I was originally a Trump supporter. But I have realized President Trump’s deception, 10,000 lies and counting. I know that many people in our country support President Trump. But given new information, it is right that we are able to make a new decision.

Someone attacked our 2016 Presidential election. All credible indications are that this attack was conducted by the Russians, and ordered by Putin. Putin admitted this at the Helsinki Summit, while standing next to President Trump. Most of President Trump’s public comments about these attacks have been about the ‘Witch Hunt’ instead of how to protect from, or discourage, future attacks.

President Trump first tried to stop the investigation into the attacks, according to the Mueller Report. When he failed, he tried to limit the investigation to future elections. Finally, he has resorted to accusing government officials of treason for trying to find the truth. These actions by President Trump make it more difficult to understand the true nature of the attack, and how to prevent similar attacks in the future.

I encourage you to view these events for what they are – an attack by a hostile foreign power on our democracy, and a President that works to hide the facts. Discussion of this issue does not fit neatly in a 30 second sound bite, or a series of tweets. I encourage you to read this letter, referenced articles, the Mueller Report, and watch the corresponding video clips. Indeed, as Robert Mueller indicated, this situation deserves the attention of every American.

You can read or download a searchable version of the Mueller Report from a variety of websites, including this page at CNN. In this letter, text like (Volume 1, page 36) refers to Volume 1 of the Mueller Report, page 36 as printed on the bottom of the pages of the report.

In this video clip, Robert Mueller summarizes the Russian attack on our 2016 Presidential election and political system. This attack targeted an individual candidate, and individuals and entities involved in the administration of the elections. The Russians hacked into Clinton campaign networks and computers, stole private information, and distributed it via WikiLeaks. The release of the documents was designed and timed to damage a US Presidential candidate. (Volume 1, pages 36 and 50)

Some may argue that Mr. Mueller referred to these attacks as allegations. There is no reasonable doubt about “what” happened. However, the conviction of the individuals charged is to be decided in a court of law. We know that our election was attacked. Now we need to find and prosecute all the people involved, which makes the investigation all the more important.

In the previous video clip, Mr. Mueller briefly mentions the Russian invasion of US social media. From Volume 1 page 14, by the end of the 2016 U.S. election, the Russians had the ability to reach millions of U.S. persons through their social media accounts. Facebook estimated the Russians reached as many as 126 million persons through its Facebook accounts. In January 2018, Twitter announced that it had identified 3,814 Russian-controlled Twitter accounts and notified approximately 1.4 million people Twitter believed may have been in contact with a Russian-controlled account.

On August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence. Their discussion included “the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort’s strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states. Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting.” (Volume 1, pages 6 and 7)

This is one of the heavily redacted sections of the report due to “Harm to Ongoing Matter”. So, the Russians had access to approximately 1 in 3 Americans, and probably polling information about American voters. How can anyone say the case is closed?

On July 27, 2016, then candidate Trump held a news conference in Doral, FL. In this video clip, Trump starts by saying that Putin will respect Trump. He goes on to say that Putin does not respect then President Obama. The rationale is that if Putin respected our country, Russia would not try to hack into a major political party. So, what does Trump say next? He essentially invites Russia to hack into the computers of a US Presidential candidate "But it would be interesting to see. I will tell you this. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing … Let’s see if that happens.”

From Volume 1 page 49 of the Report, within five hours of Trump’s invitation, the Russians targeted Clinton’s personal office for the first time. Wittingly or not, President Trump sided with the Russians in attacking another US candidate.

Recently, President Trump said that he would consider accepting help in an election from a foreign power . Once again, his words will have the effect of encouraging foreign powers to attack our elections.

President Trump fired the Director of the FBI, James Comey, on 9 May 2017. According to reports by CNN, before being fired, “Comey was leading the investigation into whether Trump campaign members colluded with Russians who hacked the 2016 election.”

The day after firing Comey, President Trump met with a Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador in the Oval Office . From the Mueller Report, Volume 2 page 71, Trump told the Russians “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job.” Pictures of the Russians and the President in the Oval Office were widely reported. These pictures were taken the day after Comey was fired. Consider the optics of this scene, from the point of view of the FBI, and the point of view of the Russians. Wittingly or not, President Trump gave Putin a significant propaganda gift.

On 11 May 2017, 2 days after firing Comey, President Trump sat for an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. During this video clip, President Trump said that he wanted “to find out if there was a problem with an election having to do with Russia, or by the way anybody else. I want that to be so strong and so good, and I want it to happen.”

About a week after President Trump fired FBI Director Comey, on 17 May 2017, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian attacks on our election. (Appendix A, page 1). This is exactly what President Trump said he wanted, a good investigation.

As reported by NPR, Robert Mueller’s reputation for professionalism and duty to country is supported by the fact that Congress passed a special act for him to serve as FBI Director for President Obama after having served President George W. Bush. President Trump has said over and over that his administration would have the best people. He definitely did that with the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller to lead the investigation.

