Below is an email I received from Congressman Chris Stewart in reply to a message I sent to him and my reply to it. My original message took the Congressman to task for making a factually untrue statement in his newsletter regarding the testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. I Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy of the original message. I pointed out to the Congressman that for him to have made the claim that there was "... no obstruction" required either that the Congressman had not read the Special Counsel's report and wasn't paying attention during the hearing , in which case he is negligent, or he read it and didn't understand it, leading to the conclusion that he is incompetent in his position, or -- if he read and understood the report and testimony -- he was deliberately misleading his constituents.
DISTRICT OFFICES 420 EAST SOUTH TEMPLE, #390 SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84111 (801) 364-5550 253 WEST ST. GEORGE BLVD, #100 ST. GEORGE, UT 84770 (435) 627-1500 |   | CHRIS STEWART 2ND DISTRICT, UTAH PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE RANKING MEMBER STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES AND ADVANCED RESEARCH SUBCOMMITTEE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET | |
| September 17, 2019 | |||
| Mr. Tad Wimmer 565 S Coleman St Tooele, UT 84074-2547 Dear Mr. Wimmer: I want to thank you for taking time to write to me about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. As you may know, in March, Robert Mueller concluded his investigation on the 2016 election and turned his report over to Attorney General William Barr. Barr subsequently wrote and released a four-page summary of Mueller's 448-page report. Both Barr's summary and Robert Mueller's full unredacted report concluded that there is no evidence of collusion between the 2016 presidential campaign for Donald Trump and Russia. As a follow-up to his report, on May 29th Mueller also gave a press conference to speak publicly about his findings and formally end the special investigation into the 2016 election. He restated that he has no further conclusions to add. At the moment, the Department of Justice is not going to charge the President with any crimes. Furthermore, on July 24th Mueller testified before congress about his findings. Again, no new evidence was brought to light. He simply confirmed his finding that there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia. In addition to Mueller's investigation, both the intelligence committees in the House and the Senate conducted independent investigations into possible collusion between the Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government. Neither investigation found any evidence of collusion. Given the outcome of all three of these independent investigations, I feel that it is not appropriate to move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Impeaching a president for bad judgment or policy disagreements is not suitable. There is no evidence that President Trump has committed a crime based on the accusations. We have wasted too much time and money investigating false charges. I wish to move forward so my colleagues and I can continue to work on other pressing matters unimpeded by unsupported claims and partisan agendas. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me on this important matter. I hope that you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you and your family, as your input helps me to better serve you as your Representative in Congress. If you would like to stay informed of the latest issues coming out of Washington, you can visit https://stewartforms. | |||
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| 2242 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515 • (202) 225-9730 • STEWART.HOUSE.GOV | |||
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Sep 22, 2019, 12:41 PM (4 days ago)
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Dear Congressman Stewart,
Thank you for your email. I notice that your email does not address the question of Obstruction of Justice. I have read the redacted version of the Special Counsel's Report and I watched Mr. Mueller's press conference and his testimony before both the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Intelligence Committee. If I may correct the statements in your letter above, the Special Counsel found insufficient evidence to charge a Criminal Conspiracy that would have met the requirements for a criminal prosecution, but there was a great deal of evidence that Mr. Trump had "colluded" with the Russians. More to the point, there is an enormous and compelling amount of evidence that Mr. Trump obstructed justice. I have addressed this more fulling in my blog post. You will note that I have provided a logical analysis of each of the eitght defenses that have been raised regarding obstruction. This article is the first in a series I am writing concerning Mr. Trumps impeachable offenses, which go well beyond obstruction of justice. For you to claim that there was not obstruction of justice, as you did in your email following Mr. Mueller's testimony before the committees is, as best disingenuous, and at worst a deliberate lie.
On a historical note, Richard Nixon is not known to have had prior knowledge of the Watergate breakin, which was an attempt at political espionage conducted by American operatives and that ultimately had little impact on the 1972 election. The articles of impeachment against him, that would have certainly resulted in his removal from office included obstruction of justice for his attempts to cover up the involvement of his administration and the Committee to Re-elect the President. An act of political espionage by a hostile foreign nation is arguably significantly more significant that a burglary by five men, especially when that espionage produced potentially election changing results. Nixon had won his re-election bid by the largest popular vote margin in history and won all but 17 electoral votes and one state plus the District of Columbia; Mr. Trump, on the other hand, lost the popular vote and his electoral college victory is questionable given the attempts by Russia to influence the election. Mr. Trump was, and remains, the most disfavored candidate and President in US History.
The Republican controlled House of Representatives, under Speaker Newt Gingrich, decided, after investigations in to Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, and the Lewinski affair could only find that Clinton tried to cover up an extramarital affair, passed Articles of Impeachment against Bill Clinton claiming Perjury and Obstruction of Justice. In the process, seven of the House Managers charged with prosecuting the impeachment, and the Speaker of the House ended up accused of their own extra-marital affairs. Ten Senate Republicans voted with the Democrats to acquit Clinton. Meanwhile, part of what Mr. Trump was attempting to cover up was "hush money" payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to prevent the revelation of his extra-marital affairs from impacting the election. It is quite hypocritical of you, and the GOP, to take such action against Clinton, and ignore similar behavior from Trump. (This isn't even considering the 22 additional allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Trump that go beyond a mere extra-marital affair.)
From my perspective, the only reason we continue to have hearings and waste time and money on further investigations is that the highly partisan behavior of you and other members of the GOP. The evidence of obstruction of justice is compelling. The nature of the offense is more significant that in either the Nixon or Clinton impeachments.
Mr. Trump's stonewalling of Congressional oversight is, in and of itself, cause for impeachment. If we truly wanted to stop wasting time and money on investigations, then Congressmen such as yourself should be encouraging the president to provide the evidence that will clear him instead of fighting every subpoena and other request for documents or testimony from every House committee.
If you want my vote in 202, it will be necessary for you to base your position in this matter on the facts, and not on toeing the GOP party line.
Sincerely,
Tad B. Wimmer
565 S Coleman St
Tooele, UT
84074
(801)864-5240
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