This is the last update to the petition “Stop Russian Cyber War against Our Country” as we head toward the 2018 mid-term elections. The President continues to disparage the impact of Russian interference. Although our US Cyber Command and National Security Agency have announced that they are ready to retaliate against Russia’s cyber war, the President refuses to take the cyber war back to Russia. He has the audacity to claim that the Chinese government hacked Secretary Clinton’s email server. The FBI quickly reported that the agency found no evidence that Secretary Clinton’s server was hacked. He still refers to the Mueller Investigation as a Democratic “witch hunt”; while, any objective, informed American knows that the Mueller investigation is non-partisan. In fact, in the latest Washington Post poll published on August 31st, 63% of Americans support the Mueller investigation and only 29% oppose it. 

In the meantime, the Mueller Investigation moves on methodically to obtain guilty verdicts against Paul Manafort for filing false tax returns, failing to report a foreign bank account, and bank fraud. A second trial of Manafort brought by the Mueller team will focus on Manafort’s role in lobbying for the Ukrainian government without registering as a foreign agent; jury selection is now scheduled to start on September 17th. Lobbyist Sam Patten just pleaded guilty to charges of failing to register as a foreign agent while working for a Ukrainian political party and helping a Ukrainian oligarch to illegally obtain tickets to the 2017 Presidential inauguration. Although these charges were not brought by the Mueller team, the case was developed in part by the Mueller team and, as part of the plea deal, Mr. Patten is expected to cooperate with the Mueller team.

The 115th Congress has one last chance before the election to stand up in defense of our democracy, assure the integrity of our electoral process, and protect the Mueller investigation from political interference. After that our country is at the mercy of fate that neither foreign aggression nor internal political interference severely damage the democratic fabric of our country. If I was a member of Congress, I would hate to live with myself after a disaster resulted in part from my inaction.

We implore our Congress men and women to act in the remaining time before the 2018 mid-terms:

1. Pass the “Secure Elections Act” that has been a bi-partisan measure, but is currently in limbo. This act must include statements requiring paper records to assure that everyone’s votes are properly counted. Do not let any Presidential contrarian efforts stop a vote on the floors of Congress.

2. Pass legislation to protect the Mueller investigation from interference; e.g., resurrect the bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2018.