October 16, 2019

Dear Senator:

You must leave the Republican Party and become an Independent. It is the only way to protect American values and the rule of law from Donald Trump.

In June 2019, Trump told an interviewer he would accept foreign help in his re-election campaign. The Federal Election Commission chairwoman pointed out the next day that would be illegal.

If President Obama had said he didn't see anything wrong with breaking the law, you would have rightly called for his impeachment. The Republican-controlled Congress would have impeached Obama later that week. However: today's Congress took no action when Trump threatened to break election laws. As a result, Trump broke them a month later.

In 2014, Russia conquered Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. This was widely condemned by Americans of both parties and all around the world. When Trump became the Republican Party's Presidential candidate in 2016, his only significant contribution to the Party platform was removing the paragraphs condemning the Russian conquest. Russia continues to pose a significant military threat to Ukraine.

Congress approved military aid to Ukraine in September 2018. In July 2019, Trump suspended that aid. A week later, Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump told Zelensky he would release the money if Zelensky looked for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, whose son did business in Ukraine several years ago.

Both Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, publicly admitted to this, and eventually released a transcript of the call. By admitting to the crime, Trump tried to make it seem like it was normal and routine -- nothing to get upset about -- instead of a criminal act.

By withholding foreign aid and then using that aid as leverage to extort an allied country into helping him with his re-election campaign, Trump betrayed the United States' national security, abused his power, broke campaign finance laws by soliciting help from another country, offered American taxpayers' money as a bribe to a foreign leader, and accepted foreign emoluments. Trump was caught red-handed trying to steal the 2020 presidential election.

Imagine for a moment that Somalia was facing an invasion from neighboring Kenya. Now imagine that President Obama suspended foreign aid to Somalia, then called the Somali President and told him he'd give him the money... if the Somali government looked for something he could use against Governor Romney in the 2012 Presidential election. The Republican-controlled Congress would have (rightly) impeached Obama five minutes later.

America's Justice Department could not investigate Biden because there was no reason to think Biden had done anything illegal -- so Trump pressured Ukraine to do it instead. Trump tried to coerce a foreign government to go after an innocent American citizen. I am no fan of the former Vice President, but if Trump can do that to Biden, he can do that to any of us.

Trump's attempt to bully Ukraine into helping him steal the 2020 election forced the House of Representatives to act. The House launched an impeachment investigation soon after the call became public knowledge. A week later, Trump committed the same crime again -- on live television -- by asking the Chinese government to look for dirt on Biden. Trump also falsely claimed the whistleblower who revealed the crime had committed "treason" and threatened them (in his usual roundabout way) with execution. Since Federal law protects whistleblowers, Trump committed another crime: witness intimidation. (Since Trump freely admitted what he'd done and claims there was nothing wrong with it, by Trump's own logic the whistleblower did nothing wrong by revealing it.)

Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution reads: "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." It is Congress' legal responsibility to investigate when the President and Vice President commit crimes. By refusing to cooperate with the investigation, Trump is committing obstruction of justice. Ironically, if Trump is innocent as he claims, his best move would be to cooperate with the investigation in every way -- because the investigation would exonerate him.

Senator, the evidence of Trump's malfeasance is overwhelming. He admitted that he broke the law. The House investigation will likely culminate in a vote to impeach Trump. When that happens, the Senate will try him and decide whether to remove him from office.

The Senate needs your leadership to make sure a trial takes place, and that the trial is fair. The idea that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow a fair trial is outrageous. He said so himself: "The way impeachment stops is with a Senate majority with me as majority leader." The House has yet to formally impeach Trump, but McConnell has already decided to deliver a "not guilty" verdict.

McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, currently serves as Trump's Secretary of Transportation. Tasked with overseeing transportation development in all fifty States, Chao named a special aide to help transportation projects in the State her husband represents in Congress. The other forty-nine States did not have any such special help. The federally-funded transportation projects Chao oversaw were designed specifically to help McConnell get re-elected. According to Politico, one of these was "a highway-improvement project in a McConnell political stronghold that had been twice rejected for previous grant applications."

"We are thankful that we had such good associations built with Sen. McConnell and the U.S. Department of Transportation because without them it wouldn't have happened," Owensboro Mayor Tom Watson told the press. Politico reported: "as McConnell prepared to launch his reelection campaign, he called Mayor Watson and asked him to pull together a group of political and business leaders at the riverport to tout his role in getting Owensboro the grant award... within days of officially launching his 2020 campaign, [McConnell] stood inside a riverport building and celebrated his achievements."

As long as McConnell's wife is working in the Trump Administration -- and can use her government position to help McConnell's re-election campaign -- there is no way the Senate Majority Leader will allow a fair trial. For instance, McConnell could simply ask Chief Justice John Roberts to dismiss the charges without ever holding a hearing or considering evidence. Trump would declare himself "exonerated" of the crimes he admitted to on live television because the Senate Majority Leader refused to even listen to the charges, much less hold a trial. Since the Trump Administration has helped him with his 2020 Senate re-election campaign, McConnell will give Trump a "get out of jail free" card for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election.

Senator, if you and just three of your colleagues leave the Republican Party and caucus with the Democrats, Senator McConnell will no longer be Majority Leader. He will be unable to block the impeachment trial. Democratic control of the Senate is hardly ideal, but it would at least give the prosecution and defense a fair opportunity to make their cases.

Senator, there is no question that if former President Obama had done what Trump had done, you, Senator McConnell, and the entire Republican caucus would have impeached him and removed him from office by now. You and your Senate colleagues must put loyalty to our country over loyalty to Trump and stand up for the rule of law.

Yours Sincerely,

C. Colvin