Trump committed a treasonous felony by inciting Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to hack an American citizen and release personal emails. It’s just the latest questionably illegal action by the Republican nominee for President, who has been sued over 3,500 times in his career, including 70 times since he kicked off his campaign. In fact, two groups have threatened to sue him this week for refusing to pay for services rendered. More chilling than even his potentially treasonous comments was his suggestion yesterday that, if he had the power, he would hack into the private communications of political opponents (and the Presidency would give him that power).
That’s terrifying.
It’s also just the latest illegal or potentially illegal act in the life and career of Donald Trump. Here’s a taste of Donald Trump’s other illegal activities:
— Donald Trump has a long history of not honoring contracts with construction companies
— Donald Trump has knowingly and intentionally defrauded Trump University students, fleecing them out of thousands of dollars
— He may have illegally coordinated with his SuperPac
— He illegally used corporate resources to pay an employee to write a political speech
— He violated federal law by claiming proceeds from various Trump products would go to charity, although there is no evidence that Trump ever donated the money to charity
— He violated IRS rules by using $12,000 from his charity organization to purchase a Tim Tebow helmet
— He violated federal laws by offering Ben Carson a job in exchange for his endorsement
— His employees violated a U.S. trade embargo by pursuing commercial activities in Cuba when it was illegal to do so
— He’s run afoul of election laws by using campaign contributions to pay $6 million to his own businesses
— He violated Wisconsin election laws by talking with voters as they stood in line to vote
— He violated New York state education laws for operating a for-profit investment school without the required license
— His foreign policy proposals would violate NATO
— He’s violated copyright law for using copyrighted images without permission
— Many of the proposals he has vowed to pursue as President violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments of the Constitution
— Trump broke New York state law by lobbying to prevent an Indian casino from opening in the Catskills
— His vow to use torture on suspected terrorists would violate the Geneva conventions. He would be committing war crimes.
— He broke anti-discrimination laws to keep a mob boss gambling at one of his casinos
— He violated immigration laws by misrepresenting his company on work-visa applications
Hillary Clinton has been investigated and scrutinized for decades. She’s endured years of partisan Congressional hearings, FBI investigations, and independent counsel probes. Donald Trump can’t even handle the scrutiny of having one year of tax returns examined, in spite of his own hypocrisy about the release of personal records:
