So Trump has a colorable executive privilege claim against one agency of the executive branch (DOJ), but not another (ODNI), despite them being part of the same branch of government. Got it - completely coherent.
And what if ODNI needs to consult with one component of the intelligence community, the FBI, which is also conducting the criminal investigation to complete its risk assessment? Good luck, I guess.
Sep 1, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The quality of the writing in this Trump brief, I dunno.
e.g., I think they argue here that DOJ is going to impugn its own investigation?
"Left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation with no recourse for Movant but to somehow trust the self-restraint..."
Jun 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
In some ways this is a story about how many times the government can use one piece of bad, and possibly intentionally fake, Russian intelligence for score settling and personal advancement. nytimes.com/2021/06/04/us/…
The first time was when Comey used this underlying document, which is worth reading about in full, to justify leaving Loretta Lynch out of his Clinton email press conference. In bad faith in my opinion and for his own egotistical reasons, but YMMV. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
May 25, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Reading the newly unredacted section of this memo and I think Engel and O'Callaghan get something right: DOJ SHOULD have reached a conclusion as to whether charges were justified. The Mueller report's wishy-washiness was confusing and even unfair.
They of course are reaching that judgment to justify Barr's pre-baked decision, but that doesn't make their judgment wrong. The original sin still belongs to Mueller by failing to say what he clearly believed, that Trump committed a crime. A sin of naivety not nefariousness.
Oct 21, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
John Bash, the US attorney in El Paso who implemented the early family separation program that is the subject of this report, recently left DOJ for a yet-to-be disclosed job in the private sector. Who hires someone who orphaned kids?
Small correction: Bash was in the WH during the pilot program, and became the US attorney one month after it ended - he was US attorney when the full program was implemented in 2018 and thousands more children were separated, including hundreds under his watch in West Texas.
Apr 24, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The president is an imbecile who routinely forces government officials to spend time and capital shooting down the dumbest ideas...a thread. 1/
He pushed the Navy for years to spend billions on “goddamned steam” catapults on aircraft carriers because “we’re spending all that money on electric, and nobody knows what it’s going to be like in bad conditions.” 2/ politico.com/story/2019/05/…
Feb 1, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
No better night to contribute to a Democratic Senate campaign than tonight.
Cal Cunningham in NC would be another great choice. calfornc.com
Dec 9, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
One thing to remember about today’s IG report is that this all grew out of Trump’s 3/17 tweet claiming Obama had his “wires tapped.” That was insane, but rather than reject it, the GOP rallied around a parallel allegation: that Carter Page was illegally surveilled. 1/
There was no evidence to back that up, but Sessions asked the IG to investigate the conspiracy theory. Then Rosenstein gave in to Trump and asked the IG to investigate another insane claim, that the FBI had “spied” on his campaign. 2/
Jul 29, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Seen a lot of Ratcliffe quotes about being a former terrorism prosecutor, but looking at various prosecution databases and DOJ's website, don't see any cases brought in the Eastern District of Texas while he was either US Atty or head of its anti-terror unit.
He seems to have played some role in the Holy Land case brought in a neighboring district, but not sure there's a single case he led that put a terrorist in jail. I'm sure Senate Intel will look into it more deeply, but his actual national security resume appears awfully thin.
Apr 18, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Barr’s carefully worded description of what would constitute a crime related to hacking and dissemination of emails seemed designed to pre-empt something bad in the report.
No person associated with the campaign “illegally participated in the dissimenation or materials.” Did someone participate in dissemination but not underlying hack?
Feb 19, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Reading the McCabe book, and one of the most enjoyable parts is his extensive description of how intimidating it is to brief Mueller. “Cross-examination is one of Mueller’s most basic forms of human interaction.”
Also funny: Sessions kept thinking the FBI had some sort of navy that could be used to interdict drugs off the coast of Colombia. “Sometimes he went on like this for fifteen minutes.” (The FBI does not have a navy.)
Jan 12, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
More I think about the NYT story, the more the takeaway for me is the tension between DOJ & FBI in that period, with a worrried and angry FBI taking a dramatic step that would make their investigation unkillable.
The story doesn’t say this explicitly, but it seems the FBI expanded the investigation into POTUS himself without approval from Rosenstein. Wow. That is, shall we say, suboptimal. In their defense, they would’ve had real questions about Rod after he wrote the Comey memo.
Oct 3, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Watching the way D's are approaching the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh, & it feels like they are making some of the same mistakes they made during the Clinton email investigation & as Rosenstein has ceded ground to the WH at various times in the Russia probe.
Comes back to the asymmetric way the two parties treat DOJ/FBI, where the GOP continuously pressures it to do inappropriate things while D's just ask it to follow the normal process. Guess which one the FBI responds to?
Sep 8, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I know I will regret banging my head on this particular wall again, but: 1. The Obama DOJ made mistakes w/r/t James Rosen, admitted it, & reformed the rules governing media subpoenas. It’s incomplete for reporters to attack the former without at least acknowledging the latter.
2. Not every leak prosecution is an attack on the free press. There is no whistleblowing goal served by, for example, disclosing a CIA agent’s identity, as I argued in this 2012 piece. thedailybeast.com/obama-is-right…
Jul 24, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This story is filled with interesting details, but the takeaway for me is that the NYT still hasn't grappled with being the tool of state-sponsored hackers. nytimes.com/2018/07/24/us/…
The behavior exposed in this story is ugly, but it's not criminal, which seems relevant when balancing it against the hackers who did commit a crime to obtain the documents leaked to the NYT.
Jul 12, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Congressman Tom Marino, who gave a reference to help a mobster get a gaming license WHILE he was a US attorney whose office was investigating that mobster, is lecturing Strzok on DOJ ethics rules.
One of the other members who attacked Strzok today is Scott DesJarlais, a doctor who had affairs with several of his patients (a clear violation of medical ethics) and pressured one to get an abortion.
Oct 19, 2017 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The number of inappropriate contacts & requests from Trump to DOJ is staggering. Since his election, he has: interviewed @PreetBharara ...
Called @PreetBharara repeatedly to try and curry favor; privately asked the FBI director for a loyalty pledge....2/
