The Week That Was

On Lawfare Daily, Shane Harris joined Benjamin Wittes to talk about how the Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a group chat on Signal where top government officials discussed plans for military strikes in Yemen. They discussed the Trump administration’s remarkable security lapse, the testimony of the country’s intelligence chiefs that came in its wake, and more.

Wittes called upon the Atlantic to publish the full text thread from the Signal group to which Goldberg was mistakenly given access. Wittes praised the Atlantic for excluding highly sensitive information from the initial report, but argued that top officials’ impunitive assertions that the chat did not contain classified information required that the documents be released.

On Lawfare Daily, Harris and Wittes discussed the Atlantic’s decision to release the attack plans that President Donald Trump’s top advisers shared in a Signal group chat. This podcast originally aired as a live conversation on March 26.

On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Roger Parloff and Wittes to discuss the major national security news of the week, including Trump’s top advisers sharing attack plans on Signal; the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act—and more recently, its invocation of state secrets—to remove alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to a notorious prison in El Salvador; law firm Paul, Weiss’s acquiescence to the Trump administration; and more.

On March 28 at 4 p.m. ET, Wittes sat down with Anna Bower, Parloff, Anderson, James Pearce, and David D. Cole to discuss the status of the civil litigation against Trump’s executive actions, including the deportation of individuals under the Alien Enemies Act, the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, and the targeting of law firms.

Quinta Jurecic discussed the speed, scale, and brazenness with which Trump has attacked the Department of Justice in his second term compared to his first, attributing the change to Trump’s consolidation of power in the party, newfound presidential immunity, and more. Jurecic illustrated the difference by comparing the cases of national security adviser Michael Flynn and New York Mayor Eric Adams, noting that while Trump’s actions in the Flynn case were once viewed as remarkable, his conduct in the Adams case is dangerously routine.

Peter Margulies and David A. Martin argued that—absent a “clear statement” from Congress that the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act invoked in the case of Mahmoud Khalil applies to the deportation of a lawful permanent resident (LPR)—courts should hold that the provision does not pertain to LPRs because of the rigorous inquiry required by the statute’s two-tier structure.

Amanda L. Tyler examined the history of habeas corpus jurisdiction and the issues a court considering the return of individuals removed under the Alien Enemies Act must contend with, including the foreign location of the detention and whether United States officials retain custody over those removed.

Parloff previewed a hearing in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to decide whether to grant stays of Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining order and class certification in J.G.G. v. Trump. Parloff discussed the developments in the case thus far and three jurisdictional issues likely to arise during arguments.

Alexis Loeb explained why Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to disband the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Team—tasked with ensuring that the U.S. economy could not be used to launder the proceeds of corruption—will make it easier for corrupt actors to exploit the U.S. market and undermine the standing of the U.S. abroad.

On Lawfare Daily, Tom Kent joined Wittes to discuss Trump’s executive order dismantling Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

Wittes described how Trump’s authoritarian tendencies have manifested in his attacks on political enemies and government itself. Wittes highlighted how Trump has moved to quash dissent in the Justice Department, apply criminal and non-criminal legal pressure to opponents, impound money, and more.

Wittes reflected on the ongoing legal and political battles in the U.S. that characterize the Trump administration’s effort to replace the current liberal, democratic regime in America with one decidedly less liberal, less democratic, “more clientelist, and more personal.”

On Lawfare Daily, in a recording of a live conversation on March 21, Wittes spoke to Bower, Jurecic, and Parloff about the status of the civil litigation against Trump’s executive actions, including the Department of Government Efficiency’s incursions on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the firing of probationary employees, and more.

On Lawfare No Bull, Caroline Cornett shared the audio from oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on whether to stay a temporary restraining order issued on March 15—which bars summary removals of alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang—under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

On Lawfare No Bull, Cornett shared audio from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing on March 25.

Also on Lawfare No Bull, Cornett shared audio from the House Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing on March 26.

On Escalation, Tyler McBrien and Anastasiia Lapatina covered the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine—sparked by then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to back out of the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement—and the West’s response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of parts of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Jennifer Hillman explained that Trump does not have authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because Congress did not delegate authority over tariffs to the president, as required by the major questions doctrine.

On Lawfare Daily, Daniel Byman sat down with Natan Sachs to discuss Israel's turbulent domestic situation and the renewal of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. They talked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political tactics; the controversies over the budget, judicial reform and the resulting protests; why Israel has decided to renew operations in Gaza and Lebanon; and more.

Kevin Frazier and Kevin Wei argued that state-managed data commons—in which individuals voluntarily share information to improve public services—can transform the ability of the public sector to harness artificial intelligence for social benefit. Frazier and Wei suggested ways to overcome challenges to establishing data commons, including negotiating value-sharing agreements with private companies, establishing security and privacy standards, and more.

Simon Goldstein and Peter N. Salib argued that the most important question in the race for artificial general intelligence is whether AGI will nullify nuclear deterrence and the framework that has prevented war between global powers since World War II.

In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discussed top Trump administration officials’ use of Signal to discuss attack plans for strikes on Yemen, calls for the Trump administration to reestablish the recently disbanded Cyber Safety Review Board, Meta’s strategy for combating misinformation in the upcoming Australian federal election, and more.

Stefan Soesanto discussed how international coordination efforts and the Estonian government’s public attribution of a cyberattack to a Russian military unit played a key role in shaping recent European Union sanctions against Russia, more than four years after the attack.

And Sherri Goodman and Leah Emanuel reviewed Peter Schwartzstein’s “The Heat and the Fury: On the Front Lines of Climate Violence,” highlighting his exploration of how actors from terrorists to wealthy nations exploit the climate crisis and how communities at risk can rally around the need to protect ecosystems on which they rely.

And that was the week that was.