This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
This is a response to George Ekdahl's recent letter to The Tribune suggesting that Ed Firmage, in his op-ed on April 9, and Democrats in general were "pouting" and "coming up with excuses" (about what he doesn't state). He also claims "the FBI, Congress and other agencies" have failed to produce any facts that there was a collaborative connection between Donald Trump's team and the Russians.
How would Ekdahl know, since neither the FBI, nor the House Intelligence Committee, nor the Senate Intelligence Committee have made their reports yet? Ekdahl mistakes his own conclusions for those of the investigators — his wishes for facts. Or has he received information from an unidentified leaker by chance?
The same kind of error occurs with his reference to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Ekdahl offers that Clapper "found no evidence of collusion between the Trump team and the Russians." He forgets to say that in his March 6 interview, Clapper also said the investigation "got to the bottom of the evidence to the extent of the evidence we had at the time." He added that he did not know whether further evidence from other investigations would "be revelatory." Neither does Ekdahl. Neither do I.
As to Susan Rice and her alleged misconduct as national security advisor — flash from NBC: Both Democratic and Republican congressional aides have agreed that Rice has done no wrong. No, sir, she did not need to "take the Fifth."
As to Ekdahl's statements about President Barack Obama's foreign policy decisions, these have no bearing on the above subjects, so I have no further comment other than to say that mistaking one's own desires for the truth can leave us in a fantasy world from which it can sometimes be difficult to escape.
Matthew Prosser
Salt Lake City