To the Editor:

Are we a nation governed by the rule of law or by Trump’s fantasy lies? Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, and his Tea Party Republican colleagues seem to favor lies over law. They persist in attacking the rule of law and making excuses for Trump via lies and misrepresentations on Fox “News” propaganda.

Meadows introduced a bill to “investigate the investigators” that actually attacks hard-working FBI agents who are trying to do their job in the face of constant spurious accusations. What we need is legislation that would provide resources to learn all we can about the Russian meddling in the past election and finding ways of preventing such attacks on our republic. Instead Meadows and fellow Republicans are doing all they can to hinder any and all investigations instead of protecting our elections.

The latest distraction was for House Republicans to demand access to the memos James Comey used to document his interactions with President Trump. The memos were delivered to the Republicans, and within hours the entire trove of documents was leaked to the press. Compare this to the persecution of Andrew McCabe, whom Republicans are trying to prosecute for releasing information he had the authority to release. McCabe’s biggest “crime” is having a wife who ran for office as a Democrat.

As the special prosecutor’s investigation gathers more and more evidence and gets confessions and indictments, both House and Senate leaders refuse to take steps to guarantee that the investigation will not be stopped by Trump. Instead they have people in charge of committees to supposedly also investigate the Russian hacking of our elections who seem committed to covering up as much as they can.

For example, Paul Ryan kept Rep. Nunes as head of the House Intelligence Committee even though Nunes as a member of the Trump transition had a clear conflict of interest. Nunes would not require witnesses to testify before the committee and terminated its investigation before the might have discovered something. This is the same Nunes who had endless investigations of Hillary Clinton without ever getting sound evidence of any wrongdoing.

Republicans have long claimed to be the “Law and Order” party. Apparently that only applies if your skin color is other than white or your party affiliation is something other than Republican. It is high time that Rep. Meadows and his fellow Republicans in Congress start looking after the public’s business and our national security. Russian hackers tried to influence the last election and are likely to do so again this year. This is a clear attack on our system of government. It would seem that Republicans feel that since the Russians favored Trump in 2016 that means the meddling is OK. Maybe they think the Russian hackers will also help Republicans seeking office in the House and Senate this year.

It is high time that Republicans and so-called conservatives start putting country over ideology and petty partisanship. Republicans used to be a party with high integrity. Sadly, Republicans currently in Congress do not seem to share that trait.

Norman Hoffmann

Waynesville