Today's Headlines and Commentary

Coleman Saunders
Thursday, April 25, 2019, 2:13 PM

The White House declined a request from the House Oversight and Reform Committee to have Stephen Miller testify about President Trump’s immigration policies, reported CNN. Meanwhile, the New York Times described a broad White House effort to defy congressional subpoenas, with Trump saying his administration would fight “all the subpoenas.”

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The White House declined a request from the House Oversight and Reform Committee to have Stephen Miller testify about President Trump’s immigration policies, reported CNN. Meanwhile, the New York Times described a broad White House effort to defy congressional subpoenas, with Trump saying his administration would fight “all the subpoenas.”

The Chinese government is holding a summit on the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing this week, and leaders from 37 countries are expected to attend, said the BBC. In a related story, the Times analyzed steps China has taken to broaden international support for the initiative.

The Defense Department's inspector general exonerated Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan of wrongdoing following an investigation into his ties to Boeing, according to to the Washington Post. The office released its findings on Thursday.

Facebook announced that it expects to be fined up to $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations, reported the Times. In an unrelated matter, Canadian regulators accused Facebook of breaching local privacy laws in its handling of user data, said the Post. The regulators said they would take Facebook to court to force a change in the company’s privacy practices.

In a deep-dive investigation, Reuters examined the implications improving Chinese missile technology have for U.S. military supremacy.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

General Michael Hayden and David Priess analyzed Robert Mueller’s prosecutorial decisions.

Quinta Jurecic explained why the president’s recent tweet about the Supreme Court’s role in impeachment proceedings is misguided.

Jen Patja Howell shared the latest episode of Rational Security, in which Tamara Cofman Wittes, Shane Harris, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes breakdown the Mueller report.

Alexei Bulazel, Sophia d’Antoine, Perri Adams and Dave Aitel discussed Huawei risk mitigation. Herb Lin endorsed most of their argument and clarified his earlier article on the topic.

Mikhaila Fogel shared a video of a recent panel discussion on the Mueller report at the Brookings Institution—the panel featured Susan Hennessey, Chuck Rosenberg, Margaret Taylor and Benjamin Wittes. This discussion is also available as a Bonus Edition of the Lawfare Podcast.

Bruce Schneier discussed the need to develop an information operations kill chain similar to the cybersecurity kill chain framework used to discuss cyber defense.

Nathaniel Sobel analyzed the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case Commonwealth v. Jones, in which the court held that the state government can compel password decryption.

Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.


Coleman Saunders is a graduate of Harvard Law School where he is a senior editor on the National Security Journal. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in American Studies.

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