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Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
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14 Oct, 6 tweets, 2 min read
The terms of the McCabe settlement seem, in first glance, highly favorable to McCabe. He got everything—even the cuff links—except the apology. Will have more to say on this after I’ve had a chance to study the settlement. nytimes.com/2021/10/14/us/…
One very clear take-away is that the department did not want David Bowdich or Rod Rosenstein or Candace Will or Jeff Sessions deposed.
Also note that DOJ is paying McCabe’s legal fees….
One other note: if DOJ couldn’t defend this lawsuit, where it had an IG report stating McCabe had lacked candor, how exactly is it going to defend the @petestrzok and @NatSecLisa suits?

Just saying…
This last point seems to me critical. The McCabe case is the strongest of the three for the government, which had the IG report and a near indictment. In the cases of Strzok and Page there is no remotely comparable record, and the DOJ’s treatment of them was in many ways worse.
If DOJ is settling this on the basis of near-total victory for McCabe, it is surely doing so with an awareness that it will have to reinstate Strzok as well. Look for a significant payout both to him and to Page as well when those cases settle too.

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More from @benjaminwittes

Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
9 Oct
The former Director of National Intelligence and ambassador to Germany thinks my promotion of a young woman law student in public is "getting creepier by the day."

Noted.
He also doesn't like my relationship with my dog:
Also, dude, it's the Brookings Institution,
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
18 Aug
.@Liz_Wheeler is accusing me lying about her position on smallpox vaccination mandates in our recent @Newsweek debate. All I can do is lay out the record clearly, and let readers decide whether I am mischaracterizing what she said—or whether she is.
At timestamp 20:44 of the podcast, I posed Ms. Wheeler the question of a vaccine mandate for smallpox. Smallpox killed about 30 percent of people it infected. It was wiped out through a worldwide program of vaccine mandates. I asked her: Was that wrong?
art19.com/shows/the-deba…
And if it wasn't wrong, then aren't we really arguing not about whether mandates are ever appropriate, just about when they are—ie, whether COVID is more like flu (where we don't require vaccination) or more like smallpox (where we did)?
Read 7 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
15 Aug
The decision to abandon Afghanistan will be a forever stain on the Biden Presidency. I was horrified by it the day it was announced, as I expressed in this podcast. I remain horrified by it today. Don’t @ me with your defenses and excuses. There are none.
aca.st/61ecc1
When Biden says phrases like “foreign policy for the middle class,” understand that he means slavery for millions of Afghan women and girls so that the United States can avoid continuing a modest troop presence in a country where that troop presence was keeping barbarism at bay.
If your response to this thread begins with “But Trump…” just stop. Yes, Trump would have done it too. Yes, he wanted to host the Taliban at Camp David. Yes, he signed an agreement that helped make this happen. But if you’re keen to point that out, you’re hiding your shame.
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
13 Aug
The opening paragraph of the ⁦@nytimes⁩ obituary of John Rizzo.
nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/…
The opening paragraph of my review of Rizzo’s book in 2013:
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
10 Jun
Judge Robert Katzmann was my predecessor as the judicial issues guy at the @BrookingsInst. He was an exceptional gentleman, a leader on the bench on important issues, and a very fine person. He will be very much missed.
He was an awkward guy in person, but he was also capable of great eloquence, as in his advocacy for better counsel for immigration litigants in deportation cases. I particularly remember the incredibly moving speech he made at the memorial service of Pietro Nivola
...of whom he was a life-long friend. I confess I am a bit stunned that his passing follows so quickly upon Pietro's.
Read 5 tweets
Benjamin Wittes Profile picture
20 May
Since she seems to be active again, I suggest that people who are seriously interested in antisemitism follow the @AntisemitismCow. It's a very good account that, amidst genuine humor, is actually unusually careful about distinguishing between criticism of Israel and antisemitism
The account does not explain the tropes that she identifies. She just moos, mostly. So if you're not a student of the subject, you may need explanation and need to get it elsewhere. But It's exceedingly useful as an aggregator. Only a very few times have I disagreed with a moo.
Also, following the account will give you a sense of the prevalence of certain antisemitic themes across political movements. The account is studiously non-political and moos from all over the place politically.
Read 4 tweets

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