{"id":41010,"date":"2017-08-17T05:56:19","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T05:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=41010"},"modified":"2017-08-17T05:56:19","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T05:56:19","slug":"trump-lawyer-forwards-email-echoing-secessionist-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-lawyer-forwards-email-echoing-secessionist-rhetoric.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Lawyer Forwards Email Echoing Secessionist Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Lawyer Forwards Email Echoing Secessionist Rhetoric<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Trump Lawyer Forwards Email Echoing Secessionist Rhetoric:- President Trump\u2019s personal lawyer on Wednesday forwarded an email to conservative journalists, government officials and friends that echoed secessionist Civil War propaganda and declared that the group Black Lives Matter \u201chas been totally infiltrated by terrorist groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The email forwarded by John Dowd, who is leading the president\u2019s legal team, painted the Confederate general Robert E. Lee in glowing terms and equated the South\u2019s rebellion to that of the American Revolution against England. Its subject line \u2014 \u201cThe Information that Validates President Trump on Charlottesville\u201d \u2014 was a reference to comments Mr. Trump made earlier this week in the aftermath of protests in the Virginia college town.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot be against General Lee and be for General Washington,\u201d the email reads, \u201cthere literally is no difference between the two men.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The contents of the email are at the heart of a roiling controversy over race and history that turned deadly last weekend in Charlottesville, where white nationalist groups clashed with protesters over the planned removal of a statue of Lee. An Ohio man with ties to white nationalist groups drove his car through a crowd, killing one woman and injuring many others, authorities say.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a fiery news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump blamed \u201cboth sides\u201d for that violence. He said many of those who opposed the statue\u2019s removal were good people protesting the loss of their culture, and he questioned whether taking down statues of Lee could lead to monuments of Washington also being removed.<\/span><\/p>\n

His words were widely criticized in Washington but were praised by white supremacists, including a former Ku Klux Klan leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Dowd received the email on Tuesday night and forwarded it on Wednesday morning to more than two dozen recipients, including a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, The Wall Street Journal editorial page and journalists at Fox News and The Washington Times. There is no evidence that any of the journalists used the contents of the email in their coverage. One of the recipients provided a copy to The New York Times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re sticking your nose in my personal email?\u201d Mr. Dowd told The Times in a brief telephone interview. \u201cPeople send me things. I forward them.\u201d He then hung up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The email\u2019s author, Jerome Almon, runs several websites alleging government conspiracies and arguing that the F.B.I. has been infiltrated by Islamic terrorists. He once unsuccessfully sued the State Department for $900 million over claims of discrimination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Almon\u2019s email said that Black Lives Matter, a group that formed to protest the use of force by police against African-Americans, is being directed by terrorists. Mr. Almon blamed the group for deadly violence against police last year in Texas and Louisiana.<\/span><\/p>\n

The email\u2019s comparison of secessionists to the nation\u2019s Founding Fathers echoes an early Confederate rallying cry, said Judith Giesberg, a Villanova University historian and editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era. Washington\u2019s face appeared on Confederate money, she said, and secessionists were eager to place their rebellion in the context of the American Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first states to secede drew a straight line back to the Revolution,\u201d she said in a telephone interview. \u201cThey said they were the inheritors of this revolutionary tradition that traces back to Washington.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Almon listed several reasons Lee is no different from Washington. \u201cBoth rebelled against the ruling government,\u201d the email reads, adding, \u201cBoth saved America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Almon, who is black, said in his email to Mr. Dowd that the protesters should \u201cgo back to the ghettos and do raise their children and rebuild places like Detroit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a telephone interview, Mr. Almon said he sent the email to follow up on a phone call he had last week with Mr. Dowd. He said he had called to offer damaging information about James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and to provide other information about the Justice Department\u2019s ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Almon said he hoped Mr. Dowd would circulate his email.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping it would get in the hands of President Trump \u2014 I quite frankly hope he would review it right now because his presidency is on the line,\u201d Mr. Almon said in the interview. \u201cI don\u2019t believe the president is getting the correct advice or proper information. Someone reading what I sent to Dowd will view Robert E. Lee differently.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no evidence that Mr. Dowd sent the email to Mr. Trump. Other recipients include Washington lawyers and members of Mr. Dowd\u2019s family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Dowd circulated the email hours after the White House issued its own talking points to Republicans defending the president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president was entirely correct \u2014 both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility,\u201d the White House said. Those talking points, circulated on Tuesday night, did not address Mr. Trump\u2019s comments about Lee and Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

The email that Mr. Dowd forwarded, however, issues a full-throated endorsement of those comments. It declared that Lee \u201csaved America\u201d by opting to surrender rather than launch guerrilla attacks in the final days of the Civil War.<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Giesberg said it is true that Lee rejected such tactics, but his decision did not save America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a history I don\u2019t even recognize,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview, Mr. Almon said he is not a Republican and that he does not reflexively support Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m against racism,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Almon said that he had also provided information about the F.B.I. to the office of Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

An email Mr. Almon provided to The Times showed that he had been in communication in March with Mr. Nunes\u2019 office. There is no evidence that Mr. Nunes circulated that email.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/16\/us\/politics\/trump-lawyer-email-race-charlottesville.html?mcubz=0<\/span><\/p>\n

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