PROVING DARK BRANDON'S POINT:

 Donald Trump branded Joe Biden an "enemy of the state" Saturday, as he hit back at the US president's assertion that the Republican and his supporters are undermining American democracy and slammed last month's FBI raid of his Florida home.

Making his first public appearance since the August 8 raid, Trump said the search was a "travesty of justice" and warned it would produce "a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen."

Kiwifarms has frequently been host to revolting content. Revolting content alone does not create an emergency situation that necessitates the action we are taking today. Beginning approximately two weeks ago, a pressure campaign started with the goal to deplatform Kiwifarms. That pressure campaign targeted Cloudflare as well as other providers utilized by the site.

Cloudflare provides security services to Kiwifarms, protecting them from DDoS and other cyberattacks. We have never been their hosting provider. As we outlined last Wednesday, we do not believe that terminating security services is appropriate, even to revolting content. In a law-respecting world, the answer to even illegal content is not to use other illegal means like DDoS attacks to silence it.

We are also not taking this action directly because of the pressure campaign. While we have empathy for its organizers, we are committed as a security provider to protecting our customers even when they run deeply afoul of popular opinion or even our own morals. The policy we articulated last Wednesday remains our policy. We continue to believe that the best way to relegate cyberattacks to the dustbin of history is to give everyone the tools to prevent them.

However, as the pressure campaign escalated, so did the rhetoric on the Kiwifarms site. Feeling attacked, users of the site became even more aggressive. Over the last two weeks, we have proactively reached out to law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions highlighting what we believe are potential criminal acts and imminent threats to human life that were posted to the site.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), in an apparent effort to protect Donald Trump, is now attempting to bully Attorney General Merrick Garland and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray into undermining the U.S. Dept. of Justice's criminal investigation into the former president's unlawful retention and refusal to return stolen White House records including secret defense and national security documents classified at the highest levels.

In a letter to both law enforcement leaders dated Friday, McCarthy threatens them with powers he does not have, and legal and government experts are mocking him as a result. [...]

Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law law professor with a focus on national security writes: "As separation-of-powers debates go, I'm usually pretty pro-Congress. And even *I* don't think that Congress has the constitutional authority to demand 'all communications and documents' from the Executive Branch relating to an ongoing criminal investigation."

Former CEO and Editor of the publisher of Foreign Policy Magazine, journalist, podcast host, former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce, and foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf mocks McCarthy, saying, "Er, nope. That's just not something you have the power to do."

Former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Mitchell Epner rhetorically asks, "Does Kevin McCarthy believe that AG Merritt Garland is unaware that the House GOP does not have subpoena power? McCarthy's statement that "they must provide all communications and documents relating to the raid" confuses his wishcasting with enforceable demands."

Former DOJ Inspector General and Asst. U.S. Attorney at SDNY Michael Bromwich writes, "Oversight over ongoing criminal investigations simply doesn't happen, unless you want to kill the investigation. This is dishonest and disingenuous grandstanding for an audience of one."

"Kevin McCarthy wants the FBI to stop investigating where 80 classified/military aide documents disappeared," notes national security journalist Marcy Wheeler.

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