“Here’s To The State of Trump’s Child Killers:” An Anthem to Inhumanity

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Steve

Here’s To The State of Trump’s Child Killers

(In 1965, Civil Rights activist, singer and songwriter Phil Ochs wrote and performed one of his most powerful songs, “Here’s To The State of Mississippi”. Ochs, who volunteered for the Mississippi Caravan of Music in conjunction with Freedom Summer of 1964, the campaign to register Black Voters in Mississippi. During that summer, three civil rights workers — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were beaten and shot to death by local Mississippi police officers working with the KKK. Ochs was so upset and outraged by the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and the systematic battering of Blacks in Mississippi, that he wrote one of his most controversial songs, calling for “Mississippi to find another country to be part of.” Today, a similar inhumane outrage is occurring on the US border with Mexico, with the Trump Administration’s Family Separation policy, which rips children from their parents, and the unconscionable mistreatment of infants and children in cages, known as Trump Camps. With acknowledgment to Phil Ochs musical scream as my inspiration, I offer my own modified lyrics to any singer who will deliver this message with the same intensity and passion that Ochs brought to his indictment of previous crimes against humanity, committed by another Government.)

Here’s to the state of Trump’s Child Killers,

For underneath their faces, the devil draws no lines,

If you drag their muddy mem’ries, nameless bodies you will find.

Whoa, the corridors of power have hid a thousand crimes,

The calendar is lyin’ if it reads the present time.

Whoa, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump’s Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

And here’s to the mouthpieces of Trump’s Child Killers

Who say that folks with conscience, they just don’t understand,

And they tremble in the shadow of the Nazis and the Klan.

The sweating of their souls can’t wash away the blood from off their hands,

They smile and shrug their shoulders at the dying of a brown child

Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump’s Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

And here’s to the homes of Trump’s Child Killers

Where they’re teaching all their children that they don’t have to care.

All the rudiments of hatred are present everywhere

And every single family is a factory of despair

There’s nobody learning such a foreign word as fair.

Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump’s Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

And here’s to the cops of Trump’s Child Killers,

They’re chewing their tobacco as they lock the Trump Camp doors

They’re bellies bounce inside them when they knock children to the floor,

They’d rather not take prisoners in their private little war,

Behind the broken badges there are murderers and more.

Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump’s Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

And here’s to the lawyers of Trump’s Child Killers

Who cover up their hearts as they crawl into the courts,

They’re guarding all the bastions of their phony legal forts

Oh, justice is a stranger when the immigrants report

When the Black man is accused the trial is always short.

Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump’s Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

And here’s to the government of Trump’s Child Killers

In the swamp that they created, they’re always bogging down,

And criminals are smirking as they hold the babies down

And they hope that no one sees the sights, and no one hears the sounds,

And the speeches of the President are the rantings of a clown.

Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,

Trump Child Killers find yourself another country to be part of.

Suppose They Were Jews…

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Steve

Suppose they were Jews,

The babies torn from their mothers arms

At the border’s edge, never to

Embrace each other again.

Suppose they were white

And pink-cheeked Jewish boys and girls

Stuffed by the dozen into bland, white

Vans in the Texas sun.

Suppose the cages ,

Meant for dogs were filled with Jews,

Not immigrants with dark skin,

Speaking in strange tongues.

Suppose the children with dark skin

Were packed in boats,

Two-by-two-by-two thousand,

And shipped out to sea, destinations unknown.

Suppose those humans,

Shunned as outcasts

Sought to land, to live

Someplace safe, and were denied.

Suppose their ships or vans

Or caravans of terrified faces

Were forced back to the homes they fled

With only their lives.

Suppose the places they fled

Grabbed them, and locked them up in cages,

Starving, beating and killing them,

Mother and child, separated forever.

Suppose they were Jews…

The Speech I Want to Hear Joe Biden Deliver to Save the Nation.

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Steve

My fellow Americans:

Today I am compelled to declare my candidacy for President of the United States because the very soul of our nation, the existence of our Democracy, the continued integrity of the US Constitution, and the Rule of Law are at stake. I am running for President to protect all of these fundamental pillars of this great country , which are under daily attack, and will be permanently destroyed if Donald Trump is not defeated and sent back to Trump Tower (pause)—New York.

