Yeomans: Time to Ask if Russians Really Did Elect Trump

Washington, D.C., October 6, 2017  – In the latest edition of Yeomans Work, AFJ Ronald Goldfarb Fellow for Justice Bill Yeomans says it’s time to stop ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to the Russia investigation.  Yeomans writes that despite reluctance on many sides to consider whether the Russians successfully swung the election to President Trump – and Trump’s own intense pushback against the notion – it’s time to face the possibility head-on. He notes that avoiding the issue “saps the public’s energy for the investigations and will make it easier for Trump supporters to dismiss the significance of the outcome.”

Yeomans writes:

“The investigations…have now matured sufficiently that they cannot be derailed without serious political consequences, raising the question whether it is time to start discussing openly whether the Russian invasion installed an illegitimate president.  The advantage of doing so is not that it will speed removal of the foreign-fueled interloper, but that it will energize our national inquiry into what happened.  Removal through impeachment is not currently realistic, but a full accounting of the scope, depth, and consequences of Russian meddling is.  Dancing, however, around a central question – whether foreign interference affected the outcome – will handicap that accounting and its acceptance by the public.  Without addressing that issue, the inquiry too often has the character of a detached exercise and, ironically, opens it to criticism that it is being kept alive largely to harass Trump.”

He notes that evidence continues to accumulate that raises suspicion about Trump’s campaign, including “Russian connections, favoritism toward Russia, and Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigations.”

Bill Yeomans is available for interviews. Contact Laurie Kinney, AFJ Director of Communications, at laurie@afj.org .