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Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
, 13 tweets, 8 min read Read on Twitter
A sadly long <thread>

I published this article (with the brilliant @jgeltzer) assessing specific ways in which President Trump has undercut the U.S. intelligence community.

It's important to take a step back, and examine the record.

A 'top 10' list...
justsecurity.org/66035/the-patt…
1. Top of the list:

Trump’s many acts (documented in Mueller Report) trying to impede the criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election—in pursuit of his own political interests and despite the FBI's efforts to nab Russians.

justsecurity.org/64362/muellers…
2. Helsinki. Trump sided with Putin over US intel agencies

WSJ editorial harshly criticized POTUS under headline, “The Trump First Doctrine.”

“joint press conference was a personal and national embarrassment”
“kowtow to the Kremlin”
“weak and dangerous”
wsj.com/articles/the-t…
3. Trump lambasted intelligence chiefs—Coats, Haspel, Wray—for their honest and reliable testimony on Iran, Russia, North Korea

Trump tweets: they were “wrong!” “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

Very good report by @PeterAtlantic @wstrobel
wsj.com/articles/trump…
4. Trump attempted to appoint John Ratcliffe—a man with little experience in intelligence but a proven record as political wingman for Trump—to head apolitical Office of Director of National Intelligence.

Recommended read on that saga: @MaxBoot's analysis
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
5. President Trump exposes intelligence products in an impulsive moment boasting to the Russians in the Oval Office about highly sensitive counterterrorism collection capabilities.

justsecurity.org/41046/flagrant…
5th continued:

@ronenbergman reported on the internal reaction within Israel’s intelligence services to Trump's revealing classified information to Russians.👇

nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opi…
6. Trump attempted to declassify large swaths of Russia counterintelligence investigation for political gain.

Subsequent reporting by @joshgerstein (@politico), @Tierney_Megan (@TPM), and others showed how this also undercut the DOJ in FOIA litigation.

politico.com/story/2018/09/…
7. Trump told briefer he believes Putin over the US intelligence community on threat of North Korean missiles.

Former Acting FBI Director Andy McCabe’s book👇

See also McCabe’s interview with @60Minutes's @ScottPelley:
8. Trump tweet apparently disclosed intelligence info (via overhead image of Iranian launch site) without agencies being given opportunity to consider the trade offs and express their equities.

Best report on this was by @amanda_m_macias @KevinWilliamB

cnbc.com/2019/08/30/tru…
9. After watching Fox & Friends, Trump sent out a tweet raising concerns about a US intelligence surveillance program that was up for reauthorization by Congress. Within 2 hours, Trump reversed himself with a second tweet.

Read @attackerman’s reporting:
thedailybeast.com/president-trum…
10. On first full day as president, Trump made inappropriately political remarks in front of CIA’s hallowed memorial to its fallen, effectively dragging the agency into partisan politics to a degree that discomfited its own personnel.

@RWPUSA's analysis: justsecurity.org/37033/trumps-c…
That's my top ten. Read the full article that @jgeltzer and I published (URL in first tweet). Did we miss any significant examples? Counterexamples?
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More from @rgoodlaw see all

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Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
A need for #CountryOverParty time.

Elected Republicans strongly rebuked President Trump when he rhetorically said (to @GStephanopoulos) that he'd take dirt from foreign power.

Now we know Pres. Trump actually tried to do it.

From NYT on June 13, 2019 👇
nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/…
@GStephanopoulos “If a public official is approached by a foreign government offering anything of value, the answer is no — whether it be money, opposition research,” said @LindseyGrahamSC who said he spoke with Mr. Trump on Thursday about the matter.

NYT, June 13, 2019
@GStephanopoulos @LindseyGrahamSC “I wouldn’t do it,” said Republican Senator @SenJoniErnst of Iowa. “I wouldn’t accept material like that.”

When a reporter noted that Mr. Trump said politicians do it all the time, she added firmly: “No, we don’t. Let’s stop there. No we don’t.”

NYT, June 13, 2019
Read 9 tweets
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Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
🚨🚨
“A whistleblower complaint about President Trump made by an intelligence official centers on UKRAINE”

WaPo scoop: washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Now you better read this @just_security backgrounder👇
Now that whistle blower complaint involves Ukraine, important to revisit Pence’s very odd response to question of quid pro quo and Giuliani asked by AP reporter (@colvinj) on Sept 2.

