Former Housing Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday said infamous gangster Al Capone is proof that the Department of Justice is out to get Donald Trump. (Watch the video below.)
Carson tried to make the connection to CNN’s Abby Phillip in an eyebrow-raising conversation about why Carson still endorses the ex-president for 2024 when so many from his administration do not. “What are they seeing that you’re not seeing?” Phillip asked.
“I think the better question is, what are they not seeing,” Carson replied. “If we allow our Justice Department to be weaponized, we will have lost something very precious and important.”
Phillip said, “But what evidence do you have that the Justice Department has been weaponized against Trump specifically? There’s no evidence of that.”
Carson answered, “Well, let’s put it this way. Al Capone, who was a notorious killer, had one indictment, and Donald Trump has four indictments. That would tell you something right there.”
Phillip quickly pushed back. “I don’t think that’s evidence of anything except that Donald Trump has allegedly committed conduct that has resulted in indictments,” she said.
“It’s evidence that you have a group of people, a system that is out to get this president, and they feel that he is an existential threat to their existence,” Carson countered.
In September, Trump lightheartedly compared his 91 criminal counts over four indictments to Capone, the Chicago mobster who in 1931 was convicted on tax-evasion charges contained in two indictments. He served about seven and a half years in prison and died in 1947.
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