Photo Credits (c) 2016 Harold Michael Harvey
Jill Stein, the 2016 Green Party Presidential candidate, says she welcomes a chance to testify before Congress concerning a dinner she attended in Russian during a December 2015 trip abroad. At this dinner, former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian President Vladimir Putin were seated across the table from her.
Flynn later was fired from his position as head of NSA when revelations were uncovered that he had lied to Vice President Pence concerning whether he had failed to disclose this meeting with Putin and other top ranking Russian officials.
The Green Party nominee was drawn into this foreign intrigue when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed out that Stein attended this same dinner.
Stein immediately stated that unlike Flynn she did not receive any compensation for her attendance at this dinner and was unaware that Putin would be present.
“I was there on a peace mission with a message that very few American or Russian officials wanted to hear,” Stein told a group of Green Party supporters last month in Atlanta, Georgia.
She was in town to address the Georgia Greens state convention at Georgia Perimeter College.
Following her address to a small contingent of Greens at a private reception in Atlanta’s Little Five Points community, her followers wanted to know if she was willing to testify before congress.
“Yes,” Stein said, nodding her head when a woman asked if she would swear under oath at a congressional hearing about her trip to Russia.
“No one from Congress has gotten in touch with me, but I will be willing to testify. I would welcome a chance to testify,” Stein said to applause from her constituents.
“They probably don’t want you to testify,” someone shouted in the room.
“I would love to tell congress about my peace mission to Russia and Paris during that trip abroad. I would like to testify about problems with ballot access and to discuss a need for a paper ballot system,” Stein said.
Many rank and file progressive Democrats, still smarting from last year’s election loss, question whether Stein is telling the truth when she denies receiving money from the Russians and colluding with them to throw the 2016 Presidential election to Donald Trump.
These critics have called for an FBI probe into possible collusion between the Stein and Trump campaigns with the Russians.
Meanwhile, Stein waits for an invitation to testify under oath before one or several congressional committees holding hearings on the issue of Russian collusion in American presidential politics.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changers Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com
Okay Harold Michael Harvey, this is about to get real interesting!!!
Yes it is. I was wondering why there had been recent interest in this story and a couple of others that I had written about Stein and Russia in the past few days. Now it is all a little clearer to me. Also, I got a twitter follower in Russian with the hashtag followme, which of course, I did not follow back.