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By Sam Kestenbaum January 22, 2018

Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin businessman hoping to unseat Rep. Paul Ryan in a primary election, is tapping into hardcore elements of the “alt-right” — appearing on white nationalist podcasts and proudly promoting anti-Semitic books on his Twitter feed.

After President Trump shortened the prison sentence of kosher meatpacking magnate Sholom Rubashkin, Nehlen urged the president to pardon a different man — a jailed soldier who he thought deserved, but was not receiving, the same treatment.

“While we understand that our President had his reasons for releasing Rubashkin from prison, we also believe that putting America First means putting American soldiers first, and there is an American solider who has not yet received the President’s attention like Sholom Rubashkin has,” Nehlen wrote in a December release that he has been reposting since.

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The solider Nehlen mentioned is Clint Lorance, a former first lieutenant who was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in 2013 for ordering soldiers in his unit in Afghanistan to open fire on three men on motorcycle who were approaching his patrol. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

To read more about Paul Nehlen go here and here.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

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