Jim Walsh
When I see coverage of the upcoming trial of Donald Trump in New York City, I can’t help but think of another famous person who was brought to court in a somewhat similar way 100 years ago.
Both were prominent businessmen from big cities. Both were known to invest in and control numerous enterprises, including gambling. Both were very much opposed to gun control.
Faithfulness to their concept of the Second Amendment — that everyone has a right to own a gun of their choice — was far more important than being faithful to, say, lesser things like business or marriage partners.
Both men were politically wobbly but active in Republican politics. In fact, the last Republican mayor of Chicago was elected with the help of one of these fellows.
Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about Al Capone.
It’s been a hundred years, but as the news of Trump’s indictment emerged, while it may be unfair to Big Al, I couldn’t help but think of that Chicago businessman from the previous century. The comparisons are inescapable.
One recent commenter wrote about Trump’s legal trouble, “you had better have a solid case involving serious crimes,” and I couldn’t agree more. A big complaint from Trumpists like Republican Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan is that District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s 34-count indictment is petty and unworthy of a former president.
We’ve heard a lot of that. Yet, it’s not clear that all Republicans see it that way.
For instance, immediately following his vote to not impeach Trump, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rushed to the floor and said, “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office … He didn’t get away with anything yet.”
I assume that McConnell also meant that Trump should not get away with wrongdoings he committed before he was in office nor those he did afterward.
A century ago, when Capone was asked about the source of his income and flamboyant lifestyle, he replied, “I’m just a businessman, giving people what they want.”
But let’s consider the fact that Capone was a gang leader responsible for more crimes than probably any other person in Chicago history; sending his enforcers out with machine guns, lining up competing gangs and slaughtering them, corrupting politicians, importing illegal substances, handing women around like household pets to be fondled, savored, and left behind.
And what, pray tell, was Capone convicted of? What was it that sent him to jail? Cheating on his taxes.
He did pay taxes on his “legal” income. But it was the unpaid taxes on his illegal income that got him into trouble.
According to Jordan, federal prosecutors should have said, “Well, he’s a murderer, a thief, and a gangster … it wouldn’t be right to send him to jail just for tax evasion.”
Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and convicted on five of them. That is to say, Capone was never convicted of his worst crimes, but he was convicted nonetheless and sent to prison.
It is interesting to note that the U.S. Assistant Attorney General who developed the strategy to get Capone was a woman named Mabel Walker Willebrandt.
And, at this moment, off to the side like two lionesses, stalking, waiting for the right moment to pounce, are New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, with the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute firmly in hand.
There was no organized crime statute in Capone’s time, but there is now, and Trump may find himself subject to it.
Finally, in all fairness to Capone, it should be noted that he never called for his second-in-command, Frank Nitti, to be hanged. Nor did any of his friends. That is a fair and balanced difference between those two men.
100 years from now, Trump may be remembered much in the same way that Capone is today: as a dishonest person convicted and sent to prison not for his most egregious crimes, but for many smaller ones.
Alvin Bragg may be compared to Special Agent Eliot Ness, who helped take down Capone.
And it will be noted that Capone’s wife stuck with him to the very end, in contrast, perhaps, to Melania Trump — who has been lying low recently.
In the end, Capone’s political ally was the last Republican mayor of Chicago. If politicians like Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and others don’t change their tune, then Trump may be the last Republican president.