Don't Bring a Gun to a Children's Museum

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Good Evening:

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Today on #DogShirtTV, I welcomed the estimable Minna Ålander to tell us about how Europe is viewing our thriving democratic culture, and what they’re planning to do about it. The estimable Alicia Wanless joined to give us a Canadian viewpoint, and the estimable John Hawkinson dropped in as well:

On tomorrow’s show, the estimable Roger Parloff will join me to talk pardons.

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The Situation: Why the Jan. 6 Pardons Won’t Work

In my The Situation column today, I observe that despite Trump’s sweeping proclamation granting clemency to more than 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump cannot erase the history of the event and the violence perpetrated on his behalf by those now pardoned:

But if the long-term goal is to erase the ugly history of what happened in 2020 and 2021, to change Trump from the perpetrator into the victim of the crime, it won’t work. Pardoning those convicted, after all, doesn’t erase the records of what they pled to. It doesn’t erase the evidence presented to juries about what they did. It doesn’t erase their own copious social media boasting about it all. Just as Trump can’t change the truth about his own conduct by getting elected and getting the cases against himself dropped and projecting his own goals for weaponization of the Justice Department onto the prior administration, he cannot change either the truth about what his followers did—though he can wipe out the consequences for them.

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Today On Lawfare

I’m very proud of the Lawfare team for the volume and excellence of its work over the past few weeks. The material both over the weekend and through the inauguration has been consistently first-rate. And there is a lot more to come over the next few days.

Trump's TikTok Executive Order and the Limits of Executive Non-Enforcement

Alan Rozenshtein explains how President Trump’s first-day executive order suspending the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACAA) and providing retroactive protection to TikTok’s service providers goes against established legal frameworks on executive non-enforcement promises. Rozenshtein further describes the immense legal risks that companies who continue to provide service to TikTok may incur:

TikTok’s tech partners face a key executive power question: Can they rely on Trump's promises not to enforce PAFACAA? If companies continue providing services to TikTok, can Trump later change his mind and pursue enforcement actions against them for all accumulated violations? Could a future administration enforce these violations regardless of Trump's current promises? The stakes are enormous—nearly a trillion dollars in potential liability. Unfortunately for the companies, established legal doctrine suggests that they are making a remarkably risky bet on both the scope and durability of executive non-enforcement promises.

Uncertain Times Ahead for U.S.-Mexico Intelligence Cooperation

Stephen Coulthart and Guillermo Vázquez del Mercado chart three scenarios for the future of the U.S.-Mexico intelligence partnership. They predict that it is most probable that the two countries will sustain their current contentious relationship, with heightened cooperation or an end to the intelligence sharing relationship also possible, but unlikely:

If the current trends hold, the likely scenario is that the U.S.-Mexico cooperation remains as it has over the past several years—contentious at times, and often transactional. Trust will remain tepid, as it has been since the 2020 arrest of Cienfuegos and the recent detentions of Zambada and Guzman. Meanwhile, there might still be some shared security alignment on issues like TCO violence.

Never Means Never

Paul Rosenzweig announces his resignation from his position as a special advocate to the Data Protection Review Court, citing his commitment to never serve under Trump, whom he labels a threat to democracy:

Because “never” means “never.” It means never working for an adjudicated sexual abuser. It means never working for a convicted fraudster who robs children’s charities. It means never lending credence to an insurrectionist. And it means never voluntarily having a boss who is a racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic authoritarian who openly promises to use the Department of Justice (where the court is housed) and the intelligence community (whose activities the court evaluates) for his own political purposes.

The New, and Low, Normal in U.S.-Pakistan Relations

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Madiha Afzal discusses Pakistan’s decreased diplomatic importance to the U.S. since the end of the war in Afghanistan. Afzal assesses that the U.S.-Pakistani relations will continue to be defined by coordination with the Pakistani military rather than its civilian government:

The reality is that the United States has limited tools—short of drastic ones, such as broad economic sanctions, which pragmatically it sees no reason to use against Pakistan at this point—to influence the trajectory of Pakistan’s democracy. Nor does it have incentives to try to promote democratic reform and civilian rule. The United States, regardless of administration, needs to work with the Pakistani military in the short term on counterterrorism concerns in the region—and U.S. and Pakistani counterterrorism concerns are arguably more aligned now than during the two decades when the United States was present in Afghanistan and the Taliban had sanctuary in Pakistan. The United States also does not want to risk major political instability in a nuclear-armed state.

Back Where Judge Cannon Began

Anna Bower reports from Fort Pierce, Florida, where Judge Aileen Cannon held a hearing on Jan. 19 on whether to enjoin the release of Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report—which deals with the classified documents case—to four members of Congress:

Much has changed in only a few short months. The attorney general appointed a special counsel to take over the case. The special counsel sought Trump’s indictment. Judge Cannon dismissed the case. The special counsel appealed. Trump got elected president. The special counsel moved to dismiss the case against Trump. The special counsel wrote a report. And the remaining defendants have sought to enjoin the sharing of that report with members of Congress.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Eugenia Lostri sits down with Kevin Frazier to discuss the ongoing investigations into disruptions of undersea cables. They talk about the challenges that weather, cooperation, and jurisdiction present and the plans in place to protect the cables from accidents and sabotage.

Documents

Roger Parloff shared a proclamation from President Donald Trump that pardons almost all of those convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and commutes the sentences of 14 others.

Parloff also shared notable preemptive pardons that former President Joe Biden issued on his last day in office for Gen. Mark Milley (ret.), Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, and members of his family.

Quinta Jurecic shared Trump’s executive order on “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which orders review of various departments’ and agencies’ conduct for instances of “weaponization” over the last four years.

Lostri shared Trump’s executive order establishing the “Department Of Government Efficiency,” which calls for “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Bower shared four lawsuits that advocacy groups filed against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), three of which allege that DOGE violates federal transparency law and one that seeks to compel the disclosure of certain DOGE records.

Katherine Pompilio shared an executive order reinstating Schedule F in the Excepted Service, a class created in his first term that strips employment protections from federal workers.

Natalie Orpett shared the National Treasury Employees Union’s (NTEU) complaint challenging Trump’s executive order reinstating Schedule F.

Olivia Manes shared an executive order titled “Securing Our Borders” that allows for deployment of personnel to the border and directs the detainment of illegal immigrants.

Manes also shared an executive order that declares a national emergency at the southern border, authorizing the secretary of defense to oversee military constructions and deploy National Guard reservists.

Jurecic shared an executive order that purports to end birthright citizenship, which has been long understood to be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Frazier shared an executive order rescinding nearly 80 executive orders from the Biden Administration, notably including the 2023 Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence.

Pompilio shared a national security presidential memorandum outlining specifications for the current administration's National Security Council, including its organization, purpose, function, and more.

Jurecic shared an executive order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” that forbids government agencies from using federal resources to abridge free speech and directs the attorney general to investigate any such activity over the last four years.

Manes shared an executive order directing the secretary of state to “issue guidance” that will bring the Department of State “in line with an America First foreign policy.”

Lostri shared an executive order rescinding the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan and withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement and other climate commitments.

Rozenshtein shared an executive order issued by Trump that directs the Justice Department to suspend PAFACAA implementation for 75 days and declares "no violation" for companies providing services to TikTok.

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You can if you want, but I’m sure not going to.

Well, that’s true, if you serve three ounces, or an ounce and a half, the serving will not be two ounces. And if you serve three and a half pounds, it won’t be two ounces either.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the giant river otter, seen here being long:

Here are a bunch of them being long together:

Images Source

In honor of the giant river otter, try lengthening yourself today. You can always be longer if you really put in the effort.