So how did Trump respond to the appointment of the highly qualified investigative leader, Robert Mueller? From the Mueller Report, Volume 2 page 4, “On June 14, 2017, the media reported that the Special Counsel’s Office was investigating whether the President had obstructed justice.” From the same page of the report, one month after the appointment, President Trump called his White House Counsel (Don McGahn) and directed him to fire the Special Counsel (Robert Mueller) for ‘conflicts of interest’. The President’s own advisors had already told him that the allegations of conflicts of interest had no merit.

After President Trump failed to stop the investigation, he repeatedly tried to limit the scope of the investigation to future elections. From Volume 2 page 90, on 19 June 2017, Trump dictated a message for Attorney General Sessions to limit the Russia investigation to future elections only. One month later, Trump followed up on the request to Sessions to limit the scope of the investigation. When Trump got no response, he held an unplanned press interview where he raised doubts about Session’s job security. Trump ultimately asked Sessions to resign.

The Mueller Report provides analysis indicating that President Trump tried to obstruct justice when he tried to fire Mueller, and again when he tried to limit the scope of the investigation. It does not matter that Trump did not succeed. (Volume 2 page 87, and Volume 2 page 97)

For an extended period of time, the Mueller investigation tried to interview the President about these events. An interview would be an opportunity for him to explain the reasoning behind his actions and support the investigation into the attacks on our country. Instead he refused to sit for an interview, refused to answer any questions about obstruction, and for many of the most significant questions that he allowed about his team and his campaign - he basically said he did not remember. (Appendix C, page C-1)

Here President Trump says that he is the “most transparent president probably in the history of this country. His actions indicate otherwise. In this clip, Trump said that he will not meet the needs of the country for infrastructure while the investigations continue. He is still trying to stop the investigations. Trump’s statement implies that it’s more important to stop the investigation into the Russian attacks than to fix our country’s infrastructure.

By the time the Mueller Report was released, William Barr had become the Attorney General. As part of releasing the report, Barr wrote a letter (dated March 24, 2019) to Congress with his principal conclusion. Barr stated “the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

In an unusual act, Special Counsel Mueller wrote a response to Barr’s letter. Mueller wrote on 27 March 2019 that Barr’s letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the Special Counsel’s conclusion. As a result, “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.”

In the following Congressional testimony, Barr admits that he did not, nor did anyone in his office, review the underlying evidence of the Mueller Report.. Barr and his team accepted the statements in the report as the factual record. As a result, we the American People are free to consider the opinions of former federal officials on whether the President committed obstruction of justice.

A group named “Republicans for the Rule of Law” is working to make sure that the laws apply equally to all citizens, including the president. This group includes former Deputy Attorney Generals and Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security. They have created a video explaining their conclusions about the Mueller Report. In it, they state:

• “Barr's summary was not a fair and accurate summary of what the Mueller report contained”
• The Mueller Report was a “damning case of obstruction of justice by the President”
• And, “were the President anyone other than the President, he would have been subject to indictment”

True to form, President Trump misrepresented the conclusion of the Mueller Report and said that he was totally exonerated.

Now President Trump is accusing former FBI Director Comey of treason (a crime punishable by death) for investigating President Trump.

He goes on to call the Special Counsel’s team a group of “killers”. This is how he describes a group of professionals trying to understand how the Russians attacked our election, trying to defend our country.

Every citizen should be very concerned when a sitting president accuses duly appointed investigators of treason and labels them as killers, all without presenting any evidence.

According to the “ President Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims” article on The Washington Post website, President Trump’s daily average of false and misleading claims has increased from eight per day to nearly 23 per day for the 7 months prior to 26 April 2019. This resulted in a total of 10,000 by that day.

By comparison, from the “ Trump’s Lies vs. Obama’s” article on The New York Times website, President Obama made a made a total of 18 similar untrue statements during 8 years as president.

From the previous New York Times article, one thing that makes Trump dangerous for the country and democracy,

“When he is caught lying, he will often try to discredit people telling the truth, be they judges, scientists, F.B.I. or C.I.A. officials, journalists or members of Congress. Trump is trying to make truth irrelevant. It is extremely damaging to democracy, and it’s not an accident. It’s core to his political strategy.”

Given Trump’s behavior regarding the Russian investigation, I suggest we review the Helsinki Summit press conference with US President Trump and Russian President Putin. The briefing provides a public example of the nature of the relationship between Trump and Putin. The following paragraphs and video clips review the most relevant statements.

During the Helsinki Summit Press Conference on 16 July 2018, US President Trump sided with Russia when he said that he believed Putin and that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 US Presidential election. In other words, in this international press conference, Trump publicly opposed all US Intelligence agencies and refused to hold Russia accountable for attacking our elections.

