Ryan Goodman
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rgoodlaw.bsky.social
Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw.bsky.social

https://www.youtube.com/@RGoodLaw

Co-editor-in-chief @justsecurity.org. Chaired Prof at NYU Law. Former Chaired Prof Harvard. Former Special Counsel Defense Dept.

https://www.justsecurity.org/author/goodmanryan

Ryan Goodman is an American legal scholar who is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and is the founding co-editor-in-chief of its website Just Security, which focuses on U.S. national security law and policy. Goodman joined the NYU faculty in 2009. .. more

Political science 68%
Sociology 13%
What a headline:

US Senators Say They Spoke With Rubio About Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan Who Denied It Is a US Plan

(This as other US officials are still saying it is the US plan)

6) Plus CNN @natashabertrand.bsky.social's earlier reporting of moves inside the Pentagon.

How the Pentagon sidelined lawyers while testing the legal limits of military action
How the Pentagon sidelined lawyers while testing the legal limits of military action | CNN Politics
For weeks earlier this year, the Army’s top uniformed lawyer had been raising legal concerns inside the Pentagon about some of the new policies being rolled out dictating how the military can be used ...
www.cnn.com

5) There's even more.

"Many of the lawyers and other career officials at the White House National Security Council, Pentagon and Justice Department who had ... raised concerns about using lethal force against narcotraffickers had either left government or were reassigned or removed."

4) The CIA Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center's lawyer "who questioned the use of lethal force against drug traffickers has been reassigned and replaced."

3/ The National Security Counsel's Legal Adviser Paul Ney (who earlier served loyally as Trump 1.0 Pentagon General Counsel) "had been among the lawyers who had raised concerns about the legality of lethal strikes."

He was cast out in May.

2/ CIA Acting General Counsel, a 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 stepped in to become acting General Counsel and still hold his policy position. He then approved the ops.
On the patently unlawful boat strikes

It's 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 firings or removals:

1) CIA General Counsel
2) NSC Legal Adviser
3) CIA Mission Center’s lawyer
🧵
White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats
The Trump administration sidestepped skeptical lawyers across national security agencies as it pursued a military campaign against alleged narcotraffickers, officials say.
www.washingtonpost.com

2/ source (Ranking Member House Judiciary Committee @raskin.house.gov letter to AG Bondi)

democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
democrats-judiciary.house.gov

Reposted by Steve Peers

Reminder:

SDNY "was running an active investigation into Jeffrey Epstein[’s] ... coconspirators. In January [2025], SDNY prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. ... the investigation into co-conspirators has inexplicably ceased."

4) I guess we'll have to update our newly updated Study, which we published at noon on November 20, 2025.

The study documents all cases of government noncompliance with court orders and cases of government misinformation provided to courts.

www.justsecurity.org/120547/presu...
The “Presumption of Regularity” in Trump Administration Litigation
Comprehensive study of court cases involving Trump administration and the basis for courts no longer giving a "presumption of regularity."
www.justsecurity.org

3) "There's no way to sugarcoat it, it was in defiance of my order."

Judge Paula Xinis, November 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

Reposted by Scott A. Imberman

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

3/3 Link to Judge Cobb's decision overturning the president's deployment of the DC Guard to fight crime and use of out of states Guard forces:

ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

2/3 What Judge Cobb wrote dovetails with Daniel Dale's fact check.

Fact check: Trump’s false claims about the Insurrection Act
Fact check: Trump’s false claims about the Insurrection Act | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump has made a series of inaccurate claims in recent days about the Insurrection Act, the old law he has mused about invoking to deploy troops to some US cities.
www.cnn.com

Judge Cobb's strong signal:

"The President wields a powerful tool under Title 10 and the Insurrection Act. ... That expansive Title 10 authority, however, is limited by equally strong restraints."

(President Trump has wrongly claimed "no more court cases" if he were to invoke the Act.)

1/3
Judge halts Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in DC | CNN
CNN’s Erin Burnett talks to Ryan Goodman, former Special Counsel at the Dept. of Defense, about a federal judge ordering President Trump to immediately end his DC national guard deployment.
www.cnn.com

2/ "Federal officials appeared to be questioning whether Martin and Pulte divulged information about an ongoing criminal investigation of Schiff with people who were not authorized to be a part of it, according to a subpoena issued in the case and another person familiar with the interview."
Prosecutors quiz witness on Ed Martin, Bill Pulte moves in Schiff case
Prosecutors questioned a California Republican activist about her contact with Trump administration officials over their mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California).
www.washingtonpost.com

