The Week That Was

Jack Goldsmith examined the uncertainty surrounding the norms that govern the Justice Department’s election-related actions, including the “60-day rule”, which limits prosecution of officials leading up to elections. Goldsmith argued that the Justice Department must clarify its interpretation of the rule, and explain why it does not apply to Judge Tanya Chutkan’s recent disclosure of its remand immunity brief in the Jan. 6 case against former President Donald Trump.

Katherine Pompilio shared the four volume redacted appendix to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page motion for immunity determinations in the Jan. 6 case against Trump. 

Rick Pildes discussed the existing and effective safeguards against partisan actors’ potential manipulation of election outcomes, including the Electoral Count Reform Act, the ability of state courts to issue orders requiring election certification, the federal Election Day statute, and more.

Matt Gluck, Olivia Manes, and Pompilio unpacked the Senate’s bipartisan report on United States Secret Service (USSS) failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, including errors in organization, communication, and technical expertise.

Manes also shared an independent review panel’s findings on USSS failures relating to the Butler, Pa. assassination attempt on Trump, which includes recommendations for USSS to address the July 13 failures as well as larger issues within the organization.

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Seamus Hughes considered the growing problem of violent extremism among young people, including teenagers’ susceptibility to radicalization, scattershot approaches to the issue by law enforcement, the difficulty of bringing material support to terrorism charges against minors, and more.

In the latest installment of a series from Protect Democracy and Lawfare on the limitations, drawbacks, and dangers of domestic deployment, Joseph Nunn scrutinized possible misuse of Section 502(f) of Title 32 of the U.S. Code, a long-standing authority that facilitates a range of important domestic National Guard missions, and argued the law does not represent a blank check allowing the president to use military forces for unlimited purposes without state consent.

Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom discussed International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for heads of state in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Mongolia during which he was not arrested despite an outstanding ICC warrant. Habtom established that no comprehensive, consistent global framework exists for ICC warrant enforcement, and suggested that some form of immunity for heads of states that are non-parties to the Rome Statute may be needed to avoid forcing member states to choose between ICC obligations and legitimate foreign policy considerations.

On Lawfare Daily, Quinta Jurecic sat down with Thomas Rid to discuss the Justice Department’s release of information about the Russian influence campaign known as “Doppelganger” and the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung’s report that it had received a tranche of hacked materials. The pair examined Rid’s new article in Foreign Affairs, “The Lies Russia Tells Itself,” why he believes the documents show that “the biggest boost the Doppelganger campaigners got was from the West’s own anxious coverage of the project,” and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Anastasiia Lapatina and Eric Ciaramella to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Ukrainian Parliament outlining his victory plan. The trio unpacked the components of Zelensky’s plan, the reaction from the United States and other allies, what the plan says about the state of Ukraine's war effort, and more.

On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson was joined by Wittes, Eugenia Lostri, and Lapatina to talk over some of the week's big national security news, including Zelensky’s rollout of out his “Victory Plan” to Western allies, how Israel will pursue its promised response to Iran’s volley of missiles, Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon’s infiltration of the system used by telecommunications companies to comply with U.S. legal warrants, and more.

In the latest installment of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren examined Russia's use of cybercriminals to support its war effort in Ukraine, OpenAI’s report on malicious cyber actors experimenting with artificial intelligence, Australia’s world-first reporting obligations for companies regarding ransomware incidents and payments, and more.

Alex O'Neill and Amanda Wick examined the rising tide of digitally-enabled sanctions evasion practices, particularly the use of stablecoins—virtual assets whose value is pegged to sovereign currencies such as the U.S. dollar—and how these phenomena may represent a wider shift toward cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion.

Daphne Keller discussed the “compliance-ization” of content moderation—specifically trust and safety teams inside of major platforms—to follow regulations such as the EU’s Digital Services Act.

On Lawfare Daily, Alan Rozenshtein sat down with David P. Lawrence at a recent conference co-hosted by Lawfare and the Georgetown Institute for Law and Technology to discuss how competition law applies to the makers and users of artificial intelligence (AI) models, with questions from the audience.

On Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier sat down with Jonathan Zittrain to discuss the latter’s recent Atlantic article, “We Need to Control AI Agents Now,” what distinguishes AI agents from current generative AI tools, the sources of Jonathan’s concerns, potential mechanisms of control, and more.

On Oct. 15 at 11 am ET, Wittes moderated a panel discussion featuring Frazier, Associate Professor of Law at St. John's University Law School Kate Klonick, and Jurecic, Lostri, and Rozenshtein. The panel discussed Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’s policy positions on cryptocurrency, Section 230, the attempts to ban TikTok, artificial intelligence, and antitrust litigation focused on Google. The conversation also discussed whether their running mates (Tim Walz and JD Vance) have any stated tech policy positions. Lawfare material supporters on Patreon and Substack received a Zoom invitation to join the conversation live and had the opportunity to submit questions for the panelists in advance. If you would like to be able to submit questions to panelists and watch livestreams without ads, become a material supporter of Lawfare. It was livestreamed on YouTube for all other viewers. The recording is available on Lawfare’s YouTube channel and on the Lawfare Podcast feed.

On Chatter, David Priess sat down with David Bosco to discuss the latter’s book “The Poseidon Project,” and other interesting maritime topics, including the historically powerful norm of "freedom of the seas,” Hugo Grotius, the practice of maritime commerce from ancient times until now, the three mile "cannon-shot" rule of territorial waters, privateering, piracy, and more.

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.