A Letter to 2 Senatora and 1 Member of Congress

To Joe Donnelly and Todd Young (Senators) and to Susan Brooks (Member of Congress)

I have just read President Trump’s response, at his meeting with President Putin, when asked whether he believes his own intelligence agencies or Mr. Putin, as to whether Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.  And, as well, this comes in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments of 12 current Russian intelligence agents, for a variety of offenses committed during that election.

Mr. Trump responded: 

"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be."
(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812)

I find this response all but impossible to believe.  Mr. Trump is explicitly disavowing the conclusions drawn both from extensive investigations by U.S. intelligence agencies and by a Special Counsel who has documented that Russian interference in great detail.  He prefers to accept a denial of that interference by the man who almost certainly either ordered or approved it, a man whose interests are served by discrediting both U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.S. criminal justice system.

I do not pretend to know, or to understand how or why Mr. Trump refuses to recognize the conclusions noted above. I do not pretend to know why he prefers to accept the word—which is almost certainly a lie—of a man who is responsible for these actions.

But by disavowing the efforts and conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies and of a Special Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice, his words and actions advance the interests of Russia, not the interests of the United States.  I strongly encourage you to speak out, publicly, against Mr. Trump’s words and actions, and to consider carefully whether what he has done either is directly, or reflects indirectly, the commission of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” against the United States.