Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Hadley Baker, Vishnu Kannan
Monday, June 10, 2019, 3:10 PM

House Democrats say that the Justice Department has agreed to turn over some underlying evidence from the special counsel’s report, including some of Robert Mueller’s “most important files,” the Associated Press says. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said that in return for the department complying with the committee’s subpoena, the latter will not vote to hold the attorney general in contempt, for the time being.

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

House Democrats say that the Justice Department has agreed to turn over some underlying evidence from the special counsel’s report, including some of Robert Mueller’s “most important files,” the Associated Press says. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said that in return for the department complying with the committee’s subpoena, the latter will not vote to hold the attorney general in contempt, for the time being.

House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes” at 2:00 p.m. today. A group of experts, including Nixon’s former White House counsel John Dean, will testify, the Washington Post reports. The livestream is available here on Lawfare.

On Sunday night, over half a million people participated in a public protest in Hong Kong against a proposed extradition law, which would allow the government of Hong Kong to transfer people accused of crimes