Brooklyn Priest Close to Trump Allegedly Took Payments for a Fraudster’s Clemency

David Gentile defrauded thousands of farmers, veterans, and retirees of $1.6 billion. Days into his sentence, Trump set him free — and prosecutors started asking what a priest friendly with the president had to do with it.

The Rev. Frank Mann delivers the closing benediction at President Donald Trump’s inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. Mann, a retired priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, befriended Trump after tending the president’s family gravesite in Queens. (Brooklyn Home Reporter)

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Last November, David Gentile reported to the federal prison camp in Otisville, New York, to begin a seven-year sentence for a $1.6 billion fraud.

He told the other inmates not to get used to having him around. Within days, he expected to be gone, because a Catholic priest was pressing his case directly to President Trump.

He was right. Less than two weeks into the sentence, Trump commuted it. Gentile walked out a free man — his conviction left standing, but his prison term erased and the threat of forfeiting more than $15.5 million wiped clean.