Trump’s Al Capone moment is nowhere near

When the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida earlier this month, various pundits suggested the raid could be an ‘Al Capone moment’. The Feds might not have got him for attempted insurrection, collusion with Putin, or corruption, it was said, but he could go down for a technicality: ie, withholding sensitive official documents he legally should have returned.

We’ve heard that ‘Capone moment’ motif a lot throughout the Trump years — and it tells you a lot more about the state of American journalism than anything else. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and a deeply shady character in his own right, used to say it to make headlines.

In fact, the original idea was that, exactly like Capone, Trump would be found guilty of criminal tax fiddling — but that has never quite happened. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow even became famous for her own ‘Al Capone’s vault moment’, when she excitedly declared that she had gotten hold of Trump’s long sought after tax returns, only to hold up a measly two-page filing that showed Trump had paid perhaps more tax than he should.