This was a very confusing briefing to watch, partly because Putin contradicted himself about whether Russia attacked our election. Putin was the first to speak in the briefing. At about the 8-minute mark, Putin stated in this clip that Russia does not interfere in US internal affairs, including elections.

At about 18-minutes, Trump and Putin started taking questions.

Does Trump Hold Russia Accountable?

In this clip, Jeff Mason from Reuters quoted a tweet from Trump that said US foolishness, stupidity, and the Mueller probe is responsible for the decline in US relations with Russia. Mr. Mason then asked Trump, “ Do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular? And if so, what would you consider that they are responsible for?” Trump replied, “Yes I do, I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish.”. Trump eventually said that the Mueller investigation is a disaster for the US, and has had a negative impact on the relationship with Russia. Here, Trump refused to hold Russia accountable specifically for attacking our elections.

Why Should Americans Believe Putin?

In this clip, Jeff Mason asked Putin, why should Americans and President Trump believe your statement Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election given the evidence by US intelligence, and will you extradite the 12 Russians officials indicted last week by US Grand Jury?

Trump interrupts and says that Putin will answer the second part. “That whole concept (Russia interference in the election) came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election.” Trump continued the deflection by talking about the electoral college and no collusion.

During Putin’s portion of the reply, Putin suggests that the US should investigate US government officials based on accusations by the Russians, and that the Russians should participate. This is another form of attack against our government.

Did Putin Direct Attacks?

In this clip with overlapping audio, it’s difficult to hear, but the question to Putin was, “ President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election , and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?”

Putin’s response – “Yes I did, yes I did, because he talked about bringing the US – Russian relationship back to normal.” The question clearly had 2 parts. Putin clearly answered yes to both parts, admitting that Russia had attacked our election.

This was another significant propaganda gift to Putin. Again, consider the optics of this scene. Putin stood next to Trump and said that Russia attacked our election, and Trump did nothing.

Will Trump Denounce Russian Attacks?

Final Question from US – Jonathan Lemire from AP

The following question is very confusing because at this point in the briefing Putin has said both that Russia did and did not interfere in the 2016 US Presidential election.

In this clip, a question to President Trump, “just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016, every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. First question, who do you believe? Second question, would you with the whole world watching, tell Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 , and would you warn him to never do it again?”

Trump started by talking about Hillary Clinton’s email server. He also said, “I have President Putin, he just said it is not Russia. I will say this; I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

A few words later, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people. President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer.” The whole context of Trump's statements was that Trump says Russia did not do it.

This clip is an example of Trump once again refusing to hold Russia accountable for attacking our elections; and supporting the idea of Russians participating in investigating US officials. Trump has repeatedly tried to stop the US investigation into Russian attacks. But Trump is encouraging Russian investigations into US officials.

Does Putin Have Compromising Material on Trump?

The final 2 questions of the Summit are for Putin. 1. What did Trump say about recognizing Crimea? 2. Do you or does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family ?

Putin answers the second question by saying that he heard the rumors about collecting compromising material on Trump. Putin said he didn’t know Trump when he traveled to Russia as a private citizen. He continues by talking about 500 high-ranking American business people attending the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Putin could have simply said that they don’t collect compromising material. Instead, Putin says that it is absurd to think that Russia collected compromising material on each and every one of them.

Putin closes with, “Well, please just disregard these issues, and don’t think about this anymore again.”

Trump’s Response to Compromising Material Question

At the end of the previous question, Trump added – “And I have to say, if they had it, it would have been out long ago.” No, the whole point of compromising material is to hold it privately for as long as possible to extract the most value from it.

The day after the Helsinki Summit, Trump made a statement from the White House to change one word of what he said at the Summit. During this clip, Trump says he accepts the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the election, but then he immediately says that it “ could be other people also, there’s a lot of people out there .” He goes on to say that at one point in the Summit, he said “would” when he should have said “wouldn’t”.

In a different part of the original video, Trump made two misleading claims. First, he said that his administration is doing everything it can to prevent interference in future elections. This is not entirely true. Currently, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blocking a House Bill that would strengthen state election systems. You can read about this in the Sludge article, “ McConnell Blocks Election Security, Takes Checks From Voting Machine Lobbyists”.

Trump also said that the Obama Administration knew about attempts to interfere in the election months ahead of time, but that they buried it. Actually, the Obama Administration attempted a bipartisan statement condemning Russia for their attacks before the election, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell essentially blocked it by refusing to sign it. McConnell’s actions regarding Russia are reported in the The Moscow Project article, “ McConnell Shows He’s Got Trump’s Back on Russia”. These are more examples of deflection by Trump.

President Trump should be removed from office for his obstructive acts and his unwillingness or inability to defend against Russian aggression. I urge you to contact your members of Congress and express your views about this threat to our country. Also, please discuss this with 2 friends, and ask them to do the same.