Image by YouTube

Donald Trump’s lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen accused Hillary Clinton Tuesday in a tweet of murdering an ambassador and selling uranium to the Russians.

In his tweet, Cohen attached a photo of the presumptive Democratic nominee with text reading: “I presided over $6 billion lost at the State Department, sold uranium to the Russians through my faux charity, illegally deleted public records, and murdered an ambassador. Elect me!”

Cohen cited an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing Trump beating Clinton on measures of honesty and national security, and wrote, “This picture says it all!”

The meme Cohen posted has a marker from a group known as Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, which claims to be a “a community founded by United States Marine veterans to bring awareness of the lame stream media.”

The June 19-23 poll shows Trump leading Clinton on terrorism and homeland security by five points, and leading Clinton on measures of honesty by 16 points — 41 to 25. The poll puts Clinton ahead of Trump by five points in general election polling.

Though the meme does not specify its claims, presumably the photo refers to the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was murdered during the 2012 terror attack on an embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

Many on the right accuse Clinton of negligence and place blame for Stevens’ death on her leadership while secretary of state. However, after several probes into the attack, the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi issued an 800-page final report Tuesday acknowledging Clinton and the State Department could not have prevented Stevens’ death.

Clinton’s private email server maintained during her tenure as secretary of state, in violation of State Department policies, has also been a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. Led in part by the conservative group Judicial Watch, many within the GOP have demanded answers over emails not provided by Clinton to the State Department. The State Department inspector general released a scathing report on Clinton’s private server last month, writing that Clinton’s email practices were never given legal approval and did not take proper security precautions. While many are concerned over the security of Clinton’s sometimes classified emails, the Washington Post reported that FBI officials said Clinton did not intentionally violate rules on protecting classified information.

In 2014, some claimed, following an alert from the inspector general’s office, that Clinton’s State Department had “misplaced” $6 billion in contracts. However, Inspector General Stephen something wrote in the Washington Post that $6 billion never went missing, but rather that the tax records for that money had been poorly maintained.

The Clinton Foundation, founded by former president Bill Clinton, was also criticized for its heavy reliance on foreign funds while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. In one incident that brought the foundation’s ethics into question involved major donors to the Clinton Foundation selling a mining operation called Uranium One to the Russians, according to The New York Times. Since the deal involved uranium, it required the blessing of several agencies — including Clinton’s State Department.

Contact Drew Gerber at gerber@forward.com or on Twitter, @dagerber

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