Obama is organizing bigly

[mabbott]

In case you haven't tuned into what Barack Obama is up to...read on. This group is going to be key in holding the current administration accountable to law.

Dear Friend,

In recent days, there have been numerous reports of White House conversations with the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) that raise serious questions about whether the White House is interfering with the traditional independence of those agencies. Any interference in the independent exercise of law enforcement is a profound threat to our democracy.

You signed up for this list to find out about threats to our democracy and what we can do about them. So we’ve prepared a full briefing — just as we would have done for White House staff — on what rules have historically governed White House communications with law enforcement agencies. The full memo is at the bottom of this email; it makes a few key points:

• For forty years, across Republican and Democratic Administrations, White Houses have abided by written policies to prevent the act or appearance of the White House inappropriately interfering in law enforcement functions.
• Reported contacts by the current White House Chief of Staff, the White House Counsel, and other political staff at the White House appear to violate these long-standing policies.
• In order to demonstrate commitment to protecting the traditions of American democracy and upholding the rule of law, the Trump White House must publicly issue a policy on agency contacts that makes clear it will abide by decades of policy and democratic norms.

Since an informed public is an autocrat’s worst enemy, the first thing we need to do is educate more Americans about these rules.

If you know people who would appreciate the briefing below and more like it please forward this email to them and ask them to sign up to unite with us here:

https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/

If enough of us share it, we’ll demonstrate that Americans care about these rules, we’ll build pressure on the White House to abide by them, and we’ll give reporters (who we’re also sharing this with) even more cause to ask the White House to disclose its policy to address our concerns.

But that's not all. We are also filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out just what contacts governed by this policy have taken place, and will continue to do so to ensure these longstanding norms are followed.

The outpouring of support we’ve seen for Protect Democracy’s mission has been inspiring — demonstrating that countless Americans are concerned about threats to our democracy and are prepared to stand up and protect it. Let’s share the memo and grow that movement.

In hope,
The United to Protect Democracy Team