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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

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More from @rgoodlaw

Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Oct 6
What was the real message at Quantico?

Janine Davidson (former Undersecretary of Navy and former Chair of Defense Policy Board) discusses:

The domestic paradigm shift in President Trump's addressing Active Duty military leaders with National Guard Adjunct Generals excluded.
🧵 Image
2/3 source:

Trump’s Outline of a Domestic War - The real message from Quantico
justsecurity.org/121940/trumps-…
3/3 audio version via Just Security's Out Loud series

buzzsprout.com/2509956/episod…
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Oct 6
Judge Immergut in Oregon v Trump now:

"I grant plaintiffs second motion for a TRO."

Federalized Texas and California Guard to Portland is a "DIRECT CONTRAVENTION" of court's TRO from Saturday.

Both on 12406 statute and Tenth Amendment grounds.
2/ Your reminder that Judge Immergut was appointed to the bench by President Trump.
3/ The new Temporary Restraining Order bars the deployment by the Trump administration of any federalized National Guard -- eg California or Texas National Guard -- in Portland.
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Oct 2
“This is not stretching the envelope,” Geoffrey Corn said. “This is shredding it."

On Administration's confidential note to Congress

Completely right

Drug cartels not = "armed conflict"
People killed are civilians

Corn is retired JAG, Army's former law-of-war senior adviser Image
2/ source:

Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling “unlawful combatants.”

By @charlie_savage @EricSchmittNYT
nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/…
@charlie_savage @EricSchmittNYT 3/ "The administration has also stressed that about 100,000 Americans annually die from overdoses.

However, the focus of the ..attacks has been boats from Venezuela. The surge of overdose deaths...has been driven by fentanyl that drug trafficking experts say comes from Mexico" Image
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Sep 25
Comey's testimony in 2020

On left:

In hearing, Senator Cruz erroneously claimed McCabe had said Comey "directly authorized" leak to press. Comey denied that.

On right:

McCabe did not say Comey authorized the leak (source: Inspector General Report, on which Cruz relies) Image
Image
2/ Grassley's question to Comey in 2017 focused on authorization.

(In 2020, Comey testified that he stands by his 2017 testimony.)

So, Comey should be able to stand on that as being truthful and consistent with McCabe's account.

Grassley: "have you ever authorized..."⤵️ Image
3/ Also note the discrepancy in Cruz's letter to DOJ making criminal referral.

On left:

At hearing, Cruz asked Comey whether he was aware AND authorized the leak

On right:

Cruz letter to DOJ falsely frames it as Comey testifying he NEITHER was aware NOR authorized the leak. Image
Image
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Sep 15
With terrific team, I just published large study looking at all court cases involving the Trump administration.

Shows basis for courts no longer giving a so-called "presumption of regularity" (a legal doctrine involving a strong benefit of the doubt) to the administration.
🧵 Image
2/ source

The “Presumption of Regularity” in Trump Administration Litigation
justsecurity.org/120547/presump…
3/ We document over 15 cases in which judges have explicitly found the administration violated a court order.

Below are some of the very-strong statements by judges.
justsecurity.org/120547/presump…Image
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Sep 3
1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat.

Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable.

Read this expert analysis⤵️ Image
2/ The author of the expert analysis worked at the State Department under several administrations with these types of use of force issues as his portfolio.

justsecurity.org/119982/legal-i…
3/ The best line of argument for the administration might be that the law of armed conflict somehow applies.

But if so (and it doesn't), that means the US War Crimes Act applies too, including the prohibition on murder.

Finucane spells out that implication here: Image
Read 5 tweets

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