Yergenson letter: Russian investigation

We are hearing comments from both parties making inflammatory statements regarding Russia’s purported meddling in the last presidential election. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has even described it as an attack, drawing parallels to a “political Pearl Harbor.” This sentiment is unjustified and dangerous. During the campaign, didn’t then presidential candidate Trump in jest request that Russia help recover Hillary’s deleted emails? Couldn’t that be perceived by Russia as a kind of invitation giving sanction to this purported meddling? And wasn’t Hillary, in preventing this information from being shared, in effect committing a lie of omission to the American people in doing so? And if some agency provided some relevant information so that citizens could make a more informed voting decision, isn’t that a good thing? And if it is a good thing, does it really matter which agency provided it? While it may be something that we should take steps to avoid in the future, it is not in any sense appropriate to label it a “Russian act of war.” We really need to get our Country’s leaders to lighten up on this.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Yergenson letter: Russian investigation."