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dalton99a

(88,288 posts) Sat Apr 19, 2025, 08:38 PM Saturday

An Open Letter Opposing the 'Royal Despot'

https://statedemocracydefenders.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/open-letter-opposing-white-house-retaliatory-investigations-041825.pdf

An Open Letter Opposing White House Retaliatory Investigations

We write with grave concern about the two presidential memoranda dated April 9, 2025,
targeting Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor, respectively — two former national security officials
who served the people of the United States. These executive actions represent a dangerous
escalation in the abuse of presidential power: weaponizing federal agencies to carry out
personalized retribution against named individuals.

Presidents of both parties have long respected the independence of federal law enforcement and
refrained from using the power at their disposal to punish perceived enemies. Indeed, presidents
have gone out of their way to avoid even the appearance of impropriety or influence. President
Trump’s statements are a profoundly unconstitutional break with this tradition. He is explicitly
targeting two Americans because they exercised their First Amendment rights and criticized him.
That is a miscarriage of justice which these individuals, and other people and institutions
vindictively singled out by him, will be unfairly forced to endure. The president of the United
States must not direct federal authorities to investigate people with whom he disagrees.

This is not democratic governance. It is baseless retaliation — and it has no place in the United
States of America. Across our history, there have been dark chapters where state power has been
weaponized and dissent suppressed, including the crackdown during and after World War I, the
Red Scare of the 1950s, and President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.” These episodes are now
seen as shameful deviations from the fundamental American principles of free expression and
impartial justice. The April 9 presidential memoranda are an appalling rejection of those bedrock
democratic values.

Indeed, the President’s actions not only evoke some of the worst moments in our history; they go
even further. For a president to personally and publicly direct the levers of the federal
government against publicly named citizens for political reasons sets a new and perilous
precedent in our republic. It brings to mind the abuses of power that characterize authoritarian
nations, not the United States. No matter one’s party or politics, every American should reject the
notion that the awesome power of the presidency can be used to pursue individual vendettas.
Behavior of this kind is more to be expected from a royal despot than the elected leader of a
constitutional republic. This is the path of autocracy, not democracy.

For these reasons, we urge that the President immediately rescind these memoranda and that
agency heads repudiate any order that undermines their oaths, politicizes their missions, or
betrays the constitutional principles they are sworn to uphold.

These actions, if carried out, will leave a permanent stain on our institutions and erode our
democracy. History will not forget who stood silent. We will not stand silent.

List of Signatories:

