Tyler McBrien
@tylermcbrien
Managing Editor at Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org Signal - tylermcbrien.97 Writing in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Slate, Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and more: www.tylermcbrien.com
NEW: Today, Rep. Garcia and Sen. Blumenthal requested DHS Sec Mullin provide info and records related to two recent fatal ICE shootings, incidents which raise questions about whether ICE made promised reforms "and how ICE is using the massive funding that Congress appropriated"
Major new report from PHR and @hrcberkeley.bsky.social documented 412 times between 06/25-26 that immigration enforcement officers used excessive force or misused crowd-control weapons on protesters. Nearly half of all victims had "explicit legal protections" or required "special caution."
Today in federal court, Mahmoud Khalil sued the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission, Betar, & senior Trump admin officials under the KKK Act of 1871, alleging they conspired to deprive him of his constitutional rights while carrying out a coordinated plan called "Project Esther."
Ruling in Trump v. IRS today, Judge Williams writes: "The nature of the suit [and] conduct of the Parties...make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity" to Trump affiliates and to earmark billions from U.S. taxpayers
"The sheer investigative chops...make it worth a listen but its most profound takeaway is also the ultimate ironic twist. A band of journalists managed to pierce the heart of an enduring local mystery only to discover that many people prefer the mystery to the truth." - @goodtape.com
I'm headed to the Aspen Security Forum July 14-17 and planning to record a series of interviews for the @lawfaremedia.org podcast — if any friends or colleagues also going would like to join me on the podcast, have guest ideas, or just want to grab a coffee, let me know!
INBOX: Sen. Blumenthal sent a letter to Acting AG Todd Blanche demanding information and documents related to the Trump administriation commuting David Gentile’s sentence and the "subsequent closure" of DOJ/EDNY's investigation into potential misconduct regarding that commutation
Blumenthal, Merkley, Schiff, Murphy, Warren, & 12 more Dem senators urged the Senate financial services subcommittee to prohibit the CFTC from meddling in states' ability to regulate prediction markets, which "have led to underage gambling...addiction...and financial losses."
Reminds me of when @muira.bsky.social employed a clever yet, shall we say, *unorthodox* method—Tinder—to speak candidly with U.S. personnel stationed at the Guantánamo Bay detention center - from Muira McCammon's 2021 Logic essay, "Zoomers Versus the National Security State" (link below)
INBOX: Today, @weareoversight.bsky.social sued DOJ to expedite its FOIA request for documents related to Todd Blanche's role in 1) Trump admin's release of the Epstein files and 2) reported attempt to bury Special Counsel Jack Smith's report, ahead of Blanche's 7/15 AG confirmation hearing
I, too, was lucky enough to interview the talented and gracious Jasper Craven about his new book, "God Forgives, Brothers Don't: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood" for the @lawfaremedia.org podcast — links to watch or listen below!
Just got the most amazing phishing email from "12 Elite naval personnel" of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit
Wild: to meet senior leader demands to sharply increase detention capacity, ICE & Army turned to a pool of contractors w/ no "prior experience providing detention services" to run Camp East Montana—then awarded a contract but "did not review the contractor's approach" beforehand
Full text of the Senate version of Blumenthal/Frost's bicameral Right to Record Act which would add new legal consequences for federal/immigration enforcement officers who prevent recording, observing, or peacefully protesting law enforcement activities (which is already constitutionally protected)
NEW: Watchdog @weareoversight.bsky.social submitted a complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel alleging Kristi Noem may have violated the Hatch Act by taking a taxpayer funded trip to a Republican event in June 2025 and DHS's use of its official Flickr to publicize Noem's attendance.
NEW: A stunning new project from @lawfaremedia.org's @katherinepomps.bsky.social finds that 97 Jan. 6ers who received clemency for their role in the Capitol riot then got arrested, charged, and/or convicted with subsequent crimes—a number much higher than previously reported.
NEW: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has AFFIRMED the District Court of Montana's dismissal of Lighthiser v. Trump—the constitutional climate case led by 22 young Americans challenging the Trump administration's fossil fuel orders—for lack of Article III standing.
If you missed last month's "Deportation, Inc." screening and panel discussion at @eflux.bsky.social, you can now watch it on the Architectural League of New York's website or their Youtube channel, link below:
...but bc of his message and his "gargantuan following" the Obama admin persecuted him. Trudeau argues that "it is conceivable that [he] would have seen billions in revenue if he had not been subjected to a ten-year prison sentence." (He also notes he applied for a Trump pardon.)
Trudeau is seeking $10m from the fund, arguing that many of the views in his books—"like the dangers of certain artificial sweeteners, food dyes, prescription opioids, fluoride in drinking water, and ultra-processed food"—are now "mainstream components of the [MAHA] movement"...
Kevin Trudeau—TV personality and author convicted of fraud, larceny, and contempt of court in addition to FTC cases—moved to intervene in DUNN v TRUMP, the police officers suing to block Trump's Anti-Weaponization slush fund, based on his outstanding claim for $10 million from it
NEW: The Trump administration's DOJ has been systematically removing materials from its websites regarding the many indictments and convictions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In response, @lawfaremedia.org has been systematically restoring them:
INBOX: Ahead of Pam Bondi's testimony tomorrow before House Oversight Cmte, watchdog @weareoversight.bsky.social sued the DOJ and FBI for previously FOIA'd records related to the government's review and release of the Epstein Files following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act
NEW: Today, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals GRANTED Mahmoud Khalil's motion to stay the mandate that would have left him at risk of detention and removal, as his legal team petitions for cert with the Supreme Court.
Huge thanks to Eve Fairbanks & @mmschwartz.bsky.social for joining me on the @lawfaremedia.org podcast to discuss @thedialmag.bsky.social's "How We See It: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump"—an essay collection from journalists probing their home countries' relationships to the U.S.
NEW: A federal judge in Tennessee has GRANTED Kilmar Abrego Garcia's motion to DISMISS for vindictive prosecution. (h/t @pwbeck.bsky.social) Read the full opinion here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: Quoting George Orwell's 1984, a federal judge in D.C. granted in part the American Historical Association's motion for preliminary injunction and ordered the Trump administration to comply in full with the Presidential Records Act, effective 5/26 at 9:00 a.m.