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Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
Chaired Professor NYU Law. Co-editor-in-chief, Just Security. Former Chaired Professor Harvard Law. Former Special Counsel Department of Defense.
95 subscribers
Dec 13 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
With Admiral Bradley's lawyer speaking to Congress this upcoming week.

Threshold question is how ANY of these strikes are legal.

On Sept 2 strike: Q is whether they applied standard Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology.

Because look what it says (declassified 2012)⤵️
1/ Image 2/ The Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology goes to the heart of the latest DoD claims about the strike.

The claim is that the second strike was targeting the (possible) cocaine, not the shipwrecked.

I do not see how that could have possibly complied with the Methodology.
Dec 6 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
An important step in the right direction:

"The Senate Armed Services Committee ... has asked Adm. Alvin Holsey ... to testify before the committee next week, according to Blumenthal and another person familiar with the matter."

Report by @theodoricmeyer @noahjrobertson
1/ Image 2/ source

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Dec 5 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
How is U.S. military killing these 11 people keeping drugs (fentanyl) out of the United States?

DOD knew the drugs (cocaine) were headed to Suriname.

Yes, that's the OTHER DIRECTION.

Read what Bradley-Caine told lawmakers:

Scoop by @NatashaBertrand

🧵 1/ Image 2/ Problems for Bradley's credibility.

On left:

Bradley argued to lawmakers "still a possibility" drugs could've made way to US.

On right:

Trump State Dept: "Suriname is a transit country for South American cocaine, the majority of which is likely destined for Europe." Image
Image
Dec 5 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
NEW info on shipwreck attack. Gets worse.

The 2 survivors climbed atop wreckage and waved to overhead.

"Some of the people viewing the video thought ... could have been an attempt to surrender"

Others "said the most logical explanation was ... signaling for a rescue."

1/ Image 2/ What Adm. Bradley and Gen. Caine told Congress raises credibility concerns.

"The military officers briefing Congress on Thursday said the survivors could have been trying to beckon to other alleged drug traffickers in a plane or boat to come get them...."

But get this ...
Dec 5 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🚨🚨🚨This collapses the one 'argument' Hegseth had against it being war crime:

"Two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat .. DID NOT APPEAR TO HAVE RADIO OR OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers."

1/ Image 2/ Secretary Hegseth bears ultimate responsibility as the designated Target Engagement Authority.

And recall how many times he has said Admiral Bradley acted within the authority Hegseth gave him, and that Bradley made "the correct" decision.

Dec 4 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Debrief of shipwreck attack by Ranking Member of House Armed Services Adam Smith:

"The idea is supposed to be that if they could get assistance, they could get back 'in the fight,' ...But Smith said the officials confirmed...they have no recording of these communications."
1/ Image 2/ “Smith said the video shows two men, sitting without shirts, atop a portion of a capsized boat that was still above water. ...

... He called it a 'highly questionable decision that these two people on that obviously incapacitated vessel were still in any kind of fight.'” Image
Dec 4 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
USG has a new explanation on why they (now admittedly) intentionally killed 2 shipwrecked men. It does not pass the laws-of-war smell test

Worse for Hegseth, NYT: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved contingency plans for what to do if an initial strike left survivors."
🧵 Image 2/ The Hegseth-approved contingency plan:

US military could try to kill shipwrecked survivors if "they took what the United States deemed to be a hostile action, like communicating with suspected cartel members." Image
Nov 28 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

reporting by @AlexHortonTX @nakashimae Image 2/ "Killing any of the men in the boats 'amounts to murder,' said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign."

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Nov 22 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
On patently unlawful boat strikes

Hard for USGs to claim ‘mistake of law’ or ‘advice of counsel’ – when they’re firing lawyers who wouldn't sign off on the strikes.

WaPo's new revelations on firing/removal:

CIA General Counsel
NSC Legal Adviser
CIA Mission Center’s lawyer
🧵 Image 2/ CIA Acting General Counsel, career lawyer, "was among those who had raised questions about the legality of the agency’s use of lethal force."

What happened next?

CIA Deputy Director Ellis took over as acting GC and still held his policy position. He then approved the ops. Image
Nov 21 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A Thursday in U.S. courts

1) "This Court has grave concerns about the government’s apparent willingness to disregard this Court’s orders, even after previous admonition."

