Opinion - Open letter to Representative Bera; Time to stop Trump from shredding Constitution

Indictment of the president stops the shredding of the Constitution

An open letter to a member of Congress Amerish Bera

Dear Congressmember Bera:

As you read this, US Attorney General William Barr is likely sending the shredded background and supporting documents from the Mueller-Russia investigation to the landfill; he must be prevented from doing so.

I am writing to you in earnest to call for an indictment for wrong-doing and impeachment of President Donald Trump.

I am doing so because I’m disturbed that today former special prosecutor Robert Mueller has concluded his investigations, declared that he’s closing his office, leaving government service, and surrendering his files to US Attorney General William Barr. In so doing, this evidence is at risk of being shredded and lost after tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and two years of legal efforts were spent gathering this information about how the Clinton campaign was hacked and Trump bragged about it.

Mueller sounds like the exasperated parent who fends off his children’s inexorable nagging for sweets. Mueller and his storehouse of evidence should be immediately called as the first witnesses in an impeachment investigation by the House of Representatives, or at least those who would behave as the adults in the room. Should Mueller fail to appear before Congress with his files, he should be arrested and jailed until he does so.

You are the member of Congress for my district.

I expect you to call for impeachment of Mr. Trump, and to convince your colleagues, including and especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to join you in this call to indict the president for obstruction of justice.

I’m expected to comply with the laws of my city, county, state, and nation. I’m expected to respond to summonses as a witness to crimes and subpoenas for jury duty. No one, not me, not you, not the president, is above the law.

If you fail to call for the impeachment of this president, you will allow Mr. Mueller to passively obstruct justice by allowing his boss, AG Barr, to actively obstruct justice by trashing this very damning and expensive evidence.

It really doesn’t matter if the Senate convicts the president; what matters is that the House at least attempts to indict him. An indictment holds Mueller’s evidence as a perpetual record in the Library of Congress. Such action strengthens and bolsters the credibility of our Constitution, making it a living document.

The whole world is watching this fiasco unravel. The European Union is sliding dangerously authoritarian; political scientist Sheldon Wolin called it inverted totalitarianism, which is the US version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

If the US is to retain any shred of credulity in its claims for democracy and to secure the documentation of this regime’s wrong-doing, this House must indict the tweeter it selected to rule in the White House. I can say that because we, the people, did not put Trump in his position of power; you and your House colleagues did so through the Electoral College, an inelegant, anti-democratic, and anachronistic body enshrined in the US Constitution. While 60 million voted for this grifter, 63 million voted for Clinton; another 100 million did not vote at all.

We, the people, don’t need a circus, as there is a big top event with a distracted ringmaster already in play, tearing the nation apart. We need the House of Representatives to do its job in holding the White House accountable to the laws of the land. The House of Representatives put Trump in the White House; indicting Trump appears to be your countervailing duty that demands an immediate response. Otherwise, AG Barr is likely already busy shredding the contents of Mueller’s now-shuttered offices.

The reasons cited for refusing to indict Mr. Trump are primarily that it won’t result in conviction in the Senate, and that if Trump is impeached from office, Mike Pence becomes president. But the House of Representatives obstructs transparency if not justice by ignoring the critical leads and languishing condemnations in Mueller’s report, failing to indict and engage in impeachment, and losing the opportunity to memorialize its proceedings.

This is your call to justice, your call to action, your Waterloo; it’s now or never.

Sincerely,

Michael Monasky

Elk Grove, California