Eric Columbus

Last week, with the change in House control, I left a great job. I was Special Litigation Counsel in the House Office of General Counsel, litigating on behalf of Congressional committees and @SpeakerPelosi, and handling special projects. A long, self-indulgent thread follows. 1/

Pretty good run for Villanova

I built a full New York Knicks franchise dashboard covering 27 seasons of data, from the 1999 Finals run to the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals. The story is wild. 1/ The 1999 Knicks are still the first and only 8-seed in NBA history to reach the Finals. They beat the #1, #4, and #2 seeds to get there. No team has done it since. 2/ The 2005-06 Knicks had a $124M payroll, the highest in the NBA, and won 23 games. One of the worst payroll-to-wins outcomes in modern NBA history. Then Isiah Thomas became both GM and head coach and went 56-108. 3/ The franchise went 17-65 twice. 2015 and 2019. Same record. Different era. Same pain. 4/ Jalen Brunson changed the entire franchise equation. Since he arrived: Average wins: 33 → 50.3 Net rating: -2.4 → +3.7 Offense: 21st → 5th All for roughly $27M per year. 5/ Brunson’s 28.7 PPG in 2023-24 tied Carmelo Anthony for the third-highest single-season scoring average in Knicks history. Only Bernard King and Richie Guerin are ahead of them. 6/ The Pacers remain the Knicks’ true playoff nemesis. Since 1999, the Knicks are 1-4 against Indiana in playoff series. Their only win came in 1999, on the way to the Finals. Since then: four straight series losses. 7/ But the 2026 run feels different. 11-2 in the playoffs. Up 3-0 on Cleveland in the ECF. Brunson averaging 30 PPG. Mikal Bridges shooting 69.6% from the field. One win away from the Knicks’ first Finals appearance in 27 years. Full dashboard in next tweet

@dilanesper The podium reference to Trump-Vance indicates that this wasn’t on Memorial Day. It’s still gross!

To state the obvious: many military families include Democrats, and the president just insulted them in his Memorial Day message.

@RobGeorge Was it the gods who beat Detroit, or was it the Cavs, who are now down 3-0, calling into question the notion that a team they beat would somehow beat the Knicks.

Basketball gods declared no repeats from teams the Knicks beat last year! Sorry, Boston! Sorry, Detroit!

@derektmuller The GOP has never nominated anyone for president born after 1947

Birth years of major party presidential candidates last 9 elections: 1924 v. 1946 1923 v. 1946 1946 v. 1948 1946 v. 1943 1936 v. 1961 1947 v. 1961 1946 v. 1947 1946 v. 1942 1946 v. 1964

You do realize that attacking the president's former senior appointees in this fashion is not helping the Administration one whit, right? Like, who do you imagine was on the fence before this, read your tweet, and thought, "gee, these sound like people I should trust?"

Absurd claim by Acting AG Blanche that “the fact that it was President Trump and his sons and his company played no role in my decision.” Is anyone stupid enough to believe this?

@grace_panetta @DrewSav “tried to honey trap him not even romantically but politically” what does that even mean?

Lisa Taddeo, the author of this Airmail piece defending Olivia Nuzzi, has now fallen out with her and is accusing her of trying to “honey trap” her husband, per comments she posted on Instagram

thought this sh!t was AI, what we doing man

The Trump admin is quietly deleting info about the Capitol attack from the DOJ website as it prepares to give funds to J6ers. This week, DOJ deleted a press release about one man with an ongoing child solicitation case who came to the Capitol with bear spray. Before and after:

I almost hesitate to promote this, because it wasn't really intended to be a piece. I just sort of sat down and it came out. Maybe someone else out there has the same type of day today, and it'll speak to them. realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/…

@SeanTrende Sean this is wonderful. Thanks for sharing it — and Judson — with us.

Mr. President, completely agree about having a lot of fun over these next seven months.  But nitpicking? Some of your advisors are telling you to support things like:     - Using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police. (Ed Martin)    - Pushing 50-year mortgages and Elizabeth Warren's housing bill over sound conservative housing policy. (Bill Pulte)    - Using taxpayer money to transform publicly traded companies into state-owned enterprises. (Howard Lutnick)    - Firing our very best generals and not holding Putin accountable for his systematic kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian civilians. (Pete Hegseth)  If opposing these things makes me a RINO, then I gladly accept that nickname.  We need Republicans to do well in November, but the stupid stuff is killing our chances!

Yesterday, Chicago’s top federal prosecutor dismissed charges with prejudice against four immigration protestors. Senior Editor @EricColumbus chronicles the case’s slow and then sudden collapse.

On Lawfare Daily, Senior Editor @EricColumbus joined Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes to talk about the new $1.776 billion fund for Trump’s allies, where it came from, and what can be done about it.

I begin every day by reading Lawfare in these troubled time when the Constitution and Rule of Law are under vicious attack by our own United States Government. I am honored to continue supporting Lawfare, as anyone concerned for the Rule of Law would be.

@SCOTUS_gami This is great! Please consider also posting on Bluesky, lots of us sickos there would love it

A thread to clarify my standard for a SCOTUSgami: In the spirit of other -gami’s, they shouldn’t be too frequent. To achieve this, I’ve chosen to only count individual pieces of writing that are joined by unique sets of justices.

@NateSilver538 We need an autopsy of how the DNC picked the author of the autopsy

The combination in the DNC report of 1) extremely obvious, toothless conclusions 2) regurgitation of random off-topic factoids and 3) lack of specific sourcing feels very much like someone didn't do the reading and used GPT/Claude.

Ken Paxton initially offered a plea deal to a MAN WHO ADMITTED TO MOLESTING a child to serve only ONE DAY IN JAIL. #txsen