Eagle eye @violagienger spotted and analyzed VP Pence’s reply here:

justsecurity.org/66101/trump-an…
@colvinj @violagienger AP's @colvinj asked Pence a very pointed question on Sept 2, 2019 in Poland:

"Can you assure Ukraine that the hold-up of that money [U.S. security assistance] has absolutely nothing to do with efforts, including by Rudy Giuliani, to try to dig up dirt on the Biden family?"
Read 11 tweets
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Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
US Defense official told CNBC snapshot of Iran site “was included in a Friday intelligence briefing.”

So...

1. Iran (and other US adversaries) now know spy capabilities included in POTUS briefings

2. Next time Iran claims US drone was over airspace they’ll have a stronger hand
Here’s the CNBC report (by @amanda_m_macias @KevinWilliamB):

“A U.S. defense official told CNBC that the picture in Trump's tweet, which appeared to be a snapshot of a physical copy of the satellite image, was included in a Friday intelligence briefing.”
cnbc.com/2019/08/30/tru…
“Melissa Hanham ... believes that the resolution is so high, it may be beyond the physical limits at which satellites can operate.
...
That could mean it was taken by a drone or spy plane, though such a vehicle would be violating Iranian airspace.”
npr.org/2019/08/30/755…
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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Eli Clifton
@EliClifton
Yesterday’s @washingtonpost smear piece on @QuincyInst by @BrookingsInst fellow Jamie Kirchick has an interesting money-in-politics narrative buried inside. (And perhaps an undisclosed conflict of interest by the author.) <thread> washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Kirchick writes:

“Eli Clifton blames three Jewish billionaires for President Trump’s decision to exit the Iran nuclear deal.”

Two issues with that statement.
A.) I never identified their religion in the article he references.

Kirchick did.

I wrote about Sheldon Adelson, Paul Singer and Bernard Marcus because of their outsized roles in funding Trump’s campaign, his inauguration and the network of groups that opposed the Iran Deal.
Read 10 tweets
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Stu Cvrk
@STUinSD
Thread: News Summary from the Week that Was (4 – 10 August)

1. Let’s see what news stories the legacy media missed or obfuscated this past week in service of Democrats (apparently their main raison d'etre these days).
2. Let’s get started with an excellent piece that examines the devastation in large cities due to implementation of progressive policies over the years:

<quote>
2A. If there’s anything productive to come from his recent Twitter storm, President Trump’s recent crude attacks on Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings have succeeded in bring necessary attention to the increasingly tragic state of our cities.
Read 128 tweets
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Gaurav Sharma
@Gaurav1105
1/n: LENDING (business) IS NOT A FEATURE.

And yes, distribution of lending/credit products is a ‘feature’ in some platforms/products.

Lending (CREDIT) is a business with many complex moving parts.

#long #fintech #thread #lending
2/n: In fact “Lending (Credit) is older than money and FinTech.” (medium.com/@gaurav.sharma…)

There’re lot of tweets (within the FinTech community in India) about Whether 'lending is a feature' or not? So, let’s unpack that a bit..
3/n: True definition of Lender = Lending Money from own balance-sheet (i.e. skin in the game). The primary revenue here is Interest Income (Net Revenue from Funds), and margins computed basis NIM (Net Interest Margin) and COF (Cost of Funds).
Read 24 tweets
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Alamo_on_the_rise
@AlamoOnTheRise
Trump: Day 542
-Surrenders 2 Putin Before the World
-Russian National Charged w/Crime
-Rand Paul Spouts Russian narrative
-Pence Offered NK His "Mean Face"
-Judge Halts Deportation of Families
-Kushner Risked Lives of His Renters
-London Mayor Defends 'Trump Baby'
Add...
Day 647 since Donald Trump admitted to sexual assault — yet he’s still in the Oval Office
Add...
Day 499 of NO EVIDENCE produced by Trump that his phones were tapped by Obama. #fakenews #TrumpLies
Read 59 tweets
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Zach Everson
@Z_Everson
Trump Hotels' website still lists Trump SoHo New York among its properties in the Our Hotels menu. Select its name though to access its page and there's a message about it being renamed

bit.ly/2EPCSy1
National politics correspondent for Newsweek, Nina Burleigh, with a fun find on a TV above the bar at the Trump Hotel DC bit.ly/2E37QRR
Two errors in the 2nd graf of Breitbart's Trump Hotel DC article:
-holdings aren't out of @realDonaldTrump's hands: trust isn't blind & he can profit from it
-Trump Org told Congress it was estimating foreign receipts—not auto donating in full
bit.ly/2CpL7z2
Read 1562 tweets

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