Amb. Norman Eisen (ret.), Executive Chair, State Democracy Defenders Fund
Christine Todd Whitman, Governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001 (R); Administrator of
the Environmental Protection Agency in the George W. Bush Administration from 2001 to 2003
Jeffrey Amestoy, Chief Justice (ret.) Vermont
Caroline Anderson
Alex Aronson
Les AuCoin, Representative of the 1st Congressional District of Oregon from 1975 to 1993 (D)
Chiraag Bains, Former Deputy Assistant to the President, Domestic Policy Council
Brian Baird, Representative of the 3rd Congressional District of Washington from 1999 to 2011
(D)
Marge Baker
Daniel Barkhuff, MD
Lavora Barnes
Ian Bassin, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Protect Democracy
Joseph Bean
Paul E. Begala, Counselor to the President from 1997 to 1999
Mark Begich, U.S. Senator for the State of Alaska from 2009 to 2015 (D)
Michael L. Belitzky, Alliance for American Leadership
Nate Bell, Representative of the 20th Arkansas House District from 2013 to 2017 (I)
John B. Bellinger III, Former Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to
the National Security Council
Matt Bennett, Co-Founder, Third Way
James Blanchard, Governor of Michigan from 1983 to 1991, Representative of the 18th
Congressional District of Michigan from 1975 to 1983 (D)
Sidney Blumenthal
Reverend Glynden Bode
Roger Bolton, Formal Reagan and George H. W. Bush Administration Official
John Bonifaz, President, Free Speech For People
Kathy Boockvar, President, Athena Strategies; Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State
Noah Bookbinder, President, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Spencer P. Boyer, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO
Policy
Barbara Boxer, U.S. Senator for the State of California from 1993 to 2017 (D)
Shellie Bressler, Senior Professional Staff Member for Global Health, Senate Foreign Relations
Committee from 2007 to 2013; House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2015 to 2019
William Brodhead, Representative of the 17th Congressional District of Michigan from 1975 to
1983 (D)
Rosa Brooks, Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law, Georgetown University; Former Counselor to
the Under Secretary of Defense
Steve Bullock, Former Governor of Montana (D)
Steve Bunnell, Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Lucy Caldwell, Political Strategist
Arne Carlson, Former Governor of Minnesota (R)
Davy Carter
Rod Chandler, Representative of the 8th Congressional District of Washington from 1983 to
1993 (R)
Linda Chavez
Jeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy
Ty Cobb, Special Counsel to the President in the Trump Administration from 2017 to 2018;
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland from 1981 to 1986
Barbara Comstock, Representative of the 10th Congressional District of Virginia from 2015 to
2019 (R)
George Conway, Board President, Society for the Rule of Law
Sam Coppersmith, Representative of the 1st Congressional District of Arizona from 1993 to
1995 (D)
Susan Corke, Executive Director, State Democracy Defenders Fund
Geoffrey Cowan
Eugene Craig III, Former Vice-Chair, Maryland Republican Party
Tom Daschle, Senator from South Dakota from 1987-2005 (D), Senate Majority and Minority
Leader
Glyn Davies, U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
Mark de la Iglesia
Charles W. Dent, Representative of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania from 2005
to 2018 (R)
Laura Dickinson, Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, The George Washington University
Murray Dickman, Primary Assistant to U.S. Attorney General from 1988 to 1991
Renee DiResta
Charles K. Djou, Representative of the 1st Congressional District of Hawaii from 2010 to 2011
(R)
Donna F. Edwards, Representative of the 4th Congressional District of Maryland from 2008 to
2017 (D)
Mickey Edwards, Representative of the 5th Congressional District of Oklahoma from 1977 to
1993 (R)
Marc Elias
Uriel Epshtein
Janice Feather
Praveen Fernandes, Vice President, Constitutional Accountability Center
Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University
of Pennsylvania
Don Fox, Former General Counsel and Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics
Emil H. Frankel, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, 2002-2005
Hannah Fried, Executive Director, All Voting is Local
Brian Frosh, Former Attorney General of Maryland
Mark Gallagher
Hon. Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret.)
David Gee
Jennifer Gee, Elder, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Richard Gephardt, Former Democratic Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
Stuart Gerson
Hon. Nancy Gertner (ret.)
Lisa Gilbert, Co-President, Public Citizen
John Giruado, Attorney Advisor, Office of Legal Counsel, Associate Deputy Secretary in the
Reagan Administration
Michelle Glogovac, Founder & CEO, The MLG Collective®️, Podcast Publicist & Author
Jerry Goldfeder, Director of Fordham Law School Voting Rights & Democracy Project
Brianne J. Gorod, Chief Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center
Hon. Joshua Gotman, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense & Treasury
James Greenwood, Representative from the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania from
1993 to 2005 (R)
Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO, Fair Fight Action
Ânne Gruner
