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It’s important to protect our election infrastructure against sabotage, whether from inside or outside the country. But I’m not cheering Trump’s executive order declaring a national emergency to deal with the threat of foreign interference. Here’s why. 1/7
By declaring a national emergency and invoking IEEPA, Trump has given the government the power to freeze the assets of, prohibit any financial transactions with, and bar even humanitarian aid to any person who is “designated” by specified administration officials. 2/7
People who can be “designated” include foreign persons, including those in the U.S., who act *indirectly* on behalf of someone who materially *assists* someone who is *indirectly* “complicit” in foreign interference. Things get pretty attenuated pretty quickly here. 3/7
How will these people be identified? If past IEEPA practice is precedent, it will happen through a secretive procedure that is utterly lacking in due process. 4/7
Designees will have no real notice of why they’ve been designated and no meaningful opportunity to challenge the designation. Even if they sue in court, they won’t even be allowed to see much of the evidence the government is relying on. 5/7
Also, under the order, “foreign interference” includes “covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation” by foreign governments or people acting on their behalf. So that means Trump administration officials will be deciding what is truth, and what is “disinformation.” 6/7
It would be theoretically possible to implement this order narrowly and responsibly. But it could also be used to go after foreigners inside the U.S. engaged in legitimate election-related activity that the administration doesn’t like. Is anyone really betting on option #1? 7/7
