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Thursday, January 09, 2020

An E-mail to Professor Hathaway

I remain somewhat puzzled by your reticence and the reticence of other critics of the President. The AP quoted you as saying: “Trump’s threat amounted to ‘a pretty clear promise of commission of a war crime.’” See <https://apnews.com/8d3385ab6c29c3da3ab9b081bae53884>. And here <https://twitter.com/oonahathaway/status/1213924990254551046>, you wrote that Trump’s “tweet threatens to break several laws.” Does the tweet, which you characterize as a threat or promise,” actually break any laws, including the law of land warfare and/or the 1907 [Geneva] Convention? Or, are you making just a slippery slope argument, i.e., the tweet puts one-and-all on notice that Trump will [or is likely to] break the law (even if he has not done so yet)? 

I don’t really understand your position.

Seth

Seth Barrett Tillman, An E-mail To Professor Hathaway, New Reform Club (Jan. 9, 2020, 4:22 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2020/01/an-e-mail-to-professor-hathaway.html>.