XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: NoBody@nowhere.com   
      
    Trump Is the Most Dangerous Criminal in US History   
      
   His most dangerous crime is not simply corruption or obstruction, nor even   
   incitement of insurrection: It’s the deliberate attempted destruction of   
   American democracy itself.   
      
      
   When historians look back on this era, they’ll inevitably ask how a nation   
   built on principles of democracy, justice, and equality allowed one man to   
   commit such a broad range of crimes and abuses, and whether President   
   Donald Trump is indeed the most dangerous criminal in American history.   
      
   To fully grasp the gravity of Trump’s actions, consider the extensive   
   categories of his criminal and potentially criminal conduct, each more   
   disturbing than the last.   
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   First, there’s the relentless financial corruption. Trump has long played   
   fast and loose with the law when it came to his finances. In New York, his   
   company was convicted of tax fraud and financial manipulation designed to   
   deceive lenders and inflate his wealth. Trump University was shuttered   
   after a $25 million fraud settlement, its “students” left feeling   
   defrauded.   
      
   His charitable organization, the Trump Foundation, was dissolved following   
   revelations that funds intended for charity were instead used to benefit   
   Trump personally and politically, and to pay off Pam Bondi in Florida where   
   he and Epstein were living (she was AG for almost a decade and never went   
   after Epstein).   
      
   If America is to survive as a free nation, we must confront the reality of   
   Trump’s actions.   
      
   But Trump’s shady financial dealings didn’t begin or end with these public   
   scandals. For decades, he was closely associated with New York’s organized   
   crime families. Trump Tower itself was built using concrete provided by   
   mob-linked companies.   
      
   Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor and attorney as I detail in The Last American   
   President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, was a   
   notorious fixer and lawyer for mob figures such as Anthony “Fat Tony”   
   Salerno and Paul Castellano.   
      
   Trump’s casinos also regularly skirted the law, drawing scrutiny from   
   federal investigators for potential money laundering linked to organized   
   crime, and his former casino manager recently revealed to CNN that Trump   
   and Jeffrey Epstein once even showed up together with underage girls in tow   
   (the White House denies the story).   
      
   Trump’s long relationship with Epstein further exposes his moral bankruptcy   
   and possible criminality. The two were close associates and owned   
   residences near each other in New York and Palm Beach, socializing together   
   frequently.   
      
   Trump famously described Epstein as a “terrific guy” who enjoyed the   
   company of beautiful women, some “on the younger side.” Multiple reports   
   suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s exploitation of minors, yet Trump   
   continued their association until public scandal made it inconvenient.   
      
   Then there are Trump’s questionable international relationships, with none   
   more alarming than his mysterious affinity for Russian President Vladimir   
   Putin. Trump’s first administration consistently favored Russian interests,   
   dismissing election interference findings from American intelligence   
   agencies, undermining NATO, and, in his second administration even   
   withholding military aid from Ukraine, thus benefiting Putin’s geopolitical   
   ambitions.   
      
   While the full nature of Trump’s entanglement with Putin remains hidden,   
   Trump’s obsequious behavior toward the Russian dictator raises serious   
   questions about financial leverage or compromised loyalties. For example,   
   the only major country in the world Trump chose not to impose tariffs on   
   this year was Russia.   
      
   Trump’s disturbing Russian connections also include his 2016 campaign   
   manager and close confidant, Paul Manafort, whose career was dedicated to   
   installing pro-Putin autocrats and corrupt oligarchs across Eastern Europe,   
   including Ukraine and Albania. Heidi Seigmund Cuda writes about his recent   
   Albania connection in her great Bette Dangerous Substack newsletter.   
      
   Manafort was convicted of multiple felonies, including tax and bank fraud,   
   stemming from his shady dealings overseas, actions intimately connected   
   with Putin’s broader geopolitical ambitions, for which Trump pardoned him.   
      
   Trump’s choice of Manafort to lead his 2016 campaign wasn’t coincidental;   
   it signaled to Moscow an openness to influence, further raising troubling   
   questions about Trump’s susceptibility to foreign manipulation and   
   complicity in Manafort’s criminal schemes.   
      
   Trump’s election interference is equally alarming. It began with hush-money   
   payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to manipulate public   
   perception during the 2016 campaign, for which he was convicted of felony   
   election manipulation charges in Manhattan last year.   
      
   More brazenly, Trump attempted to subvert democracy in Georgia when he lost   
   the 2020 election by demanding of Georgia’s secretary of state, “I just   
   want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”   
      
   His attempts to cling to power by any means necessary reached a terrifying   
   crescendo with the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election,   
   ultimately joined by over 100 Republican members of Congress. This led to a   
   federal indictment, making him the first former president charged with   
   seeking to destroy the very democratic system that put him into power.   
      
   Trump’s abuse of presidential authority is chillingly unprecedented. Robert   
   Mueller’s investigation laid out multiple instances where Trump criminally   
   obstructed justice, brazenly interfering with federal investigations. He   
   solicited foreign interference from Ukraine in the 2020 election, a move   
   that led to his first impeachment.   
      
   Trump’s presidency was also marred by repeated violations of the Emoluments   
   Clause as he profited directly from foreign governments funneling money   
   through his hotels and golf clubs. He pitched Teslas from the White House   
   in flagrant violation of the Hatch Act (penalty: five years in prison).   
   Even after leaving office in 2021, Trump illegally retained classified   
   documents and obstructed federal efforts to retrieve them, leading to   
   further federal charges.   
      
   One of the most grotesque and morally bankrupt chapters of the Trump   
   presidency unfolded in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, when   
   Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly made the political   
   calculation that the virus was “only hitting blue states” and   
   disproportionately killing Black Americans so it could be weaponized.   
      
   According to reporting at the time, Kushner convened a secretive White   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)