Vanita Gupta, Former U.S. Department of Justice Official
Bill Hafker
Kathleen Hamill, Attorney
Kenneth Harbaugh, President, VALOR Media Network
Mark Harvey, Former Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council Staff
Jeff Hauser, Executive Director, Revolving Door Project
Michael Hayden, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Jeremy M. Helfgot, Principal, J.M. Helfgot Communications; Co-founder, West Coast Women
Forward; Co-founder, Blazing Desert Indivisible
Paul Hodes, Representative of the 2nd Congressional District of New Hampshire from 2007 to
2011 (D)
Joe Hoeffel, Representative of the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania from 1995 to
2005 (D)
Kate Helfrich
Jerry Huckaby, Representative of the 5th District of Louisiana from 1977 to 1993 (D)
Daniel Hunter, Choose Democracy
Joe Hunter, Former Congressional Chief of Staff
Bob Inglis, Representative of the 4th Congressional District of South Carolina from 1993 to
1999 and again from 2005 to 2011 (R)
Steve Israel, Representative of the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts of New York from 2001
to 2013 and 2013 to 2017 (D)
David Jolly, Representative of the 13th Congressional District of Florida from 2014 to 2017 (R)
Virginia Kase Solomón, President & CEO, Common Cause
Gary Kasparov
Peter Keisler, Acting Attorney General in the George W. Bush Administration in 2007
James Kelly, Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Trade Administration, 1984-1988
Bob Kerrey, Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and Senator from 1989 to 2001 (D)
John Kingston, Former U.S. Senate Candidate; Candidate and Coalitions Chair, Forward Party
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Peter H. Kostmayer, Representative of the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania from
1977 to 1981 and 1983 to 1993 (D)
William Kristol, Chief of Staff to the Vice President in the George H.W. Bush Administration
from 1989 to 1993
James R. Kunder, Former Deputy Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Philip Lacovara, Counsel to the Special Prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecutor’s Office in
the Nixon Administration from 1973 to 1974
Leonard Lance, Representative of the 7th Congressional District of New Jersey from 2009 to
2019 (R)
David Lapan, Former Spokesman for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security
John LeBoutiller, Representative of the 6th Congressional District of New York from 1981 to
1983 (R)
James M. LeMunyon, Member, Virginia House of Delegates, 2010-2018
Marty Linsky, Former Assistant Republican Floor Leader, Massachusetts House of
Representatives
Harry Litman, Former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Mike Lofgren
Sheree Lopez
Linda Lorelle, Co-Founder, Civil Dialogues
Charles D. Luckey
Sally Lyall
Joanna Lydgate, CEO, States United
R.J. Lyman, Citizen of the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Mairin Macaluso, Senior Advisor, Leadership Now Project
Tom Malinowski, Representative of the 7th Congressional District of New Jersey from 2019 to
2023 (D)
Debrianna Mansini, Activist
Marjorie Margolies, Representative of the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania from
1993 to 1995 (D)
Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
Andrew G. McCabe, Former Deputy Director, FBI
Mary B. McCord, Former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security
John McCormick
Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, CEO, RepresentUs
Lt. Col. Amy McGrath, United States Marine Corps (ret.)
John McKay, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington appointed by George W.
Bush from 2001 to 2007
Brian P. McKeon, Former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources
Hon. Donna McLean
Barbara McQuade, United States Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan, 2010-2017
John M. Mitnick, Former Associate Counsel to the President
Jeff Modisett, Former Indiana Attorney General; Former Assistant U.S. Attorney
Toby Moffett, Representative of the 6th Congressional District of Connecticut from 1975 to
1983 (D)
Larry Moore, Substack Creator, Democracy Forge
Mike Moore, Former Attorney General of Mississippi
Alberto Mora, Former General Counsel, Department of the Navy
Seth Moulton, Representative of the 6th Congressional District of Massachusetts from 2015 to
present (D)
Virginia A. Mulberger, Former National Security Council Senior Director and Special Assistant
to President George H. W. Bush
Tiffany Muller, President, End Citizens United
Lissa Muscatine, Presidential Speechwriter, Clinton Administration; Director of Speechwriting
for the Secretary of State, Obama Administration
Elizabeth Neumann, Former DHS Assistant Secretary of Counterterrorism
Mario Nicolais, General Counsel, The Lincoln Project
Cheryl Niro, Past President, Illinois State Bar Association
Joseph Nye, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense
Sean O'Keefe, Professor, Syracuse University
Ted O'Meara, Former Chair, Maine Republican Party
Robert F. Orr, Former Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court (ret.)
Jan Peter Ozga
Richard Painter, Former Associate Counsel to the President and Chief White House Ethics
Lawyer for President George W. Bush
Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015 (D)
Jed Pauker, Co-Founding Board Member, Venice Resistance
Tony Payne, Former Executive Director, Maine GOP
