MarkSilverman

Assistant Professor of Economics, Franklin & Marshall College. Sometime lawyer; Perennial philosopher

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Former Pardon Attorney: 2 days after Mr. Blanche was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, he fired me from my position as a pardon attorney. I declined to rubber stamp a political favor for Trump's friend and it cost me my job. Blanche sent US Marshals to my home in an effort to prevent me from speaking with members of Congress.

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

Embarrassing. Embarrassing for him. Embarrassing for the legal profession. Embarrassing for the Justice Department. Embarrassing for his former law partners (who have been embarrassed more than they deserve lately). Embarrassing for his family. Embarrassing for anyone who has ever met or worked with him (I guess I am fortunate to have not). And embarrassing for the country.

For the life of me I will never understand why intelligent, otherwise respected people like Clayton have chosen to abase themselves for a corrupt, criminal, imbecilic sociopath.

[MarkSilverman @MarkSilverman]

@SaltyWater90 @JohnFugelsang The very first words of the First Amendment are "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This means there's no government-established religion; everyone is free to practice their own

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

ICE lied about how Renee Good was shot.

They lied about how Alex Pretti was shot.

And now they’re lying about how Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot.

Don’t believe their story for a second.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

“Over 1000 FBI analysts were told to review and redact the Epstein Files.

Sources confided there were training videos instructing them on how to find, log, and redact Trump’s name.

The FBI just sent me their response confirming the videos exist.”

https://t.co/iN21fOi3KK

[Joe Walsh @WalshFreedom]

Seeing ICE use excessive force is no longer shocking. A young man is clearly complying, yet an agent still smashes his head into a wall. The “comply or die” authoritarians will cheer, because compliance was never really the point. Submission was.

Then look at the agent holding a Taser sideways like a child playing gangster. This is what we are dealing with: poorly trained, out-of-their-depth agents behaving more like a street gang than professional law enforcement.

https://t.co/du9bv2U4pY cannot stop every abusive agent. But it can help immigrants and citizens prepare constitutionally and practically for what happens before, during, and after an ICE encounter.

Protect yourself. Protect your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. Help us put PAXIS into the hands of everyone on American soil: https://t.co/ZhHJH8FyNd

[Jared Ryan Sears @JaredRyanSears]

For anyone who is worried about the communist threat facing America, here is some important information:

No one was eating the dogs or the cats.

No country emptied it's asylums or prisons into America.

Schools were not setting up litter boxes for kids.

America did not win the war in Iran over 30 times. It lost.

Other countries didn't pay the tariffs, you did.

DOGE didn't cut $2 trillion from the budget. It cost more than the tiny amount it did cut.

There is no communist threat. Not one person who has won a primary for Congress this year is a communist.

A political party that can't run on its record because it has been such a massive failure resorts to baseless fearmongering. That's all.

[Gene Trevino @GenoVeno73]

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT ANYONE SAYS — THIS MAN IS THE REAL MVP, AND A TRUE HERO.

This is Air Force Major Jason Watson's speech that resulted in his arrest on July 1, 2026.

I QUOTE: "In the grand scheme of things, I'm Just a nobody. What matters far more than who I am, is what I have to say, and the price I'm willing to pay to say it."

This man KNEW the trouble he was getting into by standing there in his military uniform, and he was willing to pay that price by sacrificing his entire military career so others can understand the dire situation of the current state of this country.

I can only aspire to obtain this type of bravery and courage.

👇👏👇👏👇👏

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

JUST. FUCKING. WOW. The humility, decency, and integrity of Jack Smith came across loud and clear. This career prosecutor is an American hero. Jack Smith is the antithesis of the depravity, corruption, and moral bankruptcy of Trump, Todd Blanche, the DOJ, and Kash Patel.

Here is a synopsis of Jack Smith's first televised news interview since he criminally charged the most corrupt president in American history, Donald Trump.

Core Pillars of the Interview

ㆍ The Fragility of the Rule of Law: Smith warned that the rule of law is under an unprecedented attack, declaring it is "different in kind and scope to anything I've seen in my lifetime." He explained that democratic systems do not run on autopilot and rely entirely on the good-faith commitment of people inside public institutions to uphold them.

