Barton Gellman

Senior advisor @BrennanCenter | Author 'Dark Mirror' & 'Angler' | ex-Atlantic & Wash Post | Contact:

[Kettering Foundation @KetteringFdn]

We are delighted to share that KF Senior Fellow @JudgeLuttig and Fanning Fellow @JudyWoodruff will be among the panelists celebrating America 250 with the Task Force for American Democracy in a webinar on June 30.

Register now to listen to their discussion of the vision of the Founders and their hope for the future, despite the challenges ahead. https://t.co/sea1G4YNz5

[Elizabeth Goitein @LizaGoitein]

.@SenatorWarner has long backed giving intelligence agencies warrantless access to Americans' communications under Section 702. He is reportedly working with Trump allies on a bill to extend that access THIS WEEK. If he means what he says below, he must change course.

[Brennan Center @BrennanCenter]

.@CatoInstitute's Thomas Berry explains how term limits for Supreme Court justices could fix the randomness of the current life-tenure system while still retaining the benefits of the Court's independence.
https://t.co/9Bc4g2nmcy

[Ned Price @nedprice]

The biggest news isn't that Trump is appointing someone without a national security background to a position that, by law, requires "extensive" experience. It's that Pulte earned Trump's trust by using **mortgage** records to pursue perceived political enemies. Now this top henchman will have access to some of our most sensitive intelligence and exquisite capabilities. That's why this is so noteworthy -- and concerning.

[Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe]

Update: Since this Pentagon statement was released, numerous current and former defense officials have reached out and questioned the truth of speechwriters needing regular or fulltime access to a classified system.

One familiar with the work said it's "ludicrous" to further limit press access while claiming speechwriting must be in a classified space.

"Almost everything those speechwriters produce will be unclassified," this person said.

He added that Hegseth's chief of staff, Ricky Buria, knows that well because when he was a military assistant to former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, Buria brought the secretary draft speeches -- "virtually all unclassified."

[Daniel I. Weiner @DanWeiner329]

BREAKING: we released a new poll of registered voters this morning showing record levels of concern across the political spectrum about government corruption— 92 percent said it was a big problem. https://t.co/mDCVOPS4lL

[Brennan Center @BrennanCenter]

Our years-long inquiry into the Boston Police Department’s social media practices found broad monitoring without policies to prevent bias or improper surveillance.
https://t.co/WQ3SvrVeoe

[Barton Gellman @bartongellman]

This is a bracingly optimistic take on the state of journalism. I hope it proves out.

[Ben Smith @semaforben]

Talked to @micsolana & @dodgeblake about @semafor & my most optimistic take, the gravitational pull of good journalism

[Brennan Center @BrennanCenter]

A new Brennan Center survey finds widespread voter support across parties for key anticorruption reforms, including new limits on money in elections and stronger protections against self-dealing by high-ranking government officials. https://t.co/LqFbpwRphT

[Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw]

Congressional statute:

"There is a Director of National Intelligence who shall be appointed by the President ... Any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise."

50 U.S. Code § 3023

[Scott Nover @ScottNover]

SCOOP: The Pentagon has banned journalists from its press office, designating it a classified space. The change creates a new barrier between journalists and the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions.

https://t.co/DYgLYj99sc

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

BREAKING: D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Hegseth policy barring military service by transgender people is fueled by unconstitutional animus.

2-1 decision bars military from removing some currently-serving transgender service members.

https://t.co/jWLzjEzHx9

[Katherine Yon Ebright @EbrightYon]

"[T]he strikes are illegal because the military is prohibited from deliberately targeting civilians, even if they are believed to have committed a crime ...[and] there is no evidence that the strikes have had any impact on the amount of cocaine" in the US.
https://t.co/3fOoWURsH1

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers in a move that targeted women and minority officers. https://t.co/1vww7IxOf1

[Jason Koebler @jason_koebler]

New: Hackers have been stealing high-profile Instagram accounts by simply asking Meta's AI support chatbot to change the email associated with the account they want to steal.

Shockingly easy, terrible flaw associated with offloading support to AI:

https://t.co/PvRm8u0MV7

[Brennan Center @BrennanCenter]

Trump's recent disclosure of his stock trades is a tale of profiteering, with telling connections between his purchases and his public support of companies.
https://t.co/upAZaTbXMa

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

FBI agents showed up at the private home of Milwaukee County elections director Michelle Hawley - not her office, her home - as part of Kash Patel's FBI investigation into 2020 election theories that courts, recounts, and independent reviews have confirmed have no basis in reality.

Two specific theories under investigation:

First: a flash drive from Milwaukee's 2020 election night tabulation. The city's then-election director gathered flash drives at 3 a.m., realized she had missed one, and a police officer delivered it to the county office. Bipartisan election observers watched the entire process. Results were confirmed in a recount, court battles, and a review by a conservative legal group.

Second: a "secret backroom" where a man from Illinois supposedly printed ballots. This theory originated from a lawsuit filed by a convicted felon. A judge threw out the suit.

Both theories are being investigated by federal agents showing up at election officials' private residences.

The concrete risk in Wisconsin: the state's absentee ballots can, by law, be traced to individual voters. If the FBI seizes them, agents could match voters to their candidate choices. The ballot secrecy of everyone who voted absentee in 2020 would be gone.

[Jonathan Landay Reuters @JonathanLanday]

"Their hijacking of the public square is made possible by the original sin that animates their A.I. products — a brazen theft of intellectual property that has occurred at an unprecedented scale. Tech giants strip-mine news websites without permission or compensation."

[Prof. Katharine Hayhoe @KHayhoe]

I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline.

“Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet.*

Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming.**

Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”***

* in 1937, Guy Callendar published a paper showing that the world had already warmed over the last 50 years due to human emissions what he called “carbonic acid“ – what we now call CO2 – from burning fossil fuels

** If you are wondering, “how could humans be causing more than 100% of the warming?”

— it’s because, according to natural factors, the earth should be cooling right now.

So our emissions are offsetting that cooling AND causing all of the observed warming.

*** For more on the well funded disinformation campaign, read or watch Merchants of Doubt and The Petroleum Papers

[Matthew Botvinick @mattbotvinick]

Anthropic now has a team dedicated to AI and the rule of law — and we've just opened our first role.

@AnthropicAI has studied what AI means for the economy. This team asks a different question: what will it mean for executive power, for courts and elections — and for the public deliberation that constitutional democracy ultimately rests on?

We're looking for someone with real depth in both AI and the law — a legal scholar, political scientist, or experienced government hand who can reason about frontier systems and the institutions they will affect.

If that's you, or someone you know: https://t.co/668HDz1lhf