When Donald Trump speaks of Hillary Clinton, he attaches the phrase “crooked” like an ordained title Clinton has earned over the years. “Crooked Clinton” has been the rallying call behind an issue most Republicans can actually agree on among themselves. Hillary Clinton is the worst of two evils and she is more or less the Antichrist. FACT (Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust) named Hillary Clinton as the worst violator of ethics in 2015. Yet when trying to think of an act of wickedness or vile, blatant corruption committed by Hillary, or Bill for that matter, there is none to be found. Through the years there have been multiple scandals affecting the Clintons, yet all were absolved of any wrongdoing and in retrospect, the punishment was a slap on the wrist, but that image imprinted upon the Clintons is a scar that will not be removed while Donald Trump cries “crooked!” for the next four months. Here’s a list of the questionable activity committed by Clinton since 1978.
- In 1978, Hillary invested in cattle future markets with $1,000 and within a year had made $100,000. While other investors were making a fortune as well, the Journal of Economics and Finance estimates that the odds of realizing the sort of gains Clinton was able to capture were 1 in 34 trillion.
- Whitewater, a real estate investment that the Clintons engaged in with their associates Jim and Susan McDougal in 1978. The plan was to invest in vacation-home real estate and to resell at a profit. The Clintons timed their purchase poorly, and lost money on the investment, though there were questions as to why it didn’t lose them as much money as their partners. Critics alleged that Clinton installed a pliant ally as Arkansas securities commissioner in order to buy their investment associate McDougal time to raise needed capital when regulators should have been stepping in to declare the bank insolvent. Despite years of investigations by the United States Senate and a special prosecutor, however, no one ever proved the Clintons doled out illegal benefits to McDougal.
- Benghazi -- four Americans, including the Ambassador, died on the night of September 11, 2012 stationed overseas at a diplomatic and CIA base. There have been allegations that Clinton denied security or prevented their deaths. Yet on June 28, the House committee released its report, which was critical of American preparedness but found no evidence of negligence by Clinton herself on the night of the attacks.
- Private Email Server -- Clinton, when Secretary of State, was using her own personal email server while in possession of classified information. These emails have been the never-ending story constantly nagging on Clinton’s presidential chances. On July 6, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the Justice Department would not pursue criminal charges against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for her use of a private email server at the State Department. But the following day, with that criminal investigation closed, the State Department reopened its own probe into the emails. State Department spokesman John Kirby told the press that it would be looking at potential mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and her top aides.
- Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Foundation a year after he left office and over the years built it into a non-profit powerhouse. The foundation says it accumulated $337 million in 2014. At the same time, Hillary Clinton became a senator from New York and was later appointed Secretary of State. Critics noted that Bill Clinton’s fundraising, in many cases, came from foreign billionaires who would have reason to court influence in the United States government, which begs the question, did big dollar donations to the Clinton Foundation win favorable treatment from Hillary Clinton in her roles as senator and Secretary of State? Schweizer, author of a book trying to find this connection found no hard evidence of favors being doled out by Hillary. However, the fact that the Clinton Foundation continued to accept donations from powerful foreigners and foreign governments while Hillary was Secretary of State is troubling.