- Judge Stephanie Gallagher, Trump appointee, Nov. 20, 2025 2) "At some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that [U.S. Government] Defendants represent."

- Judge Sara Ellis, November 20, 2025
Nov 3 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Today, Trump-Hegseth run out of time on War Powers Resolution and boat strikes.

DOJ has come up with a theory why the law does not apply.

It's wrong, and per this article, several GOP Senators and a Trump cabinet member flat rejected that theory when Obama tried it in 2011.
1/ Image 2/ In 2011 Libya operation, Obama tried the same theory as part of a four-factor test. Trump does not even have three of those four factors.

On the fourth one, which Obama tried (and now Trump does) there was very strong bipartisan pushback including from ...

Kristi Noem... Image
Oct 24 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Boat strikes put U.S. service members in legal jeopardy:

"Some junior officers have asked military lawyers, known as judge advocates general or JAGs, for written sign-off before taking part in strikes .... It does not appear that such memos were furnished." Image 2/ "Career military and civilian lawyers in the Defense Department and lawyers at other agencies who might otherwise be involved in the deliberations have left government or been excluded from the discussions."
Oct 19 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
It’s important to understand why DOJ indictment of John Bolton seems very different than Letitia James and Jim Comey indictments.

1. Biden administration opened the criminal investigation of John Bolton in 2022. It's been detailed investigative work ever since.

CNN⤵️

🧵 Image 2. Yes, the Biden DOJ did not indict Bolton. But they also did not close the investigation.

Plus CNN reports: “Unlike prosecutions brought against Comey and James, the Bolton case has maintained the support of career prosecutors and investigators.” Image
Oct 6 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
What was the real message at Quantico?

Janine Davidson (former Undersecretary of Navy and former Chair of Defense Policy Board) discusses:

The domestic paradigm shift in President Trump's addressing Active Duty military leaders with National Guard Adjunct Generals excluded.
🧵 Image 2/3 source:

Trump’s Outline of a Domestic War - The real message from Quantico
justsecurity.org/121940/trumps-…
Oct 6 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Judge Immergut in Oregon v Trump now:

"I grant plaintiffs second motion for a TRO."

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.
Oct 2 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
“This is not stretching the envelope,” Geoffrey Corn said. “This is shredding it."

On Administration's confidential note to Congress

Completely right

Drug cartels not = "armed conflict"
People killed are civilians

Corn is retired JAG, Army's former law-of-war senior adviser Image 2/ source:

Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling “unlawful combatants.”

By @charlie_savage @EricSchmittNYT
nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/…
Sep 25 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Comey's testimony in 2020

On left:

In hearing, Senator Cruz erroneously claimed McCabe had said Comey "directly authorized" leak to press. Comey denied that.

On right:

McCabe did not say Comey authorized the leak (source: Inspector General Report, on which Cruz relies) Image
Image 2/ Grassley's question to Comey in 2017 focused on authorization.

(In 2020, Comey testified that he stands by his 2017 testimony.)

So, Comey should be able to stand on that as being truthful and consistent with McCabe's account.

Grassley: "have you ever authorized..."⤵️ Image
Sep 15 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
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.
🧵 Image 2/ source

The “Presumption of Regularity” in Trump Administration Litigation
justsecurity.org/120547/presump…
Sep 3 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
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⤵️ Image 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.

justsecurity.org/119982/legal-i…
Aug 24 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Big 1: Everyone should be held to the same standard of accountability - regardless of party.

Big 2: Imperative to release all the Epstein files to get to the bottom of this.

3: Key points about Clinton-Maxwell timeline ... (see thread)

🧵1/
cnn.com/2025/08/24/pol… 2/ Most remarkable part of @KFILE report:

September 2013: Maxwell is "honored guest at the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative conference."

By then she was notorious for alleged involvement in grotesque sexual crimes with Epstein.

cnn.com/2025/08/24/pol…
Aug 20 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Powerful interview

Former top official of the National Guard Major Gen. Randy E. Manner

Listen to this excerpt of it.

- Our Guard is not trained for this
- "Negatively impacts military readiness"
- Being as "political props" 2 "This is ... changing the entire context of the way that the average citizens in these cities are going to start viewing ... our military...
We should not have military on our streets, in our American cities. It is absolutely the way that dictatorships run, not democracies."