October 28, 2016 Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier Chairman-in-Office Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Wallnerstrasse 6 1010 Vienna, Austria Dame Audrey Glover Head of OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission (EOM), United States of America Washington, DC [via email] Dear Chairman Steinmeier and Dame Glover: I am writing to provide you with relevant information regarding several recent irregularities of the 2016 U.S. election vis-à-vis the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) inventory of election-related norms, commitments, principles, and good practices. I believe this may significantly assist the ongoing work of your Election Observation Mission (EOM) in the United States. I am not currently affiliated with any political campaign, but the continued personal attacks by the “Hillary for America” campaign against me based on completely fabricated, inaccurate information help to clearly demonstrate these violations.
1
Although many aspects of this year’s election are under question, I suspect you may find the facts in my case to be among the most egregious abuses of core democratic principles. Paragraph 7.1 of the 2003 Inventory of OSCE Commitments and Other Principles for Democratic Elections summarizes the cornerstone violation of democratic norms which have been damaged in this instance: “The participating States reaffirm that [1] everyone will have the right to freedom of expression including the right to communication. This right will include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
2
On July 7, 2016, I gave a university lecture before members of the academic community at the New Economic School in Moscow based on my past scholarly research. This visit to the
1
Among the most recent, see “Hillary for America” press release of October 19, 2016. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factchecks/2016/10/19/15-facts-about-donald-trumps-deeply-unsetting-russia-problem-and-wikileaks/
2
OSCE/ODIHR, “Existing Commitments for Democratic Elections in OSCE Participating States, a Progress Report,” 6 October 2003, 17. [“Incorporates parts of Copenhagen Document Paragraph 9 concerning the rights of free expression (including communication), peaceful assembly and demonstration, and association.”]
territory of the OSCE member state Russia was outside of my role with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign at the time and I made clear on multiple occasions that my speech did not necessarily reflect the views of anyone other than myself. Nonetheless, the new ideas in my presentation unexpectedly led to significant interest among Russian, European and American observers since it reflected a major departure from recent policy approaches which have in my opinion severely damaged security and cooperation in Europe throughout recent decades. As retribution for these new ideas, on August 27, 2016, the Democratic Leader of the U.S. Senate Harry Reid sent a letter to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations James Comey calling for a personal investigation of me based on the following incorrect statement: “Questions have been raised about whether a Trump advisor who has been highly critical of US. and European economic sanctions on Russia, and who has conflicts of interest due to investments in Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom, met with high-ranking sanctioned individuals while in Moscow in July of 2016, well after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. (The same individual recently broke precedent by giving a speech critical of US. policy while in Moscow.).”
3
This clear instance of suppression of dissent stands as an obvious attempt to silence me on an important issue of national and international consequence. As noted in the 2003 Inventory of OSCE Commitments for Democratic Elections, paragraph 7.10, “States should provide an adequate opportunity, on an equitable and non-discriminatory basis, for election contestants to inform the public about their candidacies and political programmes, including through the state media.” In keeping with the longstanding Cold War-era paranoia about Russia and although my academic lecture had no connection to the U.S. election, the discriminatory press reports against me reached proportions not seen since the 1950’s based on baseless and defamatory assertions made by the Clinton campaign. In this regard, a particularly outrageous news article on September 23 was almost entirely attributable to the "Hillary for America” campaign: “But U.S. officials have since received intelligence reports that during that same three-day trip, Page met with Igor Sechin, a longtime Putin associate and former Russian deputy prime minister who is now the executive chairman of Rosneft, Russian’s leading oil company, a well-placed Western intelligence source tells Yahoo News. That meeting, if confirmed, is viewed as especially problematic by U.S. officials because the Treasury Department in August 2014 named Sechin to a list of Russian officials and businessmen sanctioned over Russia’s “illegitimate and unlawful actions in the Ukraine.” (The Treasury announcement described Sechin as ‘utterly loyal to Vladimir Putin — a key component to his current standing.’ At their alleged meeting, Sechin raised the issue of the lifting of sanctions with Page, the Western intelligence source said. “U.S. intelligence agencies have also received reports that Page met with another top Putin aide while in Moscow — Igor Diveykin. A former Russian security official, Diveykin now serves as deputy chief for internal policy and is believed by U.S.
3
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3035844/Reid-Letter-to-Comey.pdf
officials to have responsibility for intelligence collected by Russian agencies about the U.S. election, the Western intelligence source said.”
4
On countless occasions over the months prior, many other journalists from some of the leading news agencies in the U.S. had contacted me to ask about precisely these same two meeting allegations. A few of those whom I pressed to provide some basis or source for these outrageous lies disclosed that it was the “Hillary for America” campaign which originally suggested it to them. Although most of these reporters avoided the persuasion to take this false bait, at last the Clinton campaign achieved their goal by finding a compliant media ally and put out an equally false press release just minutes after the aforementioned article was released that afternoon.
5
Since these lies by the “Hillary for America” organization related to a trip that was completely unrelated to my prior activities in support of the Trump campaign, I decided to take a break from this movement on September 25 so that I could more effectively fight these allegations independently and not create a further distraction for my colleagues. As per paragraph 7.5 of the 2003 Inventory of OSCE Commitments, “States shall provide, through the state media and other means, for effective programmes of voter information and education.” The opposite has been the case for information put forward by the “Hillary for America” organization against me and subsequently supported by the anonymous “U.S. officials” as quoted in the sample article of September 23, above. As noted by the OSCE: “With respect to freedom of expression during elections, the European Court of Human Rights has called for governments to ‘display restraint’ and to accept that even offensive, shocking, and disturbing speech can contribute to pluralism and must usually be tolerated in a democratic society. This is especially true during electoral campaigns and of speech that ‘targets’ government authorities, elected officials, and candidates for office.”
6
Notwithstanding these basic human rights principles, I have included my July Moscow speech for reference as an Appendix. I am confident you will agree that it is not offensive, shocking, or disturbing in any way, except perhaps from the perspective of those hawkish parties which maintain a preference for what I have previously pointed out to be failed interventionist approaches. For example, the segment on “Redefining policies of unilateral disrespect, inequality and unsanctioned intervention: The foundations of outside influence in Central Asia” in my Moscow speech (in the Appendix, below). In summary, such partisan manoeuvres stand contrary to the previously cited OSCE Principles for Democratic Elections, namely: “Freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
4
Michael Isikoff, “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin,” Yahoo News, September 23, 2016.
5
Hillary for America, “Hillary for America Statement on Bombshell Report About Trump Aide’s Chilling Ties To Kremlin,” September 23, 2016. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/statements/2016/09/23/hillary-for-america-statement-on-bombshell-report-about-trump-aides-chilling-ties-to-kremlin/
6
OSCE/ODIHR, “Existing Commitments,” 2003, 69-70.