Now this: "The Coast Guard said Thursday a Washington Post report that claimed it will no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols is 'categorically false.'"

thehill.com/policy/defen...
thehill.com

Wow

"[Ed] Martin is also believed to have shared sensitive grand jury information about the James case with at least one unauthorized individual as well as worked with another person from outside the federal government to examine potential evidence in the Schiff and James probes."
DOJ, FBI probing top Trump administration officials over investigations of president's adversaries: Sources
The DOJ is probing the conduct of at least two top administration officials for possibly jeopardizing the criminal investigations of Trump's political foes, sources say.
abcnews.go.com

"US Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and that more than 400,000 US troops died fighting against in World War II, as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month."
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com

2/ "The inquiry, according to the additional sources, include the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at Justice Department headquarters looking into the work of people who may have been dispatched or held themselves out to witnesses improperly around the mortgage fraud investigation."

Christine Bish "told CNN ... that prosecutors 'seemed more concerned' about looking into whether 'there was conspiracy or collusion between me and Pulte or me and Ed Martin.'"

www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/p...
Justice Department is investigating handling of Adam Schiff mortgage fraud probe led by Ed Martin and Bill Pulte | CNN Politics
The Justice Department is investigating possible issues with the mortgage fraud investigation into California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff that is run by two Trump administration political appointees, ...
www.cnn.com

Reposted by David R. Miller

Extraordinary sign of life for the rule of law.

Dilanian also writes: "[T]he probe is focused on whether the mortgage fraud investigations of Sen. Adam Schiff and possibly New York Attorney General Letitia James have been tainted by the investigative methods allegedly used by Pulte and Martin."
SCOOP: A federal grand jury in Maryland is investigating whether FHFA director Bill Pulte and Justice Department prosecutor Ed Martin improperly appointed unauthorized people to help in mortgage fraud investigations of President Trump's critics. With @carolleonnig.bsky.social
SCOOP: A federal grand jury in Maryland is investigating whether FHFA director Bill Pulte and Justice Department prosecutor Ed Martin improperly appointed unauthorized people to help in mortgage fraud investigations of President Trump's critics. With @carolleonnig.bsky.social
We've updated our Study.

New stats (jaw-dropping imho):

1. DOJ noncompliance with court orders:

26 cases

2. Courts’ distrust of government information and representations:

Over 60 cases

3. Court findings of arbitrary and capricious government conduct:

68 cases
The “Presumption of Regularity” in Trump Administration Litigation
Comprehensive study of court cases involving Trump administration and the basis for courts no longer giving a "presumption of regularity."
www.justsecurity.org

Pro tip:

With Chief Judge Boasberg moving full steam ahead on finding which US officials were responsible for ordering defiance of his order...

And whistleblower most likely to testify...

Here's where this is heading in significant part:

www.justsecurity.org/116777/bove-...
Whistleblower Documents Implicate Emil Bove in Criminal Contempt Order by Chief Judge Boasberg
Email released by whistleblower would presumably implicate Bove in the “contumacious conduct” identified by Chief Judge Boasberg.
www.justsecurity.org

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Here we go.

Out of the gates, Chief Judge Boasberg says a factual inquiry is in order on whether to make criminal referral.

Witnesses under oath - to find out who gave orders to defy court ruling barring sending people to El Salvador.

"Justice requires me to move promptly."

Reposted by Ryan Goodman

Professors @mikeschmitt.bsky.social and Marko Milanovic, together with @rgoodlaw.bsky.social of @nyulaw.bsky.social, write about the legal issues surrounding sharing intelligence with the United States that is used in the boat strikes for @justsecurity.org: www.justsecurity.org/124762/carib...
Obligation of States to Stop Intelligence Support for U.S. Strikes
The only way States can avoid complicity in “arbitrary killings” under IHRL is to refrain from sharing intelligence that enables them.
www.justsecurity.org

Excellent Fact Check

On State Department's designation of "Antifa Groups" as foreign terrorist organizations

3/4 have no apparent "Antifa" anything
4/4 have no apparent statutorily required threat to US national security

by counter-extremism expert @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social
State Dept's FTO Designations Undermine Claims of "Antifa" Threat
Leading counter-extremism expert unpacks the administration's claimed designation of "Antifa Groups"
www.justsecurity.org

With Annie Farmer's powerful recounting of the law enforcement failures on Epstein -- under Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

We prepared this chronology:

Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell Law Enforcement Failures (1996-2025)
www.justsecurity.org/119137/timel...
Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell Law Enforcement Failures (1996-2025)
A comprehensive timeline of the failure of federal law enforcement to address Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes.
www.justsecurity.org