I felt compelled to respond to Diana Thorn’s letter in the Aug. 21 Voices section, “Politics of Persecution.”
Are we living in an alternate universe? I am 77 years old. I say this to show I have lived through a lot of history and to acknowledge that I have NEVER been a government target or a persecuted American citizen! My only defense to this statement is I have NEVER done anything to warrant a different outcome!
Former President Donald Trump, however, has been duly investigated for collusion with Russia, which did show several of his inner circle associates having been in contact with Russian officials and their interference with OUR election! Impeachment No. 1: We all read the transcript of the phone call asking the president of Ukraine, a foreign government, for political help in exchange for the release of military aid, which had already been authorized by Congress! Then on to Jan 6 ,which Ms. Thorn describes as “sham one sided trial.” Let’s stop here to recap. This committee is bipartisan. The ONLY witnesses to give evidence so far have ALL been faithful Trump Republicans!
Ms. Thorn’s last statement “the unprecedented illegal raid on Mr. Trump’s home, that was basically a fishing expedition.” Perhaps she needs to be reminded of just what the procedure is in obtaining a search warrant! First, for well over 18 months, the National Archives had been quietly negotiating with Mr. Trump to return boxes on information, which were presidential papers, which are required by each outgoing president to turn over!
Finally, 15 boxes were returned, and an affidavit was signed saying everything had now been turned over. However, the FBI received information that there were even more boxes, and the archives acknowledged material was still missing.
A subpoena was then issued in June, which was ignored. A search warrant has to have solid facts about what is trying to be recovered, who is giving this information, where exactly will the information be found and what is the direct information they are seeking. That’s hardly a “fishing expedition” when you really don’t know what you will catch!
Oh, we’re not through yet. This request has to then be signed off, and in this case, it was signed off by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Then it is taken to a judge for final sign off — hardly a slap dash unprofessional procedure.
Mr. Trump has also been quoted as saying about the remaining boxes,
“they’re mine, not yours,” which seems to acknowledge that he was fully aware that he still possessed material that had been requested to be returned to the government by the subpoena.
The search warrant was then signed, sealed and delivered! And guess what? More boxes were retrieved from Mr. Trump’s home!
If we want to keep America a free republic, as you stated Ms. Thorn, then we need laws to be enforced and applied to every American citizen. When you step out your front door and into society, the laws to protect your safety and those around are in place.
Again, are we living in an alternate universe? It would appear we are.
Roberta Silsbury
Goleta
