The New York Times today published a front-page report that should chill every American to his core.
According to the NYT, unnamed sources from within our country’s intelligence agencies leaked information indicating that senior members of Donald Trump’s campaign met with Russian intelligence officials during the campaign.
This report exposes very serious threats to our republic in two separate and distinct ways:
1. Given reports of credible evidence that Russia interfered with our election by selectively leaking information designed to help Trump win, it is vital to know whether there were, in fact, contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence during the campaign, and if so, what was discussed.
2. It is now obvious that people within our intelligence agencies, most likely holdovers from the Obama administration, are selectively leaking information designed to undermine and delegitimize our new president, which constitutes an attempted “soft coup.”
These are serious matters that present potential threats to our national security and to our very existence as a constitutional representative democracy. It is crucial that we all place our loyalty to our country ahead of any loyalty to any political party and get to the bottom of these matters.
President Trump
In the final weeks of last year’s campaign, information leaked exposing numerous scandals involving Hillary Clinton and her associates. These leaks became a groundswell that overwhelmed her and very likely discredited her enough for her polarizing and arguably unqualified opponent, Donald Trump, to win a surprise victory.
American intelligence agencies concluded that these leaks were orchestrated by Russia, possibly with the objective of helping Trump win the election. The facilitators of the leaks, the shady organization known as “Anonymous,” denies that it received its information from Russia, and the question remains in dispute. Nevertheless, when numerous intelligence agencies reach a mutual conclusion, that conclusion must be seen as at least credible.
Democrats and some Republicans have been calling for an investigation into these leaks, and, indeed, both the Congress and the FBI are conducting such investigations.
Now there is evidence that senior Trump campaign officials communicated with Russian intelligence agents. Indeed, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign over such communications.
President Trump and his associates need to answer some important questions about this matter:
- Were Trump campaign officials in communication with Russian intelligence agents during the campaign?
- If so, what was the purpose of those communications?
- What topics were discussed?
- Did the Trump officials know that the people with whom they were communicating were Russian intelligence agents?
- If not, were these communications legitimate business discussions, or were there other political/policy objectives?
- Were any promises or assurance given in either direction, and if so, what were they?
- Did Russia intervene in our election? If so, were they trying to help Trump?
- Did the Trump campaign know that the Russians were engaged in such activities? Was there any quid pro quo?
- The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department warned President Trump weeks ago about Gen. Flynn’s communications with the Russians. Why did Trump not take action based on that warning? Why did he only demand Flynn’s resignation after the matter became public?
- On all of these matters, what did Donald Trump know, and when did he know it?
President Obama
President Obama has broken with the tradition going back to the beginning of our republic of leaving the capital and refraining from criticizing his successor after leaving office.
Instead, Obama has taken the unprecedented action of remaining in Washington, DC to personally manage a national grass-roots organization designed to actively oppose President Trump and his agenda.
Since the inauguration, the movement left, of which Obama is a prominent leader, has engaged in terrorist tactics intended to undermine and delegitimize President Trump and his administration. I discussed those activities in detail in this recent column.
There are now reports that Obama administration officials remaining in the government are selectively leaking information designed to obstruct and undermine President Trump and his administration. Perhaps the most prominent and intellectually honest report came from the left-leaning anti-Trump publication The Week:
Flynn’s ouster was a soft coup (or political assassination) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but this isn’t the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function.
Holdover Obama administration officials allegedly are working to bring down an incumbent president, and Obama himself is defying long-standing tradition to actively oppose that same president.
President Obama and his associates need to answer some important questions:
- Who is leaking information from our intelligence agencies, and what is the full extent of the information that has been leaked?
- Who is coordinating this effort?
- Is this effort linked to the other efforts by the movement left around the country to delegitimize and undermine the incumbent president? If so, in what ways and with whose involvement?
- What other activities, both within and outside of the government, are being planned to obstruct the ability of the president to govern?
- Was President Obama involved with or knowledgeable of any of these activities? If so, were any of these activities planned while Obama was still in office?
- Is President Obama personally leading or managing any of these efforts?
- Are any Democrat members of Congress involved in these schemes?
- On all of these matters, what does President Obama know, and when did he first know of them?
Both of these matters go to the heart of our continued existence as a constitutional republic, and both matters must be vigorously, thoroughly, and independently investigated, with the chips falling where they may.
President Trump should request that Attorney General Jeff Sessions appoint an independent counsel to investigate all of these matters with an independent staff and with full prosecutorial authority.
The security and integrity of our nation may well depend on it.
Author: Ken Falkenstein
Ken Falkenstein is the Managing Editor of Committed Conservative and brings a wealth of experience and expertise in public affairs to the job. Ken served in the U.S. Army in the last years of the Cold War as a Russian linguist for military intelligence and the NSA. After leaving the Army, he earned his degree in Secondary Education from Old Dominion University, where he also wrote a popular column in the student newspaper.
Upon graduation, Ken worked as a Legislative Aide to two Republican members of the Virginia House of Delegates. Ken also served as Corresponding Secretary of the Young Republican Federation of Virginia, managed several successful political campaigns, and managed governmental affairs operations for a local Realtor association.
In 1995, Ken moved to Washington, DC to serve as a Legislative Assistant to Sen. John Warner (R-VA). While working for Sen. Warner, Ken attended law school at night, earning his J.D. with honors from the George Mason University School of Law (n/k/a The Antonin Scalia Law School). Since that time, Ken has practiced as a civil litigation attorney, including serving for three years as an Associate City Attorney for the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ken previously was a contributor to the highly-regarded political blog Bearing Drift and was a weekly co-host of The Steve Batton Radio Program. In 2016, Ken ran unsuccessfully for the Virginia Beach School Board. Ken is also a former President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads.
Ken now lives outside of Denver, Colorado with his wife, Kim, and three sons, Adam, Dylan, and Joshua, who has Down syndrome. Ken’s writing is motivated and informed primarily by his concern for his kids’ future.