ㆍ Consistency Over Politics: He reiterated that a healthy democracy requires investigating cases by focusing strictly on the facts and the law, applying the exact same standards regardless of political affiliation.

ㆍ Defending Career Public Servants: Smith spoke passionately about the career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff who are being "demonized for doing their jobs" by political figures. He expressed that he feels "terrible" about how they are being treated.

ㆍ The Call to Support Them: He emphasized the moral necessity for regular citizens to stand up for these civil servants, stating, "It's really important that we stand up for them and let them know that there are a lot of people out there who back them and who are with them."

ㆍ The Danger of Lost Trust: Smith noted that the loss of institutional trust has a dangerous "cascading effect" on the legal system, warning that when judges and the public lose faith in prosecutors, the Justice Department loses its ability to perform basic functions.

Warnings About Upcoming Elections

ㆍ Deeply Concerned for the Future: When asked directly if the country is witnessing a real-time assault on the upcoming election cycle, Smith explicitly stated, "I'm very concerned of what's going to happen in the next election, absolutely."

ㆍ Bad Actors Have Adapted: He warned that individuals who attempted to subvert the 2020 election have likely learned from past failures, adapting their strategies to be more effective next time.

ㆍ State Attorneys General Must Step Up: Smith emphasized that the federal apparatus cannot be the sole line of defense, noting that state attorneys general now have a massive responsibility to enforce the rule of law within their own state borders to protect voting integrity.

Anticipating Personal Retaliation & Indictment

ㆍ Expecting Retaliation: Wallace asked Smith point-blank if he expects to be criminally indicted by the current Trump administration.

ㆍ A Distinct Possibility: Smith acknowledged that an indictment "could happen," given the administration's vocal hostility toward him and the likely use of the Justice Department to target him directly.

ㆍ Refusing to Back Down: Despite the threat of prosecution, he declared, "I am not going to be intimidated. We did our work, pursuant to department policy... I'm not going to pretend that didn't happen because they are threatening me."

How Legal Experts & Media Analysts Reacted

ㆍ An Extraordinary and Historic Moment: Commentators and legal analysts noted that a public media tour by a former Special Counsel defending the DOJ's integrity against a sitting president is entirely unprecedented in modern political history.

ㆍ Nostalgia for Institutional Norms: Media figures reacted strongly to the broadcast, expressing a sense of nostalgia for a time when the Department of Justice operated under strict, non-partisan legal norms. Smith was praised as a rare, authoritative voice willing to publicly champion rank-and-file civil servants.

ㆍ Composure Under Extreme Pressure: Legal observers highlighted Smith’s calm, professional, and articulate demeanor during the broadcast. Analysts noted that his refusal to get defensive or angry stands as a model for how public officials should handle intense political weaponization.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

“This is a malignant narcissist in decline. It behooves us to take this lesson from history: Malignant narcissists ALWAYS get worse. They NEVER want to go down alone.”

[Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin]

Liz Oyer, former Pardon Attorney, describes how Todd Blanche fired her when she refused to do a dangerous official favor for Trump friend Mel Gibson. The actor lost his federal firearm rights after committing domestic violence. Gibson assaulted his girlfriend while she was holding their baby daughter, smashing her in the mouth, breaking her teeth, threatening her with his gun. Gibson asked Trump’s DOJ to reinstate his federal firearm rights despite his criminal conviction. Although Blanche had the power to do it on his own, he tried to force Oyer to give her stamp of approval. Not convinced of Gibson’s rehabilitation or his lack of dangerousness, and knowing that over half of women murdered in the United States are killed by a current or past intimate partner, and the presence of firearms in an abusive household increases the risk of murder by 500%, Oyer refused to have anything to do with Blanche’s dangerous and unethical suggestion. Blanche sacked her.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Jack Smith: I'll give you an example from from my life. I resigned as special counsel. I know I need to get a lawyer because the president has said he wants to jail me for doing my job. And so I retain lawyers, as soon as that becomes public, the president and the justice department target that law firm, and they do it because they don't want me to have counsel. They don't want to have anyone represent me…

[Liz Oyer @lawyeroyer]

As Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche fired me for doing my job, then subjected me and my family to months of retaliation. My story is one of many reasons the Senate should not confirm Blanche again. Read and share my letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. https://t.co/g8bFrhZ9Dg

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

Marco met with Bukele in his palace to hatch the plan that led to sending innocent Venezuelan immigrants to a foreign gulag with no due process. Surprised this has not gotten more attention.

[Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto]

Question: Is there any precedent even close for a U.S. President making this much money personally while in office?

Fmr WH ethics lawyer @RWPUSA: “None ever. We've never seen this much money made by U.S. President. We've never seen substantial conflicts of interest for any U.S. President since the Civil
War. Financial conflicts of interest. Every other president has voluntarily divested themselves of conflicts of interest with the presidency, except for Donald Trump .”

[Samantha Power @SamanthaJPower]

Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began terminating USAID's programs and firing its staff — with Musk himself boasting about "feeding it into the woodchipper." One year ago today, USAID was officially dissolved, its remaining programs haphazardly folded into the State Department. Amid all the lies and misinformation that have followed, some facts about what has actually been lost:

• USAID saved more than 3 million lives a year at a cost of less than $10/month per American. That is what was destroyed. On purpose.
• According to Boston University's Global Impact Counter — which tracked deaths attributable to the cuts until it stopped operations in February 2026 — an estimated 781,000 people died preventable deaths in the first year, including 518,000 children.
• Global child mortality (the number of children who die before their fifth birthday) rose in 2025 for the first time in 35+ years — by 200,000 additional deaths.
• USAID's 50-country disease surveillance network — the system that cut outbreak response times from 2 weeks to 48 hours — is gone. We are now watching an unprecedented Ebola outbreak unfold in real time — with the highest first-month caseload and death rate in modern history.
• Programs reaching 93 million women and children were cut 92%. TB programs cut 56%. Water and sanitation cut 86%. Over 2,000 health facilities permanently closed.
• 25 million fewer people received humanitarian assistance in 2025. The overall humanitarian budget was slashed 74% — from $14.1 billion to $3.7 billion.
• 363 million people face acute hunger in 2026. The famine early-warning system that would have seen it coming went dark for five months.
• $1.7 billion in democracy and governance funding (election monitoring, anti-corruption work, support for independent media and civil society) was terminated.
• 360+ independent media outlets lost funding. Hundreds of legal clinics closed.
• Far from saving money, the Trump administration itself has already said the dismantlement will cost taxpayers at least $19.2 billion in cancellation fees, severance, and penalties. That's more than half of USAID's annual budget — spent on destruction and closeout, not support for vulnerable people.
• American farmers, universities, and businesses are among the casualties too. USAID partnered with more than 3,500 U.S. companies and maintained 17 university-based research labs. Its work with U.S.-based contractors and the private sector generated hundreds of thousands of American jobs and multiplied the return on every dollar spent. Those markets and partnerships are gone.

[MarkSilverman @MarkSilverman]

And Musk will never experience an ounce of contrition for his lies.

[Danny Boy @Care2much18]

One of the many problems with countering lies is it takes two seconds to lie and a lot more effort to share truth.

The truth in this case is that 13 years ago some terrorists stole a USAID tent.

13 years later a trillionaire manipulates that photo to lie.

I'm going to bed.

[Danny Boy @Care2much18]

Quote: "This is how USAID spent your tax dollars"

I think people have lost the will to try fact-check this guy due to the volume of lies he spreads.

Also it's actually pretty difficult with this image and quite time consuming.

It just happens I had nothing better to do. /1

[Danny Boy @Care2much18]

One of the many problems with countering lies is it takes two seconds to lie and a lot more effort to share truth.

The truth in this case is that 13 years ago some terrorists stole a USAID tent.

13 years later a trillionaire manipulates that photo to lie.

I'm going to bed.