Washington CNN —

Former President Donald Trump has claimed in speech after speech this fall that he has been indicted three more times than the infamous gangster Al Capone.

It’s not true.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has deployed the claim about Capone while trying to portray himself as the victim of unfounded and politically motivated prosecutions. In a speech in Iowa on Saturday, he said, “And by the way, I’ve been indicted more times than Alphonse Capone. He’s the most vicious of all gangsters. If he took you to dinner and if you didn’t look proper, if you laughed a little bit, he might think you’re laughing at him, it’s dangerous to laugh – he’d kill you immediately. He was indicted one time. I was indicted four times.”

He similarly said in an October speech in Florida: “If you looked at him wrong, he’d kill you, and he’d kill you with his hands. He was a tough guy. He got indicted one time. I got indicted four times.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim that Capone was indicted only one time is false. Capone was indicted at least six times, as A. Brad Schwartz, the co-author of a book on Capone, told CNN.

And that doesn’t include various criminal charges against Capone that did not involve an indictment, such as some misdemeanors, or obscure Capone cases for which CNN couldn’t immediately determine whether there was an indictment.

Capone’s indictment list

It’s obviously impossible to directly compare the indictments faced by an early...

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