Just yesterday, Trump showed his abject contempt for the American people, the Congress and the Rule of Law by declaring, like a tinpot dictator, that he was ordering all Administration employees to ignore legal subpoenas to testify in an official, legal Congressional proceeding. In one enormous corrupt act, Trump has committed the single biggest act of Obstruction of Justice in the history of the American Presidency—an action that, by itself, was the substance of the third article of Impeachment against Richard Nixon.

Systematically, Donald Trump has, over his totally lawless and corrupt 825 days in office, has undermined everything this country stands for; everything tens of thousands of courageous American men and women and our Allies around the globe have fought and died for in Wars stretching back over a century; everything my son Beau battled for until he breathed his last breath. We will not stay silent and let this Democracy be dumped by a fundamentally treacherous man who is an autocrat and a tool of oligarchs to the very marrow of his bone.

Good, selfless public servants like the Firefighters across Pennsylvania, the police officers in New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Oshkosh, and the patriotic men and women of the FBI who protect us from terrorist attacks every single day, are having their life’s work mocked by a man who puts his own self-interest—and the interests of his superrich, corrupt cronies in this country, Russia and Saudi Arabia, over this nation’s interests.

I served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for 14 years, chairing the Committee for eight of those years. If that public service taught me anything—if my tenure as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee taught me anything, if my 36 years in the US Senate and my 8 years as Vice-President taught me anything, it is that this nation is built on the blood and the sacrifice of our fathers, sons, mothers and sisters; it’s built on a firm foundation of fairness, equality and the Rule of Law. Without respect for the law and for each other as human beings, we invite self-dealing, corrupt conduct , meanness and lawlessness– precisely the hallmarks of the Trump Administration—and Donald Trump.

But you don’t have to just take my word for it, when you have the most chilling case of continuing corruption, cover-up and obstruction of justice laid out by a rock-solid Republican, a Purple Heart Recipient and War Hero like Bob Mueller in 448 pages of riveting evidence. Mueller’s textbook case of high crimes and misdemeanors of a sitting President, documents the most dangerous threat our Democracy has ever seen both from within—right out of the Oval Office—and from abroad, in the form of cyberwarfare conducted against our nation and our system of free elections by a hostile nation—a fact confirmed by our 17 Intelligence Agencies, and Special Prosecutor Mueller, but denied over and over again by Mr. Trump, because the truth undermines his legitimacy to hold the high office he occupies.

Putting aside the national security threat detailed in Volume I of the Mueller Report—which is a clear abrogation of Mr.Trump’s duties as Commander in Chief to protect this nation from a foreign enemy—Volume II’s smoking gun evidence of blatant Obstruction of Justice by the President of the United States—over and over again, across 180 pages of detailed documentation—disqualifies Donald Trump from continuing to serve in this nation’s highest office. Why would any American who cares about the future of this Democracy and its leadership position in the world, want to support someone who, literally every day, commits unlawful acts that merit his removal from office?

His repeated commission of “Corrupt Acts”, as the Special Prosecutor meticulously spells out–and his own Administration members, including his former White House Counsel, testify to–Trump’s congenital lying, bullying his subordinates to lie, witness tampering, dangling pardons, altering testimony, and his repeated failure to uphold his sacred oath of office to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed ,” prove his unfitness to hold the office of President of the United States. The mere thought of, God forbid, four more years of Donald Trump continuing to use the vast powers of this government for his own corrupt purposes, and to pursue his own lawless agenda, is enough to make any concerned citizen stand up and work hard to rebuild this country back to when it benefitted the many, instead of the wealthy, well-connected few.

The culture of corruption permeating this White House—with at least a half-dozen Cabinet members having resigned in disgrace and dozens more Trump Appointees—like the 6 Interior Department Employees this week—and their new Secretary– under the stench of ethics investigations. That pernicious cloud of corruption is even thicker and more ominous with 12 separate, serious criminal investigations swirling around this President himself, his businesses and his questionable associates. Such a stinking swamp of corruption stands in stark contrast to the eight years of impeccable integrity of the Obama/Biden Administration, of which I was a proud partner.

I’m running for President to clean up this monstrous mess created by Trump’s terrible 825-day temper tantrum, to save our democracy from a corrupt, spoiled autocrat, to protect our national security from hostile actors on the world stage, and to reinforce, as the Mueller Report clearly stated that “no person in this country is so high that he is above the law.” Our challenge is no less than to save this great nation.

