FBI gave #RonJohnson defensive briefing in 2020 warning he was being targeted by Russia to spread disinformation on Biden.
What did he do?
He considered it “completely useless and unnecessary”
With his usual paranoia, he thought FBI briefing was a trick
2. And then, worse of all, Johnson continued to use his office to act as a conduit for the Russian disinformation campaign to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
4. Ron Johnson in his own—self-incriminating—words:
“I suspected that the briefing was being given to be used at some future date for the purpose that it is now being used: to offer the biased media an opportunity to falsely accuse me of being a tool of Russia despite warnings.”
5. Worth recalling this is not a partisan issue.
Fellow Republican Senators—including Richard Burr and Marco Rubio—warned Johnson that he was using his congressional powers in a way that could aid the Kremlin’s efforts.
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.
@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"
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.
🧵
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⤵️
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.