Editor,

After Putin’s brazen invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, most Americans remembered the major lesson of World War II. Unprovoked aggression against sovereign states must be firmly opposed. Russia’s bold aggression brought the Cold War back.

After Trump told his election-denying insurrectionist Congressional supporters to oppose military aid to the Ukraine, we should again question Trump’s relationship with Putin. Remember the Mueller report on Russian election interference in 2016 that Trump denigrated, in abject submission to Putin in his presence. Trump believed Russian intelligence and rejected CIA’s.

Mueller’s FBI investigators reported 2016 campaign chief Manafort’s provision of key polling data from battleground states to a known Russian intelligence officer before the 2016 election. Manafort confessed and was convicted. Russian intelligence bots hacked U.S. computers and flooded social media to key U.S. voters in battleground states that influenced the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Remember — the secret plans for at Trump Tower in Moscow; Deutsche Bank’s lending Trump millions in dark money from the Russian mafia; the Mafia’s anonymous purchases of Trump property to help him get out of multiple bankruptcies. And now we hear from a reliable source, Bob Woodward, that while still President, Trump secretly provided to Putin large quantities of scarce COVID test kits needed urgently for Americans.

After leaving the White House, Trump reportedly secretly telephoned Putin seven times. Secretly communicating with the enemy giving Putin Kompromat – compromising evidence. Trump continues to aid our enemy. Putin, with his continued opposition to military support for Ukraine. It is clear that Trump has acted like a Russian agent of influence or mole. Did he also sell Putin top secret CIA reports stored illegally at Mar-a-Lago in violation of the espionage act as charged by the FBI? Is Trump the Manchurian Candidate?

David S. Sullivan

Former CIA analyst

Oak Harbor