On May 15, the Toronto Star ran an article on the front page by AP quoting James Clapper: "U.S. democracy 'under assault' from Trump and Russia, former intelligence director says."

"I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally – and that's the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system," said James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence. "I think as well our institutions are under assault internally."

When he was asked, "Internally, from the president?" Clapper said, "Exactly."

Clapper lied to Congress in 2013 when he said "no, sir" and "not wittingly" to a question about whether the National Security Agency was collecting "any type of data at all" on millions of Americans.

Clapper and others who the media know have lied should have lost all credibility, yet the Associated Press and other media outlets trot them out as sources as long as they are willing to trash Trump.

Democracy is in danger because the NSA surveilled and collected data on millions of Americans, when the Obama administration and the FBI start surveilling and investigating political opponents at least five months before the election and selectively unmasking private citizens' names and when the FBI and Justice let high-level officials skate on the nation's security laws while prosecuting others for low-level violations.

Our democracy is in danger not because the president fired FBI director Comey, who, along with A.G. Loretta Lynch, chose not to prosecute Hillary and her aides for multiple violations of the nation's security laws.

As for Russia, there is nothing at all to show that Russia influenced the results of the election or that Trump and his associates colluded with Russia.  Why would Putin have wanted Trump over Hillary, who, along with her staff, had many close ties with Russia?  It appears that all the investigations are searching for violations of the law instead of investigating actual violations of the law.