Ever since the The Washington Post reported that Trump took possession of his interpreter’s notes after a private meeting with Putin, there has been some controversy over whether his interpreter, Marina Gross, should be called in to testify regarding what she heard during that meeting.
I have read what David Frum wrote and he does a good job laying out the pros and cons. One point brought up was that it may hinder candor in future ‘confidential’ foreign language meetings with heads of state. I would argue that only the guilty have something to hide and that when decisions are being made that will likely affect the lives of many, then the public has a right to at least have a record of what was discussed. For the sake of confidentiality, it may be guarded for a time, but eventually or on an as-needed basis those records need to exist for the sake of transparency and democracy.
He also brought up a code of confidentiality among spoken language interpreters. As a certified Sign Language interpreter of over 10 years, I take this seriously. However, it has always included a clause that the information was confidential unless called upon to testify, in which case all bets are off and whatever the interpreter heard can be used as evidence that a law was/was not broken. The same goes for lawyers and mental health therapists. Gross has an obligation to Trump as his interpreter, but she also has an obligation as a citizen if called upon to testify, to tell the truth for the sake of our country. She has a patriotic obligation to reveal whatever was discussed in order to aid congress in deciding whether Putin is Trump’s puppet master working to the detriment of our national interests, which unfortunately is a real possibility.
This is not to say that her testimony will definitely provide a ‘smoking gun’, but it will at least help provided pieces to the very important puzzle of whether our president is recklessly lining his pockets in exchange for providing favors to one of United States’ greatest enemies of today.
Imagine a greedy CEO, with a history of neglect for the rules and law, going into a secret meeting with a hedge fund boss. Wouldn’t it be fair to know what was said, especially if there is a clear suspicion that both individuals are profiting from the decline of the company?
“Democracy dies in the dark” is something we need to be even more afraid of during this presidency, therefore we must do whatever we can, including subpoenaing the English <> Russian language interpreter, to illuminate our way out of this darkening hole.
