Trump exonerates himself in Russian interference with American Election, then Fires FBI Director investigating H

President Trump prepared a brief termination letter to FBI Director Comey that contained a strange reference to not being under investigation. Below is an excerpt from Trump’s termination letter.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

Trump must be referring to the FBI investigation of Russian Intelligence Agency interference in the American Presidential Election.

Did President Trump fire FBI Director Comey to disrupt the investigation?

On March 7, 2017 former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn retroactively registered as a “Foreign Agent” with the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s hard to imagine that just on January 20, 2017 President Trump appointed Michael Flynn, a registered foreign agent, as the U.S. National Security Advisor.

President Ronald Regan frequently referred to the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire”.

Robert Gates, former Defense Secretary under both President Bush and Obama, recently had this to say about Vladimir Putin…“I had looked Into Putin's eyes and I saw a stone cold killer”.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said in December 2016…"Let's not kid anybody," said Panetta, who also served as CIA director and White House chief of staff. "Putin's main interest is to try to restore the old Soviet Union. I mean that's what drives him." Panetta added of the current security environment, "This is a dangerous moment."

Trump bromance with Putin is Disturbing

June 18, 2013

Trump tweets… “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?

Feb. 10, 2014

Trump says Putin contacted him during Miss Universe and was “so nice:”

“When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, (Putin) contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us,” he said on “Fox and Friends.” “I’ll just say this, they are doing – they’re outsmarting us at many turns, as we all understand. I mean, their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us. If you look at Syria or other places, they’re outsmarting us.”

June 20, 2014

Trump tells Jeffrey Lord of the American Spectator that Putin treated him “unbelievably well” during Miss Universe and cites Putin to say the term “American exceptionalism” is a “dangerous term.”

“Well, I think it’s a very dangerous term in one way, because I heard Putin saying, ‘Who do they think they are, saying they’re exceptional?’ You can feel you’re exceptional, but when you start throwing it in other countries’ faces or other people’s faces, I actually think it’s a very dangerous term to use,” Trump tells Lord, a CNN contributor. “Well, I heard that Putin was saying to somebody—you know I had the Miss Universe contest over in Moscow recently, six months ago, and Putin, by the way, treated us unbelievably well. And it was at that time that Putin said, ‘Who do they think they are saying they’re exceptional?’ And I understand that. You know, he said, ‘Why are they exceptional? They have killings in the streets. Look at what’s going on in Chicago and different places. They have all of this turmoil, all of the things that are happening in there.’”

December 10, 2015

Michael Flynn attends a Moscow gala for the Russian state-run news outlet RT, where he is seated next to the nation's president, Vladimir Putin. Flynn gets paid $33,750 for his hour-long talk at the event.

May 5, 2016

Asked if he’s ever spoken to Vladimir Putin, Trump gives a “no comment” to Fox News’ Bret Baier.

“Yeah, I have no comment on that,” he said. “No comment.”

When Baier pressed him, “Yeah, but I don’t want to comment because, let’s assume I did. Perhaps it was personal. You know, I don’t want to hurt his confidence. But I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago – Miss Universe contest – which is a big, incredible event, and incredible success. I got to meet a lot of people. And you know what? They want to be friendly with the United States. Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got with somebody?”

July 27, 2016

Trump tells a local Miami CBS affiliate that he has nothing to do with Russia and has never met Putin, saying, “But I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.”

Feb. 6, 2017

Trump says he respects Putin during a Super Bowl interview with Bill O’Reilly. Trump defends Putin when O’Reilly calls him a killer.

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump says. “Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?

December 29, 2016

Flynn speaks with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak the same day the Obama administration announces sanctions on Russia over its alleged hacking of Clinton’s campaign. The FBI and Obama advisers are aware of the conversation.

December 30, 2016

Donald Trump threw more praise to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, a day after the Obama administration announced sanctions on people and organizations it believes were involved in suspected Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

The president-elect applauded Putin for holding off on retaliating to the U.S. actions, which included sanctions on nine entities and individuals and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. Trump, breaking with many members of his Republican party, has so far downplayed the White House's actions and bipartisan concerns about possible Russian meddling, seeing them as attempts to delegitimize his election.

In a tweet, Trump called it a "great move" for Putin to wait before retaliating, adding that "I always knew he was very smart!"

Smoke or Fire?

President Trump seems unconcerned about spreading democracy around the world and has surrendered the mantle to autocratic dictators, like Putin. Given President Trump’s conflicting statements about even meeting Putin and Michael Flynn registering as a foreign agent and questionable actions of Trump's campaign staff…We, the People, have the right to know the whole truth.

President Trump’s firing of FBI Director Comey is a blow to the investigation of Russians undermining American democracy. Congress needs to appoint an independent investigator now to get to the bottom of this mess, so that we can deal with it or dimiss it.

Pat Kilroy