Thread by @protctdemocracy

As @ianbassin said on #inners there was a hearing yesterday which, "was the first time that Trump lawyers stood up in open court to answer questions about the #Russia conspiracy and amazingly the Trump legal team didn't push back very hard on the idea of a conspiracy." 1/

Yesterday in court #Trump lawyers, "..were essentially arguing that even if we did work with #Russia to dump these emails which were hacked, well that's just political activity and our First Amendment right to do so." #inners

on #Trump White House Counsel, "Trump may not care about tearing down the norms of our democracy, but surely some of these people do...Have these people no decency left? We're talking about Trump trying to out an informant that could endanger lives." #inners

After consulting with experts, we found, "If you want to know if American democracy is in danger, look for a couple of things 1) are they trying to politicize independent institutions like law enforcement, 2) are they trying put out disinformation to confuse the public... #inners

"3) are they trying to eliminate checks that could hold the executive accountable, 4) are they trying to corrupt elections." #inners

As @ianbassin said, "In this story alone, you're looking at all four of those things! So this is not just a danger to this investigation alone, it's a danger to the very foundation of the republic." #inners