The Week That Was

Roger Parloff examined the Department of Justice’s approach to prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters in the wake of Fischer v. United States, terming them “despite-Fischer cases.” Parloff explored how federal prosecutors are finding creative ways around the ruling to pursue cases of obstruction of an official proceeding.

On Oct. 3 at 3:30 pm ET, Scott R. Anderson spoke to Lawfare Senior Editors Quinta Jurecic, Anna Bower, and Parloff about Special Counsel Jack Smith's immunity motion in the Jan. 6 case against former President Donald Trump in this week's “Lawfare Live: Trump's Trials and Tribulations.” 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.

Bower, Jurecic, Olivia Manes, and Katherine Pompilio discussed Jack Smith’s newly unsealed filing against former President Donald Trump and its legal and factual contents, including Trump’s knowledge that his election fraud claims were false, his attempts to pressure state officials, Smith’s approach to prosecuting Trump following the Supreme Court’s July immunity ruling, and more.

Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discussed ongoing emergency powers reforms in Congress—specifically the ARTICLE ONE and REPUBLIC Acts, and their carve outs of International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Bauer and Goldsmith suggested that, due to IEEPA’s fundamental role in presidential power, the act should be reformed in the future, with only the utmost precision.

Bauer explored how, under a potential second Trump presidency, the White House Counsel might find legal grounds to advise the president to bypass an unwilling attorney general in order to implement a retributive agenda.

In the latest installment of a series from Protect Democracy and Lawfare on the limitations, drawbacks, and dangers of domestic deployment, Mark Nevitt discussed the numerous operational considerations that guide any decision to deploy troops on U.S. soil, including historical military norms, requisite training and expertise, existing regulations, and more.

Anastasiia Lapatina discussed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to the United States and his efforts to secure immediate and future support for Ukraine, including visits to the White House, the United Nations, Trump Tower, and more.

Oxana Shevel reviewed “Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence” by Yaroslav Trofimov, an account of the first year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shevel highlighted many of the book’s important themes, including the West’s reluctance to provide Ukraine with sufficient weapons, the complexities of personal responses to the war, the interplay between political and military considerations in war planning, and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Tyler McBrien, Jurecic, and Brandon Van Grack to discuss the charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing indictment in connection with a foreign influence scheme involving Turkey.

On Rational Security, Anderson was joined by Wittes, Jurecic, and McBrien to talk over some of the week's big national security news, including the escalating situation in the Middle East, the Adams indictment, and the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene.

On Lawfare Daily, Anderson sat down with Richard Gowan to discuss what happened at the recent U.N. General Assembly High-Level Week, including how the national leaders who gathered in New York for the meetings responded to the ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, how strategic competition between China, Russia, and the United States shaped the proceedings, where the United Nations is headed, and more.

On Lawfare Daily, Wittes sat down with Firas Maksad, Natan Sachs, and Anderson to discuss the latest events in the expanding war between Israel and Hezbollah and Iran, including Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership and eroding its capabilities, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, Iran’s response (a missile barrage against Israel), and more.

Yuval Shany and Amichai Cohen examined the recent judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court, which held that conditions in Sde Teiman, a notorious detention center, must comply with Israeli law. They explained how the case provides insight into how the Israeli legal system is dealing with sensitive and “shameful” aspects of Israel's conduct relating to the war in Gaza.

Herb Lin examined the technical details of Israel’s attack on Hezbollah, in which Israel detonated explosive-rigged pagers, killing hundreds of militants and injuring some civilians. Lin considered the implications of the attack, including the possibility of low-tech devices being weaponized, new risks for high-level targets versus average citizens, questions that remain unanswered, and more.

In the latest installment of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren broke down the latest news, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed hack-and-leak against the Trump campaign and its censorship by social media platforms, the links between Russian cybercrime group Evil Corp and Russian intelligence services, adopting memory safe languages for new code, and more.

Eli Scher-Zagier analyzed the new United Nations (UN) cybercrime convention, which seeks to foster international cooperation on cybercrime, but may have dangerous implications. Scher-Zagier warned that Article 22 could expand passive personality jurisdiction beyond reasonable limits, removing the possibility of persistent objection. 

Kenneth Parreno, Christine Kwon, Victoria Bullock, and John Langford explained how new statutory prohibitions and traditional tort claims can be used to combat deepfakes and disinformation in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election.

On Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier sat down with Robert Mahari to discuss how increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents may lead humans to form troublingly and even addictive relationships with artificial systems, the significance of Mahari’s research on common uses of existing generative AI systems, and more.

Matt Gluck shared Gavin Newsom’s veto message after the California governor rejected the state legislature’s controversial artificial intelligence bill, Senate Bill 1047.

On Lawfare Daily, Alan Z. Rozenshtein sat down with Frazier and Dean Ball to discuss SB 1047 and its passing and veto by Newsom, including what was in the bill, why Newsom rejected it, and where AI safety policing goes from here.

Brett McDonnell and Rozenshtein examined the landscape of corporate governance of artificial intelligence (AI), including the way AI labs are structured for AI safety, the incompatibility of the shareholder wealth maximization norm with adequate measures to prevent catastrophic risk in AI, a possible “federal charter” for AI, and more.

Frazier discussed the benefits of developing public artificial intelligence (AI) training data banks to ensure a healthy and competitive AI market, with equitable access to data for upstart AI labs and research outfits in need of expertise and compute resources. 

On Chatter, David Priess sat down with Mike Rothschild to discuss Rothschild’s book “Jewish Space Lasers,” including conspiracy theories about supposed Jewish control of global finance and politics, the genesis of the Rothschild family’s wealth (no relation to the author), legends about the family's involvement in the Battle of Waterloo, Marjorie Taylor Greene's "Jewish space lasers" comments, 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.