‘Skinny Joey’ backs Trump on outlawing flippers

A notorious Philadelphia mob boss sentenced to two years in prison for illegal betting quipped outside court yesterday that President Donald Trump was right to suggest co-operators or flippers should be outlawed. Smoking a cigarette, Joseph ‘‘Skinny Joey’’ Merlino chuckled when he made the comment as he walked away from Manhattan federal court. Trump said during a Fox & Friends interview last summer that flippers who cooperate with prosecutors to get a reduced sentence ‘‘almost ought to be illegal.’’ Special counsel Robert Mueller has relied on numerous co-operators in his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.