Tyler McBrien
@tylermcbrien.com
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
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
Pinned
Tyler McBrien
@tylermcbrien.com
· Aug 13
For @thebaffler.com I wrote about how the hollow-point bullet went from humanitarian's lament to the round of choice for U.S. police.
The history shows how police militarization works like a reverse ratchet—unleashing is easy, but putting the restraint back on is much harder.
The history shows how police militarization works like a reverse ratchet—unleashing is easy, but putting the restraint back on is much harder.
An update on this: Mahmoud Khalil's lawsuit against the Trump administration re: communications between ICE and anti-Palestinian/pro-Israel groups has been assigned to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee, at SDNY.
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
An update on this: Mahmoud Khalil's lawsuit against the Trump administration re: communications between ICE and anti-Palestinian/pro-Israel groups has been assigned to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee, at SDNY.
Wow.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Lindsey Halligan's appointment unlawful and the prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey therefore invalid.
Both indictments are dismissed without prejudice.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Lindsey Halligan's appointment unlawful and the prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey therefore invalid.
Both indictments are dismissed without prejudice.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Wow.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Lindsey Halligan's appointment unlawful and the prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey therefore invalid.
Both indictments are dismissed without prejudice.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Lindsey Halligan's appointment unlawful and the prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey therefore invalid.
Both indictments are dismissed without prejudice.
INBOX: Today, @protectdemocracy.org and @weareoversight.bsky.social sued the Trump admin for the release of its list of NGOs reportedly targeted for investigation based on political views and advocacy (including the "Antifa" EO 46317 and NSPM-7), following last month's unanswered FOIA requests.
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
INBOX: Today, @protectdemocracy.org and @weareoversight.bsky.social sued the Trump admin for the release of its list of NGOs reportedly targeted for investigation based on political views and advocacy (including the "Antifa" EO 46317 and NSPM-7), following last month's unanswered FOIA requests.
NEW: 13 Dem members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are requesting AG Bondi and Sec Hegseth declassify and release the DOJ OLC opinion—which the committee reviewed last week—on the Trump admin’s 21 "unauthorized" Caribbean boat strikes that have killed 83 people.
November 24, 2025 at 4:47 PM
NEW: 13 Dem members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are requesting AG Bondi and Sec Hegseth declassify and release the DOJ OLC opinion—which the committee reviewed last week—on the Trump admin’s 21 "unauthorized" Caribbean boat strikes that have killed 83 people.
NEW: Hawley and Blumenthal make bipartisan call for the FTC/SEC to “investigate and, if appropriate, bring enforcement actions against Meta for its facilitation of and profiting from criminal investment scams, fake government benefits schemes, deepfake pornography" and more.
November 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
NEW: Hawley and Blumenthal make bipartisan call for the FTC/SEC to “investigate and, if appropriate, bring enforcement actions against Meta for its facilitation of and profiting from criminal investment scams, fake government benefits schemes, deepfake pornography" and more.
Guess the Google Doc lol
November 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Guess the Google Doc lol
NEW: Sen. Blumenthal & Rep. Peters launched an inquiry into Trump aide Paul Ingrassia's involvement in the federal investigation of Tristan and Andrew Tate after @propublica.org reported that the former White House liaison to DHS personally intervened on behalf of the alleged sex traffickers.
November 21, 2025 at 4:29 PM
NEW: Sen. Blumenthal & Rep. Peters launched an inquiry into Trump aide Paul Ingrassia's involvement in the federal investigation of Tristan and Andrew Tate after @propublica.org reported that the former White House liaison to DHS personally intervened on behalf of the alleged sex traffickers.
NEW: Mahmoud Khalil and @ccrjustice.org filed a lawsuit today to compel the Trump administration to release communications with anti-Palestinian groups—such as Canary Mission and Betar—who coordinated with and supplied information to ICE in the lead up to his March arrest.
November 20, 2025 at 8:53 PM
NEW: Mahmoud Khalil and @ccrjustice.org filed a lawsuit today to compel the Trump administration to release communications with anti-Palestinian groups—such as Canary Mission and Betar—who coordinated with and supplied information to ICE in the lead up to his March arrest.
Doing this just before thousands of young New York City transplants go home to their suburban towns for Thanksgiving is diabolical
Trump says he’s meeting with “communist” Mamdani at the White House on Friday
November 20, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Doing this just before thousands of young New York City transplants go home to their suburban towns for Thanksgiving is diabolical
Reposted by Tyler McBrien
A major Nvidia scoop and a thread about being a small news organization. Stay for the kicker.
November 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
A major Nvidia scoop and a thread about being a small news organization. Stay for the kicker.
Time for my favorite @alanrozenshtein.com quote
November 19, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Time for my favorite @alanrozenshtein.com quote
INBOX: Watchdog group American Oversight "demands urgent recovery and preservation of records" after reports that DOJ's Weaponization Working Group head Ed Martin has been conducting official business on personal devices and auto-deleting apps to evade record-keeping requirements
November 19, 2025 at 9:30 PM
INBOX: Watchdog group American Oversight "demands urgent recovery and preservation of records" after reports that DOJ's Weaponization Working Group head Ed Martin has been conducting official business on personal devices and auto-deleting apps to evade record-keeping requirements
Anyone interested in govt transparency and public access should check out GovScape from @bcgl.bsky.social and his team👇
It's an incredibly powerful tool that allows visual, semantic text, and keywords search of 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages!) and counting: www.govscape.net
It's an incredibly powerful tool that allows visual, semantic text, and keywords search of 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages!) and counting: www.govscape.net
November 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Anyone interested in govt transparency and public access should check out GovScape from @bcgl.bsky.social and his team👇
It's an incredibly powerful tool that allows visual, semantic text, and keywords search of 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages!) and counting: www.govscape.net
It's an incredibly powerful tool that allows visual, semantic text, and keywords search of 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages!) and counting: www.govscape.net
UPDATE: Senators Warren, Schiff, & Blumenthal sent letters to top lobbyists soliciting donations for the Trump ballroom construction demanding information on how fundraising is organized, how donors are identified, and what has been promised in exchange for contributions.
