New: “National security equities” may have been among the records stolen from the Capitol on Wednesday when pro-Trump insurgents looted several congressional offices—but it’s still unclear what exactly was taken, per DOJ. politico.com/news/2021/01/0…
Meanwhile, a current Metro D.C. police officer on the scene yesterday said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards as they attempted to overrun the Capitol.
“If these people can storm the Capitol building with no regard to punishment, you have to wonder how much they abuse their powers when they put on their uniforms,” the officer wrote. politico.com/news/2021/01/0…
More from that officer: “The fact that police officers from other agencies have aligned themselves with such terorristic groups shows how scary it is to be BLACK in America...They weren’t trying to hide who they are because they know nothing will happen to them.”
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Biden introducing some top members of his national security team now. SecState @ABlinken, NSA @jakejsullivan, DHS sec @AliMayorkas, Climate czar @JohnKerry, USUN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and DNI Avril Haines.
Avril Haines to Biden: "I will represent to you, Congress, and the American public the patriots who comprise our intelligence community. I will never shy away from speaking truth to power." Adds pointedly that she knows cabinet was not selected to serve Biden, but the country.
Haines, addressing the IC: "The work you do is indispensable. It will become even more complex because you will be critical to help this administration position itself against challenges that will define the next generation."
BREAKING: Trump says he has just fired CISA director @CISAKrebs, who was swatting down his election conspiracy falsehoods in real time. More on Krebs’ efforts here: politico.com/news/2020/11/1…
Launched prior to the election to help voters navigate domestic and foreign misinformation, CISA’s website Rumor Control, under Krebs, soon morphed into a post-election fact-checking operation for the outgoing president and his supporters. cisa.gov/rumorcontrol
Per sources: Krebs expected to be fired bc of his blunt statements about the lack of widespread voter fraud and other election irregularities. CISA’s assistant director Bryan Ware was pushed out last week because he was considered disloyal to the president.
NEWS, and a thread: The CIA has made it harder for intel about Russia to reach the White House, stoking fears among officials that info is being suppressed to appease Trump. Dir. Gina Haspel also has a very contentious relationship w/CIA’s Russia House. politico.com/news/2020/09/2…
In an “unprecedented” move, in the words of one former CIA lawyer, Haspel last year, around the time of impeachment, tasked CIA’s general counsel Courtney Elwood with reviewing virtually every product that comes out of Russia House before it goes to the White House.
Elwood has a very close working relationship with John Eisenberg, the NSC’s top lawyer. Recall that Elwood called Eisenberg last year to inform him of the CIA whistleblower complaint about Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian president Zelensky.
NEW: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and intelligence experts are now concerned it may be too late to arm Americans with a clear and consistent assessment of the scale and nature of foreign election interference. politico.com/news/2020/09/1…
The topic of election security has become something of a taboo subject within the Trump admin. The NSC’s top legislative affairs official, Virginia Boney, was removed earlier this tear because she kept pressing the White House to prioritize election security efforts.
Efforts have followed to downplay Russia’s malign activities and play up the China/Iran threats. @MilesTaylorUSA recalls how the WH wanted to fire the former top DHS intel official, David Glawe, in Sept 2018, because Glawe agreed w/the IC's assessment about Russia's activities.
NEW investigation: A Russian living in the US and awaiting an asylum decision was targeted by ICE & detained for 1.5 years because of a Russian Red Notice that experts say was so incomplete and riddled w/inaccuracies that it was nearly incomprehensible. politico.com/news/2020/09/0…
Red Notices, including from authoritarian regimes known to abuse the process, like Russia, China and Venezuela, are increasingly being used by US immigration authorities to target immigrants, supplement offenses like visa overstays, & justify prolonged detention and deportation.
“At what point does the U.S. become a willing participant in Russia’s persecution of dissidents?” asked one public defender, calling the root of the problem on the American side “a combination of general incompetence, and a bias by the immigration courts against granting asylum"