Join me in bringing this country back to its fundamental promises of hope, fairness and equality for all, and its bedrock principles of democracy and the Rule of Law. This is not a campaign, it is a callingto restore human decency, the dignity of work, democracy and fairness to all law-abiding citizens in this country. I’m calling on you to help save our Democracy, our Constitution and our common decency.

Jabba, Jabba Barr

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Steve

Jabba, Jabba Barr

Swallows justice near and far,

Iran/Contra, Russia/Trump,

Hiding evidence in his rump.

Elliott Abrams, Cap the Wein,

Hidden in his large behind.

Jabba, Jabba Barr

Concocts cover-ups in a jar.

Pinch of law, avuncular acts,

Watch how Jabba clouds the facts.

Election to Russia, Arms to Iran

Poof! Goes proof if Jabba’s your man.

Jabba, Jabba Barr

Swallows justice near and far,

Gobbles truth like it’s a cruller,

Squats on Lawmen like Bob Mueller.

Sees obstruction in plane sight—

Sits on it to block the light.

Jabba, Jabba Barr

Swallows justice near and far.

Iran/Contra, Russia/Trump,

Hiding evidence in his rump.

Barr’s Blatant Obstruction

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Steve

US Attorney General’s William Barr’s summary of Robert Mueller’s Report was not written and released on March 24, 2019, as the White House wants us to believe. It was argued, written and pre-tested on June 8, 2018, in an unsolicited application for the job of US Attorney General that “Bill” Barr wrote to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Assistant AG Steve Engel, but clearly meant for the eyes of “Individual One,” Donald Trump.

If you carefully read Barr’s bombastic love-letter to Trump last June — headlined “Mueller’s “Obstruction” Theory” (“obstruction” in quotes, put there by Barr), Barr has already prejudged obstruction of justice and is very clear where he will come down on any “obstruction” question:

“Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction. Apart from whether Mueller has a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Mueller’s obstruction theory is fatally misconceived.” (Bill Barr job-application letter to Rod Rosenstein & Steve Engle, June 8, 2018)

Before the ink was barely dry on the Mueller Report — the result of a 22-month investigation — Barr gave his opinion in a little more than 22 hours, that Mueller, who clearly did not “exonerate” Trump from “obstruction” but left the question open, and, according to the deeply-conflicted Barr, in the hands of Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General, William Barr. Barr’s bastardization of Mueller’s careful examination of the facts on obstruction became a bald power grab on behalf of the President who hired the Attorney General: “ The Special Counsel’s decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.”

But Barr had already determined in June, 2018, that a President could not be found guilty of “obstruction:

“I know you ( Rosenstein, Engel & Trump ) will agree that, if a DOJ investigation is going to take down a democratically-elected President, it is imperative to the health of our system and to our national cohesion that any claim of wrongdoing is solidly based on evidence of a real crime — not a debatable one….and not to indulge the fancies of overly-zealous prosecutors.”

Hiding behind the bendable Rod Rosenstein, Barr’s sinister and self-serving summary of Mueller’s Report states that : “Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that…the Report identifies no actions that, in our judgement, constitute obstructive conduct.” It was the same thing Barr wrote nine months earlier in his job application to be Trump’s Attorney General, and it should have disqualified him from rendering any judgement on the subject of “obstruction.”

Yet, despite Barr’s barely concealed and contemptible attempt to use Rod Rosenstein as a human shield to veil his previously expressed opinion on “obstruction” in his June 8, 2018, letter, the original language of Barr’s bias is there for every member of Congress and every American citizen to see: “ Mueller’s core premise — that the President acts “corruptly” if he attempts to influence a proceeding in which his own conduct is being scrutinized — is untenable.” (Bob Barr’s AG job application letter, June 8, 2018).

Barr raised the evidentiary bar on the issue of “obstruction” to an unattainable height, despite Mueller clearly stating that “ while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

But, Bill Barr did. First, he pre-emptively exonerated Trump on June 8, 2018, in his application letter to Trump for the job of Attorney General. Then, Barr did it again in his shady summary of Robert Mueller’s meticulously compiled report which included the issuing of 2800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants and the interviewing of 500 witnesses — and resulted in 199 criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas and five prison sentences. Barr exonerated Trump and discarded all of Mueller’s hard work before the Special Counsel’s task was complete and before he even read Mueller’s final report.

