Thread by @karolcummins

‼️Kav & the Elián González Case.

What should have been a relatively straight forward child custody matter, became a horrendous political war.

Tragic Elian a pawn.

Chaos & division whipped up & manipulated by political operatives = provokatsiya.

📌Stone/Kav Production

To understand this case, you have to take the way-back machine to the final year of the Clinton adm

Unlike today, the hard right and their base thought:

👉🏼Communism/Stalinism was bad,

👉🏼Clinton & Reno were very bad, b/c:

👉🏼Clinton = DEM Admin
Janet Reno = Rule of Law

Hard Right & Year 2000:

👉🏼Illegal border crossings/immigration were good (if you were leaving a communist country or wanted to work in the fields picking tomatos), &

👉🏼The Cuban community in = virulently anti-Castro.

📌Roger Stone lights match
newyorker.com/magazine/2008/…

🏵Facts of the Case🏵

👉🏼Elián’s mother Elizabeth Brotons kidnapped him from Cuba & put him in a boat to get him away from her husband & go live with her relatives in FL.  

👉🏼Tragically, the boat sank and she drowned.

📌Chronology:
nytimes.com/2000/04/14/us/…

The anti-Castro activists hired Kavanaugh and some other attorneys to portray this NOT as a relatively straight forward domestic violence/kidnap/child endangerment/human trafficking/immigration fraud case ending in tragedy....
bradenton.com/news/politics-…

But rather a ‘valiant escape from the dirty brain washing commies’ therefore per GOP operatives the US gov’t must grant permanent in order to honor the mother's sacrifice.

📌Wut? What contrast to today!

📌Enter Sean Hannity & the RW media machine:
nypost.com/2000/04/03/how…

📌Roger Stone obtained a contact list of activists who had been working on the González case.

“We used the list to turn out crowds whenever we wanted,” Stone said.

“We were telephoning the sh*t out of all the appropriate demographics.”

📌See a pattern?
newyorker.com/magazine/2008/…

Dueling Marches on Cuban Boy Get Different Responses

📌Provokatsiya needs two sides to ignite conflict & chaos.
nytimes.com/2000/01/30/us/…

📌Side #1:

About 200 mostly Cuban-American women, dressed in black & white, w/ white ribbons attached to their shirts and carrying white roses, stopped traffic in downtown Miami as they marched and prayed in memory of Elian’s mother Elizabet Brotons.
nytimes.com/2000/01/30/us/…

📌Side #2:

80 blocks north, nearly 200 men & women demonstrated beside the Miami offices of the INS to urge the Clinton adm to wrest the boy from the great-uncle who is keeping him here & to return him to his father in Cuba.
nytimes.com/2000/01/30/us/…

📌Are you seeing a familiar pattern yet?

📌Can you see Roger Stone & Roger Stone lite ”Spuds McKavanaugh” acolyte of Rove/Starr & alumni of Monica L , Vince Foster scandals whipping up wild conspiracies & virulent anti Clinton/Gore Admin false narratives/propaganda with glee?

Here is a taste of the right wing media machine spin if you are brave:😱
townhall.com/columnists/hum…

📌Elian’s father Juan Miguel González (who then lived in Cuba) was represented by Greg Craig, who had represented Bill Clinton in the Impeachment hearings re Monica Lewinski.

nytimes.com/2000/04/04/us/…

📌Side note:

👉🏼Gregory Craig is currently under investigation for unlawful foreign lobbying by federal prosecutors in New York in connection with his lobbying work with Tony Podesta & Paul Manafort.

📌Funny how familiar characters keep popping up?🤔
wtop.com/national/2018/…

Janet Reno wasn't having any of Kavanaugh’s arguments (the commies are bad & dangerous people & this poor migrant child deserves to be allowed to live in the US in honor of his mother) & awarded custody of Elian to his closest blood relative, his father.
articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/22/ne…

📌The ensuing controversy & media circus.

THE ELIAN GONZALEZ CASE: THE POLITICS; While Conservatives and Liberals React, Gore and Bush Hedge on Ruling
nytimes.com/2000/06/02/us/…

"I believe that reuniting Elian with his father is not only a matter of federal law.

It is not a matter of immigration law. It is simply the right thing to do," said DAG Eric Holder.