November 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
UPDATE: Senators Warren, Schiff, & Blumenthal sent letters to top lobbyists soliciting donations for the Trump ballroom construction demanding information on how fundraising is organized, how donors are identified, and what has been promised in exchange for contributions.
INBOX: Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Garcia sent another letter to DHS Secretary Noem demanding information about "increasingly frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions" of U.S. citizens by CBP and ICE.
It follows a similar demand sent to DHS on Oct 20, which went unanswered.
It follows a similar demand sent to DHS on Oct 20, which went unanswered.
November 18, 2025 at 5:25 PM
INBOX: Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Garcia sent another letter to DHS Secretary Noem demanding information about "increasingly frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions" of U.S. citizens by CBP and ICE.
It follows a similar demand sent to DHS on Oct 20, which went unanswered.
It follows a similar demand sent to DHS on Oct 20, which went unanswered.
It's just that if ran a resort and convention center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in 2025 I'm not sure I would name my holiday festival simply "ICE!"
November 18, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It's just that if ran a resort and convention center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in 2025 I'm not sure I would name my holiday festival simply "ICE!"
A “high-level” Trump admin official told the @newyorker.com that in an interview for her position “her interlocutor opened his mouth to reveal that he had a MAGA tattoo on the underside of his lower lip.”
The official said, “It’s over the top, but it’s the currency of the realm.”
The official said, “It’s over the top, but it’s the currency of the realm.”
November 18, 2025 at 12:39 AM
A “high-level” Trump admin official told the @newyorker.com that in an interview for her position “her interlocutor opened his mouth to reveal that he had a MAGA tattoo on the underside of his lower lip.”
The official said, “It’s over the top, but it’s the currency of the realm.”
The official said, “It’s over the top, but it’s the currency of the realm.”
Reposted by Tyler McBrien
Mag Judge Fitzpatrick says two statements by Halligan to grand jury "appear to be fundamental misstatements of the law that could compromise the integrity of the grand jury process."
November 17, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Mag Judge Fitzpatrick says two statements by Halligan to grand jury "appear to be fundamental misstatements of the law that could compromise the integrity of the grand jury process."
A couple years back, I wrote about how the novelty of interacting with government agencies on social media gave way to an era of skepticism on both sides.
Now we have official government accounts posting "womp womp, cry all you want," and calling US citizens "imbecilic morons."
Now we have official government accounts posting "womp womp, cry all you want," and calling US citizens "imbecilic morons."
November 14, 2025 at 9:08 PM
A couple years back, I wrote about how the novelty of interacting with government agencies on social media gave way to an era of skepticism on both sides.
Now we have official government accounts posting "womp womp, cry all you want," and calling US citizens "imbecilic morons."
Now we have official government accounts posting "womp womp, cry all you want," and calling US citizens "imbecilic morons."
In an interview with @npr.org last month, a former head of FTO designation at State said this would be "a highly dangerous step" and former counsel for domestic terrorism at DOJ predicted it would have "a cascading effect across civil society."
November 14, 2025 at 3:07 PM
In an interview with @npr.org last month, a former head of FTO designation at State said this would be "a highly dangerous step" and former counsel for domestic terrorism at DOJ predicted it would have "a cascading effect across civil society."
Reposted by Tyler McBrien
At @lawfaremedia.org, we spent a month tracking down public info on domestic deployments of National Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty troops.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
At @lawfaremedia.org, we spent a month tracking down public info on domestic deployments of National Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty troops.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
At @lawfaremedia.org, we spent a month tracking down public info on domestic deployments of National Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty troops.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
At @lawfaremedia.org, we spent a month tracking down public info on domestic deployments of National Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty troops.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
What we found—and what we didn't—revealed a disturbing lack of transparency on how and why military forces are being used on U.S. soil.
Reposted by Tyler McBrien
At 4pm Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick will hold a telephonic hearing on whether govt must turn over grand jury minutes to Comey’s team. Tech permitting, I’ll live-blog for @lawfaremedia.org .
For background, see
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tria...
/1
For background, see
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tria...
/1
Trial Dispatch: The Comey Hearing of Nov. 5, 2025
A judge ordered grand jury minutes turned over to James Comey, as well as information from five-year-old searches of Professor Dan Richman.
www.lawfaremedia.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:36 PM
At 4pm Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick will hold a telephonic hearing on whether govt must turn over grand jury minutes to Comey’s team. Tech permitting, I’ll live-blog for @lawfaremedia.org .
For background, see
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tria...
/1
For background, see
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tria...
/1
NEW: @annabower.bsky.social reviewed a tranche of FOIA docs from an online public FBI vault which suggest that Dan Richman—the person "at the FBI" who Comey allegedly "authorized" to anonymously leak to the press—may not have been officially employed by the Bureau at the time in question.
November 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
NEW: @annabower.bsky.social reviewed a tranche of FOIA docs from an online public FBI vault which suggest that Dan Richman—the person "at the FBI" who Comey allegedly "authorized" to anonymously leak to the press—may not have been officially employed by the Bureau at the time in question.