence on “dirty” lawyers, politicians, and judges entwined in this patronage system.

“I have… stuff that I’ve been collecting for years,” Luthmann said. “I’ve been nice. But because of Mike McMahon, it’s all gonna come out.”

He’s not bluffing about explosive revelations. Luthmann specifically calls out the ordeal of Victor Abraham – a 26-year-old Staten Island man who spent 11 months locked up on Rikers Island before his robbery charges fell apart – as an example of the injustice he intends to spotlight. In that case, he suggests, he shows precisely how “the tentacles of corruption” strangle ordinary people.

Luthmann Declares Media War: “I’ll Take Them Down in Handcuffs”

Luthmann vows many more such stories will hit the headlines in the coming weeks. Luthmann’s endgame, he says, isn’t just exposing corruption – it’s raising the temperature of the federal heat. He asserts he’s working with administration officials on a possible Color of Law Violation and RICO conspiracy case. These are the exact charges being pursued against Letitia James.

“I’ve been talking to the feds… indictments and everything else will come down,” Luthmann declared, predicting a post-election reckoning. “Mark my words, after the November elections… the Feds will roll in.”

By timing the moves after Election Day, Luthmann believes the U.S. Attorney will be free to act without political interference – and Staten Island’s crooked power brokers won’t see it coming. He relishes the thought.

“Using my pen, I’ll take them down in handcuffs,” Luthmann wrote in one missive, signaling total war. “They designed for me to get picked up before Christmas, in December 2017, and sent to hell. I only have one present I want under my tree this year: perp walks.”

McMahon and his cronies dismiss Luthmann as a felon and agitator, but they can’t ignore the evidence he’s airing. Internal NYPD investigations are already underway, reviewing Detective Wilkinson’s taped admission of quid pro quo justice. And Staten Island’s legal community is buzzing that Luthmann’s claims may have merit.

The machine is rattling.

Luthmann, meanwhile, is doubling down. He’s urging all victims and any honest cops or officials left to come forward and help clean house.

“The worst of the worst are probably smart enough to go in and get a proffer themselves, but they could always give me a call, and I could give them a phone number,” Luthmann said. “I don’t wish the hell the McMahons blanketed me with on anyone except the McMahons and those who choose to stand with them.”

This is a tabloid-ready fight with real stakes: a crusading outlaw journalist versus an entrenched DA. And if Luthmann has even one iota of the evidence he claims, Staten Island’s ruling machine should be terrified.