Donald Trump was never found "innocent" about his communications with Russia

Read the full Justice Department indictment at this PBS site here.

Russia if you are listening from Book People

The Department of Justice released an unsealed federal indictment of former President Donald Trump, with 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, obstructing justice and making false statements.

Trump and Putin in Helsinki

A Repository opinion letter writer on June 11 describes what he calls “the false narrative of collusion between Russia’s President Putin and President Trump.” 

The problem here is that the narrative is not false.

In the current case of secret government documents held by Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he does not seem to be denying anything he is accused of doing. He says it is not a crime. He says he acted within his presidential powers and legal rights. But he does not deny the underlying accusations.

Trump famously said in a public speech during the 2016, campaign, “Russia, if you’re listening;” − as he invited the Russian government to hack into American computers.

One of Trump’s campaign chairmen was Paul Manafort*, who was found guilty as a result of the Russia investigation. Trump gave him a presidential pardon.

Several Trump associates and supporters have been found guilty in court. But like the old joke about “an officer and a gentleman” being two different men, a legal judgment of “not guilty” is not the same thing as a declaration of innocence. Trump is not "innocent."

Although I agree with several of Joe Biden’s decisions and policies, I believe he is naïve and “Pollyannaish” on the subject of Trump and presidential powers.

I would have told Biden in January 2021, to campaign heavily against the power of presidential pardons. He should have said this is a bad thing for presidents to have such powers, and we need to change it. Even if Biden could not have got any anti-Trump constitutional amendments passed, he should have tried.

All of the high-sounding words about our great “justice system” mean nothing, if a president can just − on a whim − destroy it all with the stroke of a pen.

Eric Haubert, Massillon, Ohio

This article originally appeared on The Repository, A Canton Ohio newspaper: Letter to the editor: Trump is not 'innocent'

*In 2019, during their fourth day of deliberation, the jury found Manafort guilty on 8 of the 18 felony counts, including five counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to disclose a foreign bank account.