The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Let there be no equivocation.

If Donald Trump as President of the United States meets with Russian dictator Vladmir Putin on Monday as planned, he is a traitor to this country, he’s guilty of treason, and MUST be arrested and removed from office immediately.

Article 3, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution specifies that the giving of aid and comfort to the enemy is an element in the crime of Treason. Aid and comfort may consist of substantial assistance or the mere attempt to provide some support…,” according to the dictionary.

“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war, against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” according to this legal article.

Trump is clearly going aid and comfort to the enemy here. Putin is no friend of the United States of America or democracy. He even just admitted for the world to see on CBS News that Trump considers Russia a “foe.” That is evidence. Clear evidence. Damning evidence.

The charge of high crimes and misdemeanors covers allegations of misconduct peculiar to officials, such as perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, unbecoming conduct, and refusal to obey a lawful order.

“The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to Article II, Section 4.

He can’t totally ignore the indictments just returned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and announced by Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with very specific charges of Russian spying, hacking and interfering, meddling, ratfucking the 2016 presidential election to damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton and sow discord and confusion in the U.S. voting population. It’s already been proven that they were behind dark money ads on Facebook and Twitter bots as well.

Look at this evidence, which is as plain as the nose on your face. This is not just a smoking gun of collusion with Russia. It’s a flaming missile.

On July 27, 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly called on Russia to spy on Hillary Clinton and to hack and release her emails.

According to line 22 of the indictment, the U.S. Justice Department says:

“The Conspirators spearphished individual affiliated with the Clinton Campaign through the summer of 2016. For example., on or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign.”

So on the same day Trump asked the Russians to spy on and hack a candidate for president the Russians did Trump’s bidding and did just that.

Trump has claimed “no collusion” and called the investigation a “witch hunt” for two years now. Every time he says it, the American news media reports it in the newspaper, on television, on Twitter and Facebook, leading some members of the public, mainly hard core loyal Republicans, to believe there is a legitimate “other side” to the story. It is a lie.

Some witch hunt. The investigation has so far brought 191 criminal charges against 32 individuals and 3 companies, resulting in 5 guilty pleas.

George Papadopolous, a former foreign policy advisor to Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russians who claimed to have “thousands of emails” on Clinton. The guilty plea, the first secured by Mueller, was revealed October 30, 2017.

Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and Trump’s former national security advisor, pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017 to lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. Flynn and the ambassador discussed sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russia’s election interference. Flynn agreed to work with prosecutors.

Alex van der Zwaan, a former lawyer at a prestigious law firm, pleaded guilty on February 20, 2018, to lying to federal agents about his work with Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates on a controversial report used to defend the former pro-Russian government of Ukraine against accusations that it had improperly prosecuted a political opponent. He was later sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Gates pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and lying to federal agents, and he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s office. While so far Manafort has pleaded not guilty, prosecutors have filed additional charges against him alleging bank fraud and undisclosed lobbying on behalf of a foreign entity. He faces two trials, one in Virginia and one in Washington.

The latest indictment includes 112 new charges against 12 Russian operatives.

“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said in announcing the indictments. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”

Clearly there is more to come from the special counsel’s investigation, and there is evidence the Justice Department is treading cautiously. Rosenstein made clear, however, while Trump was meeting with Queen Elizabeth of England, that Trump had been briefed on the indictments before his trip. Yet he was careful in his announcement.

“There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers,” he said. “There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.”

As I have reported clearly since the beginning of this process, this is not the charge of the investigation and it tends to confuse people who have already made that conclusion in their own minds and on Facebook. There would be no real way to prove that in any event and it’s not the point.

Still, it does tend to make the case that Trump was not “legitimately” elected president. If he had an honorable bone in his body, he would resign. Instead, he is planning a private one-on-one meeting with a dictator who undermined confidence in our democracy with no witness and no record of what they say. This is a disaster and should not be allowed to happen.

A number of Democrats in Congress have so far issued statements to this effect, to no avail.

“President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement shortly after the indictments were announced. “Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who said early Friday afternoon the president should use the meeting to “demand and secure a real, concrete and comprehensive agreement that the Russians will cease their ongoing attacks on our democracy,” later called for its cancellation. “President Trump’s continued refusal to condemn the Russians’ attacks on our democracy, even after Special Counsel Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for interfering in the 2016 election, makes it clear that meeting with Putin would be both pointless and dangerous. The Trump-Putin meeting must be canceled.”

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also called on Trump to immediately cancel the summit, “in light of this stunning indictment by the Justice Department that these Russian conspirators attacked our democracy and were communicating with Americans to interfere in our election.”

Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee from California, also blasted the meeting.

“Because it is abundantly clear that the President will not confront Putin on the charges laid out in this indictment and its predecessor, and in the wake of his disastrous visit with our allies, it is in the strong national security interests of the United States for the President to cancel any meeting with Putin,” Schiff said in a statement.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey tweeted that the president “should cancel Monday’s summit with Putin. If he doesn’t and fails to confront Putin it’s Presidential malpractice.”

“Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court,” Rosenstein continued in his statement. “At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, to the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.”

The Justice Department must also convince a majority of the American people that the investigation is legitimate, and the press and media in America have a responsibility to do their jobs of informing the public in the interest of democracy. Reporting this story as if there were two legitimate sides at this point is irresponsible journalism at its worst. This is not a matter of partisan opinion. Will the New York Times and/or the Washington Post take this bold a stand? Any newspaper? Any television news station? If not, how can they ever be trusted again?

If being a traitor to American democracy and committing treason is not a “high crime” worthy of impeachment charges in the House and a trial in the Senate I don’t know what it would take.

I honestly don’t know why we have to wait for the election to see if more Democrats can get elected or wait for Trump to further undermine our democracy or wait for the full investigation from Mueller. I have seen enough.

If the U.S. Marshals Service is not dispatched to arrest Trump before the meeting with Putin to stop him from doing more damage, perhaps it’s time for a mass citizen arrest.

When Thomas Jefferson said, “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” he was expressing the idea that a little rebellion is healthy for a democracy and shouldn’t be punished too harshly by the state.

When Jefferson said, “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion,” he was expressing the idea that “liberties are ensured by the spirit of resistance” and that all great nations had rebellions.

Perhaps it’s that time again.

How can Trump be allowed to get away with making a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court under these circumstances? How can he continue to be in charge of forming any public policy while under such a legal cloud of controversy and doubt about his commitment to democracy?

Any member of Congress from the Republican Party who continues to enable this would-be dictator should also be removed from office.

We need definitive action before it’s too late.