The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Anna Bower and Roger Parloff shared  a dispatch from the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington D.C., where United States v. Donald J. Trump resumed on Thursday. Bower and Parloff laid out the discussion between Judge Tanya Chutkan, John Lauro—Trump’s defense lawyer—and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom over proceedings in the case.

On Sept. 5 at 4 p.m. ET, Benjamin Wittes was joined by Parloff and Bower for this week’s episode of “Lawfare Live: Trump’s Trials and Tribulations.” If you would like to submit questions to the panelists and watch Lawfare livestreams on Zoom without ads, become a material supporter of Lawfare on Patreon or Substack. You can watch a recording of the webinar below.

Jack Goldsmith and Oona Hathaway discussed Intelligence Community Directive 711’s establishment of new requirements for the administration of prepublication reviews. Goldsmith and Hathaway suggest that while the directive fixes a few issues, it is insufficient to address larger problems.

Matt Perault examined the FBI’s newly released policy on how bureau officials should coordinate with social media platforms, writing that other government agencies and companies should use the FBI’s guidance as a model to establish their own jawboning procedures.

Anna Hickey shared a livestream of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s remarks before the Justice Department's Election Task Force. He accused Russia of conducting a disinformation campaign targeting the 2024 presidential election.

Katherine Pompilio shared two indictments unsealed by the Justice Department of a Russian couple in connection with alleged “schemes” to violate U.S. sanctions.

Pompilio also broke down documents released by the Justice and Treasury Departments accusing Russia of engaging in influence operations in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. According to a signed affidavit, the Justice Department seized 32 internet domains used by the Russian government to conduct foreign malign influence campaigns targeting voters in U.S. and foreign elections.

Olivia Manes shared a Maryland grand jury’s superseding indictment against five members of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staffand one Russian civilian for allegedly conspiring to hack the Ukrainian government and its allies in the U.S. and Europe.

Tyler McBrien shared the Justice Department’s unsealed indictments against six senior Hamas leaders on charges of terrorism, murder conspiracy, and sanctions evasion.

On Lawfare Daily, McBrien sat down with Michael Hirsh to talk about what a potential Harris administration foreign policy or “Harris Doctrine” might look like. They discussed Hirsch’s review of recent books written by Vice President Harris’s top foreign policy advisors, clues about the shape of a potential Harris administration foreign policy agenda, and more. 

Rachel E. VanLandingham analyzed how changes to military consent law, specifically a new “affirmative consent” standard set by the 2017 NDAA legislative reform, allowed a landmark prosecution of a U.S. Air Force major general to take place

On Lawfare Daily, Quinta Jurecic, Perault, and Renee DiResta discussed interesting developments in content moderation on social media platforms, including Mark Zuckerberg’s recent letter to the House Judiciary committee; the arrest of the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, in France; and Elon Musk’s ongoing spat with courts in Brazil, culminating in the ban on Twitter (now X) in the country.

Emilio Meyer and Thomas Bustamante broke down the factors contributing to the banning of X by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Aug. 30, including the spread of disinformation during the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, Justice Moraes’ background, and the ongoing feud between Musk and the Brazilian courts.

On Rational Security, Alan Rozenshtein, Jurecic, and Scott R. Anderson celebrated the third anniversary of Rational Security 2.0. They were joined by their Lawfare colleagues Molly Reynolds, Natalie Orpett, and McBrien, who sat in “brutal judgment” as the three co-hosts pitched them some hot takes, including whether AI systems should be treated like wild animals, and more.

Kevin Frazier suggested in a new paper for the Digital Social Contract series that the international community should focus its artificial intelligence efforts on research coordination rather than international regulations, and analyzed two international research entities as potential models for this coordination. 

On Lawfare Daily, Frazier spoke about his paper with Rozenshtein, advocating for international coordination on AI research. They discussed existing models for an AI research initiative and why it would be useful to have an international institution at the center of this work, among other issues

On Lawfare Daily, Frazier also sat down with Duncan McLaren, a Climate Intervention Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at UCLA, to discuss recent developments in geoengineering.

In the latest installment of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discussed recent news, including Google’s discovery of Russian espionage exploits, the Iranian counterintelligence program, and the Green Berets’ new disruptive cyber technology.

In the latest installment of Water Wars, Aaron Baum, Nikhita Salgame, and Ania Zolyniak discussed the latest news out of the Indo-Pacific, including the collision of Chinese and Philippine vessels at the Sabina Shoal, the efforts of U.S. senators to curb China’s efforts to expand control over strategic ports, India’s plans to construct a deepwater port various joint military exercises, and more.

Bill Drexel and Grace Gao argued that American universities have the opportunity to educate Chinese students in a manner consistent with American values and interests—and also dismantle their previously held beliefs influenced by Chinese Communist Party propaganda—through classes on China’s modern history and democracy movements.

On Chatter, Eugenia Lostri conversed with Walt Hickey about his new book, “You Are What You Watch,” which explores entertainment’s ability to affect beliefs, how people see themselves, and how countries accrue power.

And to support Lawfare’s coverage of the Trump Trials—a first-of-its-kind project dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of the ongoing criminal proceedings against Trump in Washington, Florida, New York, and Georgia—please consider making a contribution here. Lawfare’s talented correspondents and analysts discuss the latest developments in the cases, explain the complex legal issues they raise, and consider what might come next in a wide range of content, including written analysis, podcasts, live and recorded virtual events, primary source document repositories, and infographics.

And that was the week that was.