Greg Sargent writes:

House Speaker Mike Johnson is outraged—absolutely outraged—that Democrats dared to suggest in that viral video this week that military and intelligence professionals should be wary of following illegal orders. “That was a wildly inappropriate thing for so-called leaders in Congress to do,” Johnson told reporters. Shockingly, Johnson didn’t think it “inappropriate” for Trump to accuse those Democrats of sedition that’s “punishable by death.”

What’s been oddly absent from much of the coverage is any consideration of this question: Is it reasonable to fear that Trump or his top advisers actually are giving illegal orders to people in the military or intelligence services, or is it not reasonable to fear this? The answer is: Yes, of course it’s reasonable.

And guess who is standing in the way of serious fact-finding that might determine whether Trump is or is not doling out said illegal orders? Mike Johnson is. Because the GOP’s wholesale abdication of oversight is itself facilitating the issuing of potentially unlawful commands under cover of darkness.

The evidence that Trump or his top advisers really have been issuing illegal commands is quite strong. [Continue reading…]