Elian had a "close & continuous relationship" w/ his father.
theguardian.com/world/2000/jun…

📌However the Miami Cubans became enraged at the Clinton/Gore adm & Janet Reno’s decision (whipped up by Stone, Kavanaugh & GOP operatives?) & then false allegations of child abuse flew which prolonged the litigation.

📌Dirty tricks & more provokatsiya.
theguardian.com/world/2000/apr…

📌Kavanaugh lost the appeal:

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled unanimously that the INS had the power to decide that ONLY A PARENT can act for such a young child in immigration proceedings.

nytimes.com/2000/06/02/us/…

📌But of course more controversy & delay:

''We have not concluded, we're going to keep fighting for Elian's freedom,'' said Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great uncle and the man who defied federal orders to give up the boy.

nytimes.com/2000/06/02/us/…

Custody tug of war over Elian ensued. Angry protests ensued with protesters targeting their angst at the Clinton Admin & Janet Reno.

Don’t forget FL is a ‘carry’ state, many protestors were armed.

📌How convenient for the Kav/Stone/RW operatives.

nytimes.com/2000/04/14/us/…

Reno presented a carefully worded ultimatum for the Miami relatives who had fought to keep Elian in the US:

Reno warned them, they must comply with her order to cooperate in the child's return to the care of his father, who had flown to the US.
chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-20…

Evading protestors camped out at the court house, a warrant was obtained late in the evening.

No one was told Reno’s office had obtained a warrant (sort of like a sealed indictment).

📌Tribe & Dershowitz squawked, but quieted once the facts bore out.

nytimes.com/2000/04/25/opi….

📌Here are Durshowitz’s right wing talking points:

Dershowitz: Clinton-Reno Acted 'Lawlessly

📌Sound familiar? Tribe + Dershowitz = Horseshoe illustrated.
cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y…

‼️Let’s not forget the Hannity spin:

Sean Hannity said Elian’s possible return to Cuba as a case of “raping and stealing a boy’s mind … owned by the state and Castro and exposed to brainwashing.”

📌This whole ordeal was likely an op, don’t you think?
nypost.com/2000/04/03/how…

The Uncle’s defiance led to a raid on April 22 in which federal agents safely removed the boy from the uncle's home and took him to Maryland, where he was reunited with his father.

📌No one was hurt, tho some protesters blocking entry were pepper sprayed.
nytimes.com/2000/06/02/us/…

The guns drawn raid was controversial, but remember FL is an open carry state and armed defiance was anticipated.

The raid was carried out, no one was injured in the process.
nytimes.com/2000/04/23/us/…

📌Self-serving politicians are grasping this opportunity for the limelight, even if it involves the destruction of a boy's emotional well-being and the anguish of his father.
washingtonpost.com/archive/opinio…

📌Kavanaugh has never been a committed conservative, but rather a radical hard right political operative groomed by Karl Rove.

📌He is Roger Stone lite packing a law degree
newsweek.com/karl-rove-bret…

Bottom line is what should have been a fairly straight forward child custody matter, was turned into a protracted highly charged political op by (likely foreign agents) & radical RW operatives, which ignored the well being of the child who had suffered so many traumas.

What I also find remarkable is the dramatic about face the hard right made in terms of immigration. What a change a couple decades make! Although GOP were not quite open to giving Elian citizenship status.
washingtontimes.com/news/2000/jan/…

Now the hard right separate families, put immigrant children in cages & rail against illegal immigrants escaping violence & who only want safety & opportunity to work at any job, despite many hardships for a chance at the American Dream.
washingtonpost.com/news/fact-chec…

‼️The GOP don’t want Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court because he’s conservative.

👉🏼They want him on the Supreme Court because he’s compromised.

📌End
medium.com/@gregolear/the…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you

After leaving Starr’s team, Kavanaugh worked in private practice, where in 2000, he worked PRO BONO on the legal team for the Miami family of Elian Gonzalez, who wanted the boy to be allowed to stay in America, rather than with his father in Cuba. .

foxnews.com/politics/clint…

Addendum:

📌Who financed Kavanaugh’s ‘PRO BONO work on the Elian Gonzalez case—perhaps December 1999 to April 2000?

cc: @SpicyFiles @ninaandtito ?
foxnews.com/politics/clint…