At a campaign rally in Reno, Nev., Sunday, former President Donald Trump bemoaned his current legal situation, which includes criminal indictments in four separate ongoing cases – indictments that he profanely referred to as “bullsh—.”
Trump was apoplectic that he’s been indicted more times than “the great” Al Capone, a notorious mafia head who left scores of dead bodies in his wake.
“Did anybody ever hear of the great Alphonse Capone, Al Capone, great, great head of the mafia, right? Mean, Scarface. He had a scar that went from here to here, and he didn’t mind at all. But he was a rough guy,” Trump said onstage at the rally. “Now, I heard he was indicted once – a couple of people told me a few times more – but I was indicted four times.”
Trump went on to describe what a dangerous man Capone was known to be.
“If he had dinner with you and if he didn’t like the way you smiled at him at dinner, he would kill you. You’d be dead. By the time you walked out of the nice restaurant, you would be dead,” Trump said. “He got indicted once. I got indicted four times… Over bulls—, I got indicted.”
Trump attempted to position himself as a martyr in the remarks, saying the indictments were more about the beliefs of his followers than his own actions.
“Never forget: Our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. That’s what I do. They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you,” Trump said. “And in the end, they are not after me. They’re after you. And I just happened to be standing in their way. I am in their way.”
Trump’s indictments include a pair at the federal level: One involving his refusal to return classified documents he took with him at the conclusion of his Presidency and another related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election he lost to current President Joe Biden.
Trump also faces a state indictment in Georgia related to his actions following that election and a state indictment in New York that relates to his business dealings.