Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Otto Warmbier's parents respond to Trump: Kim Jong Un responsible for son's death nbcnews.com/news/us-news/c… via @NBCNews

A quick word on this:

Before absolving Kim Jong Un of Warmbier’s torture and death, Trump remarked, “Otto came back in a shape that was not even to be talked about.”

Let’s talk about it, because to gloss over unpleasant details is to whitewash.

As reported by my colleague @ByTimRyan:

"The first time Otto Warmbier’s family saw him after he returned to the United States following 18 months as a North Korean hostage, he was strapped to a gurney on a plane, thrashing and making a 'guttural howling' sound."

That's the lede of a report from a fact-finding hearing on the DPRK's responsibility, shortly after which a federal judge ordered the regime to pay $501 million to the Warmbier family.

Here's what the court heard before that ruling. courthousenews.com/court-hears-ta…

At the hearing, one expert testified:

* DPRK torturers likely forced Warmbier's confession during an “old-fashioned, Stalinist show trial.”
* DPRK likely used pliers to rearrange Warmbier's once-straight teeth.
* A scar on Warmbier's foot "consistent" with torture by electrodes

"Cynthia Warmbier, his mother, said ... his eyes reminded her of pictures she had seen of Holocaust victims."

North Korea claimed that Warmbier contracted botulism.

A question for the White House: Does President Trump agree with Kim Jong Un that Otto Warmbier died from botulism, or from these "barbaric acts," as described by a federal judge based on expert testimony?

You can read the judge's grim, 46-page ruling here: courthousenews.com/wp-content/upl…