if they got capone that way…

In 1931, mobster/murderer Al Capone was convicted on felony counts of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison—effectively ending the reign of a thug who had shrugged off accusations of murder, bootlegging, bribery and extortion.

So it stands to reason that if tax evasion brought down Alfonso, surely now it could bring down Al-Fatso.

The news that Senate Republicans pulled from a vote Donald Trump’s festering sweetheart deal shielding him, his family and associates from any federal tax scrutiny from now until the end of time was, if not a show of backbone, then at least a show of panicked self-interest.

It didn’t help that the deal—worked out in a so-called agreement settling Trump’s multi-billion dollar lawsuit over the leak to the media of his federal tax returns, also would set up a nearly two billion dollar slush fund that effectively offers taxpayer money to (now-pardoned) Jan. 6th rioters/insurrectionists for (God give me strength) government persecution.

All this crap, stapled on to an already bloated bill funding ICE, border enforcement and other things close to cold Republican hearts, was supposed to pass under the radar as Congress raced to yet another recess.

But this time, it was a bridge too far.

“Sue the government he runs, then settle the lawsuit with himself by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns,” noted NY Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker. “And as part of the deal, hand over $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies.…”

Declared retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (who has been all but silent about Trump for months): “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong—take your pick.”

As Baker and many others—including me—have noted, Trump is flying off the rails in his second term. Whether the cause is old age, dementia, tertiary syphilis—who knows or cares? The son of a bitch is now an existential threat to our democracy—and even the GOP seems finally to be tumbling to this.

After all, what Republican in his or her right mind—given Trump’s underwater (and sinking further) poll numbers--would want to go on record supporting an appropriations bill that includes a get-out-of-jail (or at least audits)-free card for Trump and company—as well as a multi-billion dollar slush fund for criminals?

Trump, who unlike every modern president, never made public his tax returns, started all this with his huge lawsuit after the leak of his returns to outlets like the Times.

And what did those returns show? They showed that in 2020 Trump paid a paltry total of $750 in federal income taxes at a time when he boasted of his status as a billionaire. The following year—his first year in office as president—another $750.

In the past, Trump has defended himself, saying this shows he is “smart” (presumably only fools and losers pay their fair share to keep our democracy running.)

But legal scholar Jeffrey Toobin, citing the sweetheart deal Trump was trying to ram through Congress, had a different take:

“For decades there have been disagreements among constitutional scholars about whether a president can pardon himself. But Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, just gave President Trump something even better: pre-emptive exoneration from all potential criminal liability for certain financial crimes. He also guaranteed that the federal government would not be able to pursue tax claims against the president (or his family or his businesses).

“Mr. Blanche wrote a new chapter in the history of the presidency,” Toobin declared in the Times: “elevating the office to a point where Mr. Trump and his family are declared exempt from the rules that apply to his fellow citizens.”

Which brings us back to Al Capone.

God willing, Republicans will retain sufficient backbone to kill Trump’s poison pill. But if not, come November it remains to all of us to vote out any Republican who supports Trump, and thereby impose on Al-Fatso the same kind of punishment meted out to Alfonso way back in 1931.