I realize this is a controversial effort, and there are a large number of users who are against it. Everyone has the right to use their stake however they want though, and there are several large stakeholders that I am in direct communication with who support the effort. I can't control people's auto voting, but users are allowed to use their stake that way if they wish.

I'm not sure what trust has to do with this. 100% of the funds are being directed back into the DAO. It is 100% verifiable on the blockchain. The only reason I am doing/supporting this is because I believe it is one of the best things we can do with the reward pool funds to increase the value of HIVE.

I was against freezing Justin Sun's stake. I did support blocking his account from voting for witnesses because of the security risk it posed to the chain, but I did not believe it was right for witnesses to freeze anybody's assets. That is still my position today. I have always believed that the best solution was for the two parties to try and work things out, and if that was not possible, then to go their separate ways (i.e. fork).