To the Readers’ Forum:

As someone who has twice had the privilege of serving on a jury, I was saddened to read U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy’s recent press release on the verdict in the Trump trial (https://langworthy.house.gov/media/press-releases/langworthy-statement-verdict-trump-trial ).

Langworthy alleges that “a corrupt prosecutor, a corrupt judge, and a corrupt jury conspired to undermine our democracy in a manner more fitting of a banana republic than the United States of America.”

Both times I served as a juror, I took my responsibilities very seriously and was impressed with how my fellow jurors were doing the same. I have seen nothing to suggest that the jurors in President Donald Trump’s case were behaving any less responsibly toward the evidence and instructions they were given.

If Congressman Langworthy has any actual evidence to support the charges of corruption and conspiracy he levels against these twelve anonymous jurors, I urge him to present it immediately. If not, I believe he owes a prompt and public apology to the 12 citizens he has so recklessly maligned simply for performing their civic duty.

Only after Nov. 5 will we know whether Mr. Langworthy is correct that the people will “vote to send Trump back to the White House.” But I hope on that date my fellow citizens of the 23rd Congressional District will agree that Congress, like juries, needs members who can commit to being responsible citizens first and political partisans second.

Langworthy’s unsupported and potentially dangerous allegations against 12 individuals he doesn’t even know make it clear he is not suited to either task.

Rich Bartell,

Dunkirk