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*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*

It is becoming increasingly clear that among Republicans holding political office, there are thus far only two senators that can be considered patriots. A loose, but apropos, the definition of a patriot is any person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors in good times and bad. Conversely, there are clear signs that many in the Republican movement are culpable of giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies; what 18 U.S. Code § 2381 considers “Treason:”

“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”

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Of course this issue of “treason” is about more than dishonest Donald Trump’s close affiliation with and stated intent to “adhere to America’s enemies and give the Russians aid;” it is also about the Republicans who aided the Russians to interfere with America’s democracy. The aid to an enemy was in not alerting the American public of a hostile foreign power’s involvement in electing an acknowledged “friend” of Russia, one who may be an American citizen, but has absolutely no sense of “allegiance to the United States.”

First, if anyone has any idea that Trump is not intent on “giving aid and comfort” to Russia just look at dirty Don’s proposed selection of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Tillerson has close ties, and owes allegiance, to Russian President Vladimir Putin; a dictator Tillerson considers a friend he has known for over two decades. Tillerson is regarded as such a friend to Russia that Putin awarded him the country’s Order of Friendship in 2013; the year prior to Washington’s relationship breakdown with Moscow over Putin’s aggressive annexation of Crimea and its “shadow war” in Ukraine. An aggression Trump condones and hinted that if he was elected then America would help Putin expedite his conquests by abandoning its European allies.

One thing is crystal clear with Tillerson; his allegiance is not to America any more than Trump’s is and that includes the Republicans who knew about Russia working with the Trump campaign to put a traitor in the White House. And yes, any American whose allegiance is to a foreign power hostile to the United States is a traitor, and by extension is guilty of treason; including those who knew about the Trump-Russia campaign collaboration and aided it with their silence.

However bad a traitor dastardly Don is, the issue of the Republicans who knew about the Russian interference and kept their mouths shut makes them complicit; and they are guilty of another federal crime including Senate Majority Leader Mitch “Benedict Arnold” McConnell as reported here. According to 18 U.S. Code § 4 – Misprision of felony:

“Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

Even if McConnell was unaware that, with Russia’s assistance, Trump would win the election and immediately put a Putin BFF in charge of the State Department, he did know that an adversarial foreign power was in contact with Trump’s campaign and that they stole American data to put their “comrade” in the White House.

For dog’s sake, if it is against federal law to solicit campaign donations from foreign entities, something Trump did with impunity, then it is undoubtedly treason to coordinate with a foreign power to hijack America’s democracy in a bloodless coup d’état of America’s government.

Besides traitors Trump, McConnell, FBI Director James Comey, and Trump’s campaign staffers, one-time New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump confidante and ally, knew about the illegal Russian involvement in Trump’s campaign and its theft of America’s property. In fact, according to a Politico article, Giuliani said before the revelation Clinton emails were stolen, “The Russians have those emails, they’ve had them for some time.” There is only one way Giuliani knew the Russians had the stolen emails and was going to pass them to their paid operatives in Wikileaks; the Trump campaign knew despite their lying claims to the contrary.

Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the “Democratic Coalition” stated the obvious:

“Rudy Giuliani stated that he knew the Russians had hacked into and stole property that belonged to Secretary Clinton, it doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that. It’s not surprising that someone so close to Trump’s campaign would have knowledge of the attacks perpetrated at the hand of a foreign government.”

Just the concept of any American not being absolutely outraged over a statement such as a citizen having knowledge of attacks “at the hand of a foreign government” is honestly unbelievable. This is particularly true when after months of reports of “suspected” involvement of a foreign government, America’s intelligence community verified what Trump, McConnell, FBI Director Comey, Rudy Giuliani and Trump staffers knew all along; Russians were intimately involved in helping their comrade Trump win the election to garner “aid and comfort” from a cabal of traitors who should be arrested, prosecuted and convicted of treason; the only crime the Founders actually defined in the U.S. Constitution.