Valerie Plame
John D. Podesta, Former White House Chief of Staff and Former Senior Advisor to the
President
Michael Podhorzer
Jen Porter
Trevor Potter, Chairman and Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission from 1991 to
1995; General Counsel to John McCain’s Presidential Campaign from 2000 to 2008
Edward A Powell, Former Assistant Secretary for Management and Deputy Secretary (Acting)
at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; CEO, USO World HQ; Defense Business Board
Kristopher Purcell, Former White House Aide in the George W. Bush Administration
Marc Racicot
Alan Charles Raul, Associate Counsel to the President in the Reagan Administration from 1986
to 1988
Reid Ribble, Representative of the 8th Congressional District of Wisconsin from 2015 to 2017
(R)
Kathleen Rice, Representative of the 4th Congressional District of New York from 2015 to 2023
(D)
Stephen Richer, Maricopa County Recorder from 2021 to 2025 (R)
Hon. Denver Riggleman, Representative of the 5th Congressional District of Virginia from
2019 to 2021 (R)
Robert Riley
Amb. John Ritch, Former U.S. Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency
Bill Ritter, Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011 (D)
Miriam Rocah, Former Federal Prosecutor SDNY 2001-2017
Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Theodore Roosevelt IV
Paul Rosenzweig, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Department of Homeland Security in
the George W. Bush Administration from 2005 to 2009
Steve Russell, Representative of the 5th Congressional District of Oklahoma from 2015 to 2019
(R)
Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011; Representative of the 1st
Congressional District of South Carolina from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2013 to 2019 (R)
Anthony Scaramucci
Steven M. Schneebaum
Claudine Schneider, Representative of the 2nd Congressional District of Rhode Island from
1981-1991 (R)
Nancy Schulte
Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009 (D)
Ricki Seidman, Former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security
James M. Seif
Joe Sestak, Former Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy and U.S. Congressman (PA-07)
Tara Setmayer, Co-Founder, The Seneca Project
Rina Shah, Geopolitical Adviser & Former RNC Delegate
Robert B. Shanks, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, 1981-1985
Hon. Phil Sharp, Representative of the 10th and 2nd District of Indiana from 1975-1983 and
1983-1995 (D)
Kate Shaw
Christopher Shays, Representative of the 4th Congressional District of Connecticut from 1987
to 2009 (R)
Donald Sherman, Executive Director and Chief Counsel, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington (CREW)
Steve Silverman
David Skaggs, Representative of the 2nd Congressional District of Colorado from 1987 to 1999
(D)
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor Emerita, Princeton University
Fern Smith, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California appointed by
President Reagan from 1988 to 2005
Mary Smith, Immediate past President of the American Bar Association, Former Associate
White House Counsel for Clinton Administration
Hon. Peter Smith
Craig Snyder, Former Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter
Ilya Somin, Law Professor at George Mason University
Julia Spiegel, Founder and CEO of Governors Action Alliance
Richard Stengel, Former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy
Stuart Stevens
Robin Tallon, Representative of the 6th District of South Carolina from 1983 to 1993 (D)
Neera Tanden, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
Michael Teter, Attorney & Managing Director, The 65 Project
Jennifer Thomas & Emma Addams, Co-Executive Directors, Mormon Women for Ethical
Government
James Tierney, Former Attorney General of Maine
Jeff Timmer, The Lincoln Project
Ann Toback, CEO, The Workers Circle
Carmen Torres
Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at
Harvard University
David Trott, Representative of the 11th Congressional District of Michigan from 2015 to 2019
(R)
Olivia Troye, Special Advisor, Homeland Security and Counterterrorism to Vice President Mike
Pence, 2018-2020
F. Andrew Turley, Major General, USAF (ret.)
Susan W. Turnbull
Chris Vance, Former Chairman, Washington State Republican Party
Josh Venable, Former Chief of Staff, U.S. Department of Education
Alexander S. Vindman, Lt. Col., U.S. Army (ret.)
Michael Waldman, President, Brennan Center for Justice
Liz Wally
Joe Walsh
Matt Walton, 2015 Republican Nominee, 74th District of the Virginia House of Delegates
Austin Weatherford
Judge William H. Webster
Randi Weingarten
Ellen L. Weintraub, Commissioner, Federal Election Commission, 2002-2025
Wendy Weiser, Vice President for Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice
Robert Weissman, Co-President, Public Citizen
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colonel, USA (ret.)
Gregory P. Wilson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1986-1989
Rick Wilson, The Lincoln Project
Jonathan M Winer, Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Special Envoy for
Libya
Timothy Wirth, U.S. Senator for the State of Colorado from 1987 to 1993; Representative of
the 8th Congressional District of Colorado from 1975 to 1987 (D)
Ann S. Womble
John Yarmuth, Former Chairman of the House Budget Committee, 3rd District of Kentucky
from 2007-2023 (D)