Donald Trump gives something crucial away with his rant about Al Capone
Donald Trump woke up this morning and decided that the best thing he could do to help his campaign chairman Paul Manafort was to compare him favorably to notorious gangster Al Capone. Trump was trying to make the case that Manafort, who hasn’t (yet) been convicted of anything, and who is already rotting in a cell, is no Capone. But in the process, Trump gave away something crucial about himself – and about what he fears Special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to do to him.
Al Capone committed too many serious gangster-like crimes to list here, but it was notoriously difficult for prosecutors to nail him for the crimes that he instructed his henchmen to commit, because modern RICO laws didn’t yet exist. So the Feds ended up convicting him on financial crimes instead. He kept the proceeds from his gangster activities off the books because he didn’t want his activities being discovered, so instead they nailed him for keeping the money off the books. There are remarkable parallels here to the federal prosecution of Donald Trump.
Just how does Robert Mueller go about criminally prosecuting Trump for the crime of conspiring with the Russian government to rig the presidential election in his favor? Every rational person agrees that it’s one of the most serious crimes ever committed in U.S. history, but because it’s never been done before, there’s no direct legal precedent for it. Trump will face charges such as conspiring to receive stolen goods and conspiring to receive foreign campaign contributions, as well as headier charges like conspiracy against the United States. But the effort at getting Trump convicted on such charges will mark uncharted territory.
It’s part of why we’re seeing Robert Mueller taking his first stab at Paul Manafort on crimes relating to financial fraud. It’s cut and dry. The money trail makes for a quick and easy conviction. That’ll send Manafort to prison for enough years that it won’t necessarily even matter how the second Manafort trial, on more complicated charges, ends up going.
Palmer Report has argued for some time now that Robert Mueller is using the prosecution of Paul Manafort as a test drive and roadmap for prosecuting Donald Trump. The two men have led remarkably similar lives, ranging from extraordinary crimes likes conspiring with foreign enemies, to garden variety financial crimes like money laundering and fraud. Just as the Feds took Al Capone down on financial crimes, Mueller is now doing the same to Manafort. Donald Trump seems to have finally figured out that he’s going to get the same treatment.
