RUSSIA

17 July, 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Russia

I find you defending the June, 2016 Trump Jr. meeting with assorted Russian folk in an online article by Sarah D. Wire in the Los Angeles Times. She quotes you as saying the following: “If someone says to you that they want to give you information, there is nothing wrong with that. It is not illegal to receive information from someone, especially if you are engaged in an activity that’s aimed at trying to secure understanding for policies that you plan to implement as a leader in the United States.”

I know that you are an ardent supporter of better relations with Russia, but…

One, the “information” you refer to (rather glibly, if I may say) was expressly intended to damage a rival candidate in an American election. It purported without shame or excuse to be offered by a hostile foreign government, the result of activity that any reasonable person would assume to be spying.

Two, the meeting in question was in June of 2016, not a moment at which Trump was designing “policies to be implemented as a leader in the United States.”

Three, almost as disturbing as the meeting itself are the multiple denials and lies that have been told, not just in the past few days but over several months. Why is it that the Trump campaign and, now, the Trump administration, can’t simply come out and tell the whole truth? Why are they not as keen as the rest of us to expose the facts of Russian intervention in our election? Does it not amount to a violation of our national sovereignty? Do we not need to understand—and perhaps punish them—for what they did? Do we not need to know the facts, in order to be able to prevent such action in the future?

The exculpation that you offer is ingenuous. I beg to disagree.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.