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Ryan Goodman Profile picture
@rgoodlaw
Sep 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
Breakthrough journalism on US support for Saudi #WarCrimes in #YemenWar (NYT @laforgia_ @ewong).

Implicates Obama and Trump administrations' support.

Key item:

Trump admin. dropped conditions on Saudis with big result: US officials became liable for those war crimes.

THREAD
2. A mechanism for US officials to avoid personal liability for war crimes involved assurances/conditions placed on the arm sales.

But senior Trump State Dept officials apparently dropped that mechanism.

Inspector General August report showed the problem.

Then guess what...
3. The State Department buried a significant passage in Inspector General's report by moving the UNCLASSIFIED text to the classified annex.

the New York Times obtained the earlier draft text.
4. As that NYT excerpt shows, Marik String (State Dept's acting legal adviser) played a central role in all this.

Plus: "String tried to pressure Steve A. Linick, the inspector general, to drop his investigation."

String goes before Congress (#HFAC) on Weds

He'd be advised...
5. Marik String, the State Dept's top lawyer, would be well advised to get himself a personal attorney before testifying before Congress on his alleged role in US aiding and abetting Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

As professor @oonahathaway put it bluntly in New York Times report.👇
6. The U.S. support for Saudi-led Coalition's war crimes in Yemen War is an issue we've focused on @just_security.

NYT links to 3 Just Security articles:

@oonahathaway on missing State Dept Memo
Isa Qasim on conditions on US arms sales
Me on aiding and abetting liability

<end>

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More from @rgoodlaw

Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Nov 28
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

reporting by @AlexHortonTX @nakashimae Image
2/ "Killing any of the men in the boats 'amounts to murder,' said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign."

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
3/ "Even if the U.S. were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight 'would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,' said Huntley."
Read 7 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Nov 22
On patently unlawful boat strikes

Hard for USGs to claim ‘mistake of law’ or ‘advice of counsel’ – when they’re firing lawyers who wouldn't sign off on the strikes.

WaPo's new revelations on firing/removal:

CIA General Counsel
NSC Legal Adviser
CIA Mission Center’s lawyer
🧵 Image
2/ CIA Acting General Counsel, career lawyer, "was among those who had raised questions about the legality of the agency’s use of lethal force."

What happened next?

CIA Deputy Director Ellis took over as acting GC and still held his policy position. He then approved the ops. Image
3/ The National Security Counsel's Legal Adviser Paul Ney (who earlier served loyally as Trump 1.0 Pentagon General Counsel) "had been among the lawyers who had raised concerns about the legality of lethal strikes."

He was cast out in May. Image
Read 7 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Nov 21
A Thursday in U.S. courts

1) "This Court has grave concerns about the government’s apparent willingness to disregard this Court’s orders, even after previous admonition."

- Judge Stephanie Gallagher, Trump appointee, Nov. 20, 2025
2) "At some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that [U.S. Government] Defendants represent."

- Judge Sara Ellis, November 20, 2025
3) "There's no way to sugarcoat it, it was in defiance of my order."

- Judge Paula Xinis, November 20, 2025 (re Government witness in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case)

(via @JaredForetek)
law360.com/articles/24121…
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Nov 3
Today, Trump-Hegseth run out of time on War Powers Resolution and boat strikes.

DOJ has come up with a theory why the law does not apply.

It's wrong, and per this article, several GOP Senators and a Trump cabinet member flat rejected that theory when Obama tried it in 2011.
1/ Image
2/ In 2011 Libya operation, Obama tried the same theory as part of a four-factor test. Trump does not even have three of those four factors.

On the fourth one, which Obama tried (and now Trump does) there was very strong bipartisan pushback including from ...

Kristi Noem... Image
3/ In 2011, those in Congress who flat rejected the Obama (now Obama-Trump) theory of "hostilities" on War Powers Resolution included:

@SenMikeLee
@SenBillCassidy
@JohnCornyn
@SenRonJohnson
@SenRandPaul
@SenatorTimScott
@SenCapito

@KristiNoem

Standing by principle, ...
Read 7 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Oct 24
Boat strikes put U.S. service members in legal jeopardy:

"Some junior officers have asked military lawyers, known as judge advocates general or JAGs, for written sign-off before taking part in strikes .... It does not appear that such memos were furnished." Image
2/ "Career military and civilian lawyers in the Defense Department and lawyers at other agencies who might otherwise be involved in the deliberations have left government or been excluded from the discussions."
3/ "Lawyers at the NSC, State Department, Justice Department and the Pentagon earlier this year questioned the legal basis for military strikes on cartels without authorization from Congress, and for a while were able to forestall action."
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Oct 19
It’s important to understand why DOJ indictment of John Bolton seems very different than Letitia James and Jim Comey indictments.

1. Biden administration opened the criminal investigation of John Bolton in 2022. It's been detailed investigative work ever since.

CNN⤵️

🧵 Image
2. Yes, the Biden DOJ did not indict Bolton. But they also did not close the investigation.

Plus CNN reports: “Unlike prosecutions brought against Comey and James, the Bolton case has maintained the support of career prosecutors and investigators.” Image
3. The Bolton Indictment is signed by career prosecutors (unlike James and Comey indictments). Image
Read 6 tweets

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