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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
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."
Jul 29 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Important:

"Epstein was actually still on the Mar-a-Lago membership logs up to 2007. ... That of course is a year after Jeffrey Epstein's arrest in Florida."

So Trump didn't kick him out for many years after knowing Epstein 'stole' Virginia Giuffre from MAL in 2000.

🧵 2/ Here's the Miami Herald piece that @barryscoopking referenced:

"A footnote in the book says the authors were shown the club’s registry from more than a decade earlier and that Epstein in fact had been a member until October 2007."

via @KevinGHall
miamiherald.com/news/state/flo…
Oct 17, 2024 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
1/New important public resource

“Heat Map” of USA showing hometown origins of #January6th defendants

Shows:

Power of a President to catalyze political violence nationwide

Local and nationwide effects of a Trump presidential pardon of Jan 6 defendants
justsecurity.org/104036/heat-ma… 2/ Along with the Heat Map is essential analysis by leading expert @thomasjoscelyn.

He explains how the Proud Boys orchestrated January 6th attack and risks of resurgence – especially in the event of pardons that former President Trump has suggested.

justsecurity.org/103956/proud-b…
Oct 15, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
1/@jacklgoldsmith wrote a NY Times piece attacking special counsel Jack Smith.

@AWeissmann_ and I are refuting the baseless attack.

Compare:

Goldsmith 2020: Bill Barr has "enormous discretion" to ignore 60 day rule
Goldsmith 2024: "Crucial" for Garland to comply with the rule Image
Image 2/ On left:

Goldsmith piece, “Jack Smith Owes Us an Explanation”

(He thinks DOJ defied a 60-Day rule in recently filing a brief showing details of alleged Trump crimes, and demands explanation)

On right:

Goldsmith shows no awareness DOJ gave the explanation TWICE.Image
Image
Sep 14, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Trump and Vance's racist smears of Haitians - who are legally present in Springfield, Ohio - has led to bomb threats closing City Hall, schools and a motor vehicles office.

Now two hospitals closed due to bomb threats.

fox8.com/news/springfie… 2/ The Trump effect in Springfield:

"Wittenberg University announced the cancelation of all events and activities Sunday ... after an email 'threatened a potential shooting,' campus police said in a statement. The threats reportedly targeted Haitians."
fox8.com/news/universit…
Sep 13, 2024 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The racist smears of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio shows how easily these influencers' position against "illegal immigrants" slides into being against legal immigrants (of color)

"The city also says that the Haitian immigrants are in the country legally under a federal program" Image 2/ JD Vance expands racist smear to "communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town."

Of a piece with Trump as President saying of Haitians "they all have AIDS" and didn't want to accept “people from shithole countries.”
Sep 2, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
State of play in United States v. Trump:

1/ On Friday night, Jack Smith offered to file a new brief that could provide the public "the first glimpse of the government’s evidence beyond the four corners of the indictment—an explosive prospect.”

justsecurity.org/99693/immunity… 2/ “It is conspicuous that the special counsel does not appear to be opposing such a mini-trial, which may be important to Judge Chutkan as prosecutors would likely see tradeoffs with such public hearings.”

analysis by @NormEisen @Matt_Seligman @Edanyaperry @JoshuaGKolb
Sep 1, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Media needs to stop downplaying the threat

On left:

NYT: "Moms For Liberty can get a bit carried away —one of their local chapters once accidentally quoted Adolf Hitler."

On right:

No accident. The Moms for Liberty group attributed the statement to Hitler.

h/t @jamisonfoserImage
Image 2/ Also, "once accidentally quoted Hitler"?

Nope.

"After initially defending the quote, the chapter was forced to apologize."

The New York Times know that. The latter quote is from the NYT's own reporting at the time ().nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/…