To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Save the Department of Justice and our democracy from Russian Influence
SENATORS: Please choose to go down in history as persons with courage who had the strength to put country ahead of party.
Vote NO to the confirmation of Benczkowski as nominee for Director of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
Vote NO to the confirmation of Benczkowski as nominee for Director of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
Why is this important?
In this time of our ongoing cyber-war with Russia in which Russia is actively hacking our voter rolls and manipulating social media to create dissension in our country to weaken our democracy, it is especially important that the director of the criminal division of the Department of Justice HAVE NO CURRENT OR PREVIOUS TIES TO RUSSIA. In light of all his multiple Russian related investigations currently underway, for Trump to nominate Brian Benczkowski, a man with strong ties to Russia,** is a suspicious decision. To approve him would be unwise, unsafe, and compromise the independence of the Mueller investigation. IT THEREBY RISKS THE FUTURE OF OUR DEMOCRACY.
***Note the following suspicious connections and concerns regarding Benczkowski, as well as Benczkowski’s cavalier and reckless responses when asked about issues related to the Mueller investigations:
1. Benczkowski worked on the Trump campaign and transition from September 2016 to January 2017.
2. Benczkowski admits to representing Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions with purported ties to Putin, in their effort to sue BuzzFeed over publishing the Trump-Russia dossier.
3. Benczkowski represented Russia's Alfa Bank until June 6 — the day he was formally nominated to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, even though Attorney General Jeff Sessions first approached him about the Justice Department position in April.
4. Benczkowski's additional work for Alfa Bank "went to the heart of the reported [FBI] investigations" (per Diane Fienstein) into the bank's involvement in unusual computer server activity with the Trump Organization during the election.
5. Alfa Bank's server repeatedly looked up the contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organization [during the election] — far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all lookups to the Trump server." Mr. Benczkowski said the bank hired his firm, Kirkland & Ellis, after additional odd data transmissions were detected in February and March, and that he oversaw an American computer security company’s work analyzing that traffic. Asked why he did not also have the firm look at data reaching back to last fall, Mr. Benczkowski disclosed that Alfa Bank had not retained its server traffic data from September to January because it was too voluminous.
6. After he found out about his potential nomination in April 2017, he continued his representation of Alfa Bank until his actual nomination in June 2017.
7. Diane Feinstein stated that it was "clear" to her that Benczkowski had knowledge of issues related to the ongoing investigation and therefore asked him if he would commit to recusing himself from cases involving Alfa Bank and matters involving Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's election interference. Benczkowski would not commit to recusing himself.
***Note the following suspicious connections and concerns regarding Benczkowski, as well as Benczkowski’s cavalier and reckless responses when asked about issues related to the Mueller investigations:
1. Benczkowski worked on the Trump campaign and transition from September 2016 to January 2017.
2. Benczkowski admits to representing Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions with purported ties to Putin, in their effort to sue BuzzFeed over publishing the Trump-Russia dossier.
3. Benczkowski represented Russia's Alfa Bank until June 6 — the day he was formally nominated to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, even though Attorney General Jeff Sessions first approached him about the Justice Department position in April.
4. Benczkowski's additional work for Alfa Bank "went to the heart of the reported [FBI] investigations" (per Diane Fienstein) into the bank's involvement in unusual computer server activity with the Trump Organization during the election.
5. Alfa Bank's server repeatedly looked up the contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organization [during the election] — far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all lookups to the Trump server." Mr. Benczkowski said the bank hired his firm, Kirkland & Ellis, after additional odd data transmissions were detected in February and March, and that he oversaw an American computer security company’s work analyzing that traffic. Asked why he did not also have the firm look at data reaching back to last fall, Mr. Benczkowski disclosed that Alfa Bank had not retained its server traffic data from September to January because it was too voluminous.
6. After he found out about his potential nomination in April 2017, he continued his representation of Alfa Bank until his actual nomination in June 2017.
7. Diane Feinstein stated that it was "clear" to her that Benczkowski had knowledge of issues related to the ongoing investigation and therefore asked him if he would commit to recusing himself from cases involving Alfa Bank and matters involving Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's election interference. Benczkowski would not commit to recusing himself.