The fix was in when Barr stated his overwhelming opposition to any “obstruction” charges, a postion which prompted Trump to nominate him for Attorney General. Barr was able to write his fast, furious and suspicious crib-sheet of the Mueller Report because he had already written it last June, when he applied for the job of Attorney General. All he did was change the names, the dates, and his own title.

Now, it’s time for Congress to investigate the process involved in assembling and delivering the Mueller Report, the evidence contained in the Report itself, and the facts behind Bill Barr’s jettisoning of justice in order to please the man who hired him, and sabotage a crucial counter-intelligence investigation into a foreign power’s illegal interference in a US Presidential election.

In fact, it is Barr himself — in his obsequious July 8, 2018, job application to be the Trump’s new AG — who spelled out the necessity for Congress to do its’ job immediately, and for each citizen to do ours between now and 2020:

“Thus, under the Framers’ plan, the determination whether the President is making decisions based on “improper” motives or whether he is “faithfully” discharging his responsibilities, is left to the the People, through the election process, and the Congress, through the Impeachment Process.”

Barr did the job he groveled for, and was hired to roll-over for, on cue. Congress, and each of us, must be relentless in doing ours.

Michael D. Cohen’s Testimony To Congress, February 27, 2019: Evidence of Criminal Acts by Trump, While President

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Steve

(In the most damning Congressional Testimony since former White House Attorney John Dean, testified under oath 45 years ago that Richard Nixon committed crimes in the White House, former Trump Lawyer, Confidant and Fixer Michael D. Cohen, provided testimony under oath to Congress on February 27, 2019, and gave direct evidence of crimes committed by President Donald Trump, in office. The testimony, which I have excerpted here for brevity, was provided to the New York Times the night before Cohen’s Congressional Testimony.)

I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience.

I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is.

He is a racist.

He is a conman.

He is a cheat.

He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.

I am providing the Committee today with several documents. These include:

A copy of a check Mr. Trump wrote from his personal bank account – after he became president – to reimburse me for the hush money payments I made to cover up his affair with an adult film star and prevent damage to his campaign;

Copies of financial statements for 2011 – 2013 that he gave to such institutions as Deutsche Bank;

A copy of an article with Mr. Trump’s handwriting on it that reported on the auction of a portrait of himself – he arranged for the bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from the account of his non-profit charitable foundation, with the picture now hanging in one of his country clubs; and

Copies of letters I wrote at Mr. Trump’s direction that threatened his high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release his grades or SAT scores.

Before going further, I want to apologize to each of you and to Congress as a whole.

The last time I appeared before Congress, I came to protect Mr. Trump. Today, I’m here to tell the truth about Mr. Trump.

I lied to Congress about when Mr. Trump stopped negotiating the Moscow Tower project in Russia. I stated that we stopped negotiating in January 2016. That was false – our negotiations continued for months later during the campaign.

Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.

In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me “there’s no business in Russia,” and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie. (Editor’s Note: Just like Trump lies repeatedly by repeating “there’s no collusion.”)

There were at least a half-dozen times between the Iowa Caucus in January 2016 and the end of June when he would ask me “How’s it going in Russia?” – referring to the Moscow Tower project.

You need to know that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about the timing of the Moscow Tower negotiations before I gave it.

To be clear: Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it.

He lied about it because he never expected to win the election.

He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project.

And so I lied about it, too – because Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie.

And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress.

I have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity, and compassion – qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me since childhood.

My father survived the Holocaust thanks to the compassion and selfless acts of others. He was helped by many who put themselves in harm’s way to do what they knew was right.

That is why my first instinct has always been to help those in need. Mom and Dad…I am sorry that I let you down.

Last fall, I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Individual #1.

For the record: Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump.

It is painful to admit that I was motivated by ambition at times. It is even more painful to admit that many times I ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when I should not have. Sitting here today, it seems unbelievable that I was so mesmerized by Donald Trump that I was willing to do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong.

For that reason, I have come here to apologize to my family, to the government, and to the American people.

Accordingly, let me now tell you about Mr. Trump.

I got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more than 10 years, as his Executive Vice President and Special Counsel and then personal attorney when he became President.

