Open Letter to Former President George W. Bush re Washington Scandals
Silence really isn’t an option, as it indicates you consent to what transpired. I know that cannot be the case.
November 8, 2021
Since you left the presidency on January 20, 2009, you have used your voice sparingly in support of or in opposition to your successors or on other national or international issues. As a result, many Americans see you as a voice of reason in our hyper-partisan world. Given you and your family’s understood disdain for former Republican President Donald Trump, it would be an enormous shock if you said anything beneficial to Trump.
That fact makes it all the more critical that you use your voice on an issue that may seem supportive of Trump, but, in reality, is really focused on the credibility of the federal government, the neutrality of our intelligence agencies, and the integrity of our elections. Many seasoned veterans from prior presidential administrations and the intelligence community improperly used their voices over the last five years to undermine Trump and damage his chance of winning the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as aid Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in their quest for the presidency.
Having had the honor of working for you from March 2004 to May 2006 (and volunteering for your dad in 1992), I know personally how much you value the importance of doing the right thing. Because of the gross bias of the media and Big Tech through which many Americans get their news and the nonstop lies emanating from the Democratic Party, too many Americans don’t truly appreciate the dangerous turn our country took beginning in 2016.
Thanks to the collective efforts of Inspector General Michael Horowitz; U.S. Attorney John Durham; former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe; several intrepid reporters like Mollie Hemingway, Eric Felten, John Sperry, Jerry Dunleavy, and John Solomon; and a few transparency non-profits that secured documents through the Freedom of Information Act, we now know several key indisputable facts we didn’t know over the last few years. These facts include:
· The Trump-Russian collusion claim was little more than a hoax designed by the Clinton Campaign;
· That hoax involved foreign actors, including recently indicted Russian Igor Danchenko, and long-time Clinton acolytes like Charles Dolan who literally made-up stories to impact a U.S. election and harm a presidential administration;
· The Clinton Campaign violated federal election laws by hiding its involvement in that hoax by improperly shielding its role using the attorney-client privilege via Perkins Coie partners Marc Elias and recently indicted Michael Sussman;
· Elias and Sussman hired Fusion GPS, foreign national Christopher Steele, and Crowdstrike to execute the hoax and illegally used Clinton Campaign funds to pay those entities;
· Elias and Sussman used their long-term relationships within the intelligence community to get elements within the intelligence community to launch investigations of Trump;
· Elias and Sussman then used the existence of those investigations to get the media to write false stories about those investigations;
· Multiple members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), including Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, used their positions to engage in improper activity, including leaking to the media, lying to the FISA court, spying on the Trump campaign/transition team/administration, and withholding exculpatory information;
· The media failed in its responsibility to ensure its stories were well-sourced and accurate;
· Former members of presidential administrations, including yours, and the intelligence community improperly lent their voices on issues which they clearly didn’t possess accurate information ranging from multiple Trump allegations to the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop;
· Despite far more evidence of malfeasance, the FBI and the intelligence community failed to investigate the credible allegations against Hunter Biden and Joe Biden related to selling access/influence to Joe Biden while he was Vice President;
· The media again failed in its responsibility when it didn’t investigate the credible Biden family corruption allegations in order to help Biden defeat Trump;
· Social media companies improperly censored legitimate and well-sourced news stories related to Biden family corruption in order to help Biden defeat Trump; and
· In an unprecedented manner and clearly as an in-kind contribution to the Democratic Party, left-wing Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg spent nearly $500 million to essentially privatize government election activities in heavily Democratic cities in key swing states to ensure Biden and other Democrats won.
Again, these facts are now well-established and documented.
Sadly, with the Danchenko indictment, it is clear former Director of the FBI Robert Mueller, who likely suffers from dementia, and his special counsel investigation were deeply compromised by the highly-partisan Democrat lawyers working for him led by lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. It appears Weissmann took advantage of Mueller’s cognitive decline given the trust Mueller had in him after working together for years. After all, it is simply not credible that the Mueller investigation didn’t discover the facts laid out by U.S. Attorney Durham in the Danchenko indictment.
The problem is many Americans don’t know the above facts because the media, Big Tech, and Democrats have successfully suppressed or twisted the facts to sow confusion and doubt. Why does this matter? It matters because, regardless of how these acts impacted Trump, Americans have increasingly lost trust in their government and now assume “everyone” is lying. This outcome is a serious problem in our republican form of government.
You won’t convince hardened Democrats, but you will sway moderates and independents that what happened over the last five years was simply wrong and should never happen again. It frankly was worse than the Watergate scandal, as this scandal involved far more elements of the federal government, including Obama Administration officials and Democrat members of Congress such as Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell. As is often the case, the cure (actions above) was worse than the perceived disease (Trump). Someone has to break through the cacophony of noise surrounding these issues. Your judicious use of your voice over the years married with your known dislike of Trump lends you the credibility to speak loudly and clearly on this vital issue.
You dealt with a political smear by the media during your 2004 run for re-election. Let me pose a question to you: what if what happened to Trump had happened to you in 2000? Had he been healthy, would you have wanted President Ronald Reagan to remain silent, or would you have wanted him to speak out against these scandals? With the passing of your dad, you are the only living president who isn’t compromised by these events. Barack Obama and his administration were involved in it; Bill Clinton’s wife’s campaign orchestrated it; and Jimmy Carter is simply too old and out-of-touch to have any real sway.
Silence really isn’t an option, as it indicates you consent to what transpired. I know that cannot be the case. Thus, I implore you to use your powerful voice to condemn what happened and demand reform. If you don’t, our country will continue to fragment and will eventually result in widespread revolts and, God forbid, another civil war. Though certainly in no way excusing their conduct, it would be utterly naïve not to acknowledge that what wrongfully happened to Trump beginning in the summer of 2016 didn’t play a significant role in the frustration and violence that occurred on January 6, 2021, by his supporters. As Sir Isaac Newton observed, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Someone must lower the ever-increasing political temperature. It is a decision point time, President Bush. If you won’t speak up, who will?
Matt A. Mayer (@ohiomatt)
Former Senior Official, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Presidency of George W. Bush
Dublin, Ohio