Today's Headlines and Commentary

President Donald Trump dictated Donald Trump, Jr.’s initial statement about a previously undisclosed meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer in June 2016 at Trump Tower, The Washington Post reports. Multiple sources say that President Trump helped craft his son’s response to the revelation and was responsible for the statement’s emphasis that the meeting had been about the adoption of Russian children. The first statement was later revealed to be inaccurate when Trump, Jr. released emails showing that he took the meeting after being offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton, allegedly from the Russian government. President Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow previously denied that his client had been involved in the creation of the statement.

Last night in Caracas, Venezuela, intelligence officers dragged two of the country’s opposition leaders out of their homes and took them to an undisclosed location, The Wall Street Journal reports. Videos posted online partially show how the incident unfolded. The removal comes just one day after President Nicolas Maduro threatened to jail opposition leaders after they alleged fraud in Sunday’s vote to select delegates for a new constituent assembly. The body could dissolve the current assembly that Maduro’s political opponents control. The two leaders taken were already under house arrest when they posted videos criticizing Sunday’s vote.

Russia plans to send 100,000 troops to the eastern edge of NATO territory in September as part of its Zapad (“West”) military exercises, The New York Times reports. This year’s version of the exercises, not held since 2013, will feature a newly reconstituted armored unit that experts say is offensive in nature. It will have the largest concentration of offensive power in a single command since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Military officials say Zapad may provide pretext for Russia to increase its military presence in Belarus, which borders NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

The court case against former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has entered its final stages, drawing crowds of Shinawatra’s supporters despite the ruling military junta’s warnings to keep away, the Journal reports. The politician is accused of mismanagement of a multibillion dollar rice subsidy program, but she denies wrongdoing. If convicted, Shinawatra could face 10 years in prison. However, observers say that factions within the ruling junta may worry that her incarceration could make her a symbol of resistance.

This weekend at the DefCon hacking conference, hackers easily and quickly broke into voting machines in an investigation of the vulnerabilities of U.S. election infrastructure, Wired reports. The simulation gave hackers access to about a dozen voting machines, which they infiltrated both digitally and physically over about eight hours. Researchers said this type of testing is an important step in understanding the vulnerabilities and how they can be improved.

Turkey tried nearly 500 individuals today over last year’s failed coup attempt, the AP reports. Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric who is frequently a target of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, is the lead defendant in the case. He will be tried in absentia. Many of the accused could face life in prison for the alleged offenses.

Two U.S. officials said that North Korea’s latest ICBM means it may now be able to reach most of the continental United States, Reuters reports. However, both said that the North hopes to develop a nuclear ICBM to deter a U.S. attack and to gain international legitimacy rather than to attack the U.S. or its allies, recognizing that the latter would result in a devastating second strike. The Pentagon officially acknowledged only that North Korea’s missile launch on Friday was the longest of any it had previously tested and said it could fly at least 3,420 miles, the minimum to meet an ICBM designation.

NATO jets intercepted two Russian fighter jets and one Russian transport plane near Estonian airspace, CNN reports. The incident occurred less than a day after Vice President Mike Pence visited Estonia and reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the collective security of the Baltic states as part of its NATO membership obligation, despite the growing threat of Russian aggression.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Elena Chachko analyzed the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the EU’s judgements in two appeals regarding EU counterterrorism sanctions against Hamas and the Tamil Tigers.

Bob Bauer addressed recent suggestions limit the President’s ability to fire the special counsel and Congress’ “impeachment anxiety syndrome.”

Steve Vladeck discussed the D.C. Circuit’s approach to military commission mandamus.

Mei Gechlik introduced her paper "Appropriate Norms Of State Behavior In Cyberspace: Governance In China And Opportunities For US Businesses," part of the Hoover Institution’s Aegis Paper Series.

Will Sellinger reviewed Power without Victory: Woodrow Wilson and the American Internationalist Experiment by Trygve Throntveit.

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