I wound up touting the Trump narrative for over a decade. That was my job. Always stay on message. Always defend. It monopolized my life. At first, I worked mostly on real estate developments and other business transactions. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Trump brought me into his personal life and private dealings. Over time, I saw his true character revealed.

Mr. Trump is an enigma. He is complicated, as am I. He has both good and bad, as do we all. But the bad far outweighs the good, and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself. He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal.

Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great.

He had no desire or intention to lead this nation – only to market himself and to build his wealth and power.

Mr. Trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial in political history.”

He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketing opportunity.

A lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about the release of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of time. The answer is yes.

As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the WikiLeaks drop of emails.

In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of “wouldn’t that be great.”

Mr. Trump is a racist.

The country has seen Mr. Trump court white supremacists and bigots. You have heard him call poorer countries “shitholes.”

In private, he is even worse.

He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a “shithole.” This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.

While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way.

And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.

Mr. Trump is a cheat.

As previously stated, I’m giving the Committee today three years of President Trump’s financial statements, from 2011-2013, which he gave to Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills and to Forbes. These are Exhibits 1a, 1b, and 1c to my testimony.

It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.

I am sharing with you two newspaper articles, side by side, that are examples of Mr. Trump inflating and deflating his assets, as I said, to suit his financial interests. These are Exhibit 2 to my testimony.

As I noted, I’m giving the Committee today an article he wrote on, and sent me, that reported on an auction of a portrait of Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 3A to my testimony.

Mr. Trump directed me to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of him that was being auctioned at an Art Hamptons Event. The objective was to ensure that his portrait, which was going to be auctioned last, would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon. The portrait was purchased by the fake bidder for $60,000. Mr. Trump directed the Trump Foundation, which is supposed to be a charitable organization, to repay the fake bidder, despite keeping the art for himself. Please see Exhibit 3B to my testimony.

And it should come as no surprise that one of my more common responsibilities was that Mr. Trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom were small businesses, that were owed money for their services and told them no payment or a reducedpayment would be coming. When I advised Mr. Trump of my success, he actually reveled in it.

Mr. Trump is a conman.

He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it,which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.

I am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to Ms. Clifford’s attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 4 to my testimony.

Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.I did that, too – without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do or how it would impact me, my family,or the public.

I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide that payment from the American people before they voted a few days later.

As Exhibit 5 to my testimony shows, I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on August 1, 2017 – when he was President of the United States – pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer — for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf.

This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year – while he was President.

The President of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. You can find the details of that scheme, directed by Mr. Trump, in the pleadings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

When I say conman, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores.

As I mentioned, I’m giving the Committee today copies of a letter I sent at Mr. Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if Mr. Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed without his permission. These are Exhibit 6.

The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades. As you can see in Exhibit 7, Mr. Trump declared “Let him show his records” after calling President Obama “a terrible student.”

The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better.

In fact, he did the opposite.

When telling me in 2008 that he was cutting employees’ salaries in half – including mine – he showed me what he claimed was a $10 million IRS tax refund, and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving “someone like him” that much money back.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran, and Prisoner of War, Senator John McCain to be “a hero” because he likes people who weren’t captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.

Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery.

He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.

He finished the conversation with the following comment. “You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”

I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now.

Over the past year or so, I have done some real soul searching. I see now that my ambition and the intoxication of Trump power had much to do with the bad decisions I made.

To you, Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, the other members of this Committee, and the other members of the House and Senate, I am sorry for my lies and for lying to Congress.

To our nation, I am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth about Mr. Trump when you needed it most.

I am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that I tried so hard to provide for my family.

My testimony certainly does not diminish the pain I caused my family and friends – nothing can do that. And, by coming today, I have caused my family to be the target of personal, scurrilous attacks by the President and his lawyer – trying to intimidate me from appearing before this panel.

Mr. Trump called me a “rat” for choosing to tell the truth – much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government.

As Exhibit 8 shows, I have provided the Committee with copies of Tweets that Mr. Trump posted, attacking me and my family – only someone burying his head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are: encouragement to someone to do harm to me and my family.

I never imagined that he would engage in vicious, false attacks on my family – and unleash his TV-lawyer to do the same. I hope this committee and all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will make it clear: As a nation, we should not tolerate attempts to intimidate witnesses before Congress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable.