In the letter, which urged Maine Republicans to endorse Mitt Romney instead of Ron Paul as the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Bean evoked Hitler in a rant against Obama's policies.

The letter was provided to BuzzFeed News by Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz, who had published excerpts of the it — along with a local politics website — in 2012. Nemitz told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that Bean had addressed the letter to Brent Tweed, a then–Ron Paul supporter who worked with the Defense of Liberty PAC. Tweed didn't return a request for comment.

"We are on the precipice of losing our country!" Bean wrote in her letter. "4 years from now we may not even have a ballot: OBAMA is HITLERIAN in his course, and he is closing in VERY FAST to eliminate totally our liberty rights and heritage."

Bean was also a listed as a 2014 member of The Council for National Policy (CNP), a group of "influential conservative leaders," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which described the CNP as "a shadowy and intensely secretive group" where "mainstream conservatives and extremists mix."

The CNP's 2014 membership directory, which it does not make public but was released by SPLC, also included Tony Perkins, the head of the anti-LGBT group Family Research Council, as well as Frank Gaffney, the founder of an anti-Muslim think tank, according to the SPLC. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's White House adviser, and Steven Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, were also listed as members.

Trump was described as "the star attraction" at the CNP's candidate forum in 2015 where he and other GOP presidential candidates were given 30 minutes to speak, the National Review, a conservative news site, reported.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to Linda Bean and L.L.Bean for comment.