user avatar
Jack Goldsmith
@jacklgoldsmith
Prof @Harvard_Law; Co-Founder @Lawfareblog; Non-res. sr. fellow @AEI; executivefunctions.substack. Opinions mine alone. Likes ≠ agree; = save to read
Cambridge, MA
jackgoldsmith.org
Joined April 2013
69
Following
77.6K
Followers
Posts
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Mar 14, 2020
    I’ve been thinking whether in American presidential history there’s ever been an act of cowardice and impotence as brazen as @realDonaldTrump's “I don’t take responsibility at all” comment, followed by his efforts—3+ years into his term—to blame his predecessors. 1/
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jul 11, 2020
    Stone is Trump's 36th pardon/commutation, a record low number, by far, for the modern presidency. An unusually high number of these (31/36 by my count), like Stone's, were based on a personal or political connection. Both are forms of abuse of an undoubted presidential power.
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jun 5, 2017
    1/ Trump’s actions since January, & especially in last month, take us so far beyond normal that it’s hard to have any faith in Exec branch.
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Oct 17, 2019
    1/ I just watched the *amazing* Mulvaney press conference. It was an extraordinarily weak and damning performance. I think he set out to deny a quid pro quo w Ukraine but he tied himself in knots and strongly suggested there was one. But that was not the only problem.
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jan 29, 2020
    Not for the first time, I don't understand this WH threat. WH has no legal leverage except to review manuscript for classified information w/in 30-biz-day window, which ends in a few weeks. It cannot get prior restraint. And it is only building up significance of Bolton book.
    user avatar
    Jake Tapper 🦅
    @jaketapper
    Jan 29, 2020
    White House has issued formal threat to Bolton to keep him from publishing book cnn.com/2020/01/29/pol…
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Dec 3, 2017
    It is hard to exaggerate how demoralizing this is for people who work in DOJ. It's not just that the President says this. It's also, and especially, that the Attorney General does not stand up for the Department, either because he can't, or does not care.
    user avatar
    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    Dec 3, 2017
    Many people in our Country are asking what the “Justice” Department is going to do about the fact that totally Crooked Hillary, AFTER receiving a subpoena from the United States Congress, deleted and “acid washed” 33,000 Emails? No justice!
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jan 2, 2018
    That would be the "Deep State Justice Dept" run by @realDonaldTrump appointees Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, and Chris Wray.
    user avatar
    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    Jan 2, 2018
    Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Nov 16, 2024
    Trump says the Dep’t of Gov’t Efficiency (DOGE) "will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government.” DOGE will thus be a Federal Advisory Committee, 5 USC App. 3, and subject to transparency and recordkeeping requirements, see 5 USC App. 10. Should be fun to behold.
    227K
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Oct 19, 2025
    Dangerous enough to try to kill with military force but not dangerous enough to detain and prosecute via lawful methods--almost certainly because a lawful case could not be made before a court. Especially awkward for DOD.
    A Navy guided missile destroyer docked near the entrance to the Panama Canal in Panama City last month. The United States has deployed warships, surveillance planes and an attack submarine to the region.
    U.S. Is Repatriating Survivors of Its Strike on Suspected Drug Vessel
    From nytimes.com
    283K
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Feb 18, 2020
    This and other POTUS tweets today has the obvious aim of inducing AG Barr to resign.
    user avatar
    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    Feb 18, 2020
    “Judge Jackson now has a request for a new trial based on the unambiguous & self outed bias of the foreperson of the jury, whose also a lawyer, by the way. ‘Madam foreperson, your a lawyer, you have a duty, an affirmative obligation, to reveal to us when we selected you the.....
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jun 5, 2017
    Replying to @jacklgoldsmith and @benjaminwittes
    11/ The impulsive, uncontrolled, ill-informed President infects the legal soundness of everything his administration does.
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jan 28, 2018
    1/ Most revealing in today's big WP story: "Trump, appearing frustrated and at times angry, has complained to confidants and aides in recent weeks that he does not understand why he cannot simply give orders to "my guys" at what he sometimes calls the 'Trump Justice Department.'"
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Jan 27, 2020
    From personal experience I can attest that, despite 28 CFR 17.18(h), the exec branch often circulates manuscripts submitted for prepub review widely, including to political officials, & it often asks for deletions for reasons having nothing to do w/ disclosure of classified info.
    user avatar
    Michael S. Schmidt
    @nytmike
    Jan 27, 2020
    Letter Bolton’s lawyer, Chuck Cooper, sent to WH on Dec 30 for pre publication review.
  • user avatar
    Jack Goldsmith
    @jacklgoldsmith
    Dec 12, 2019
    God I hope not. If this represents a decent percentage of typical errors, then FISA cannot continue without radical reform, if at all. I think you are dramatically underestimating the gravity of what Horowitz found.