President Trump on Monday compared federal investigators’ treatment of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to that of mobster Al Capone.
Trump noted to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers last week who are accused of hacking into computers and email accounts belonging to the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, when he also mentioned Manafort and his former national security adviser Mike Flynn being charged in the Russia investigation.
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“Well you look at Flynn, it’s a shame,” Trump said, referring to Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians. “But the FBI didn’t think it was lying with Paul Manafort, who is a really nice man.
“You look at what’s going on with him, it’s like Al Capone.”
Manafort, currently in jail awaiting trial, faces charges related to money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent and tampering with government witnesses, but nothing to do with collusion, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry.
[Also read: Paul Manafort spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement]
Despite being a notorious crime boss during the Prohibition era, Capone was ultimately sentenced to prison for 11 years in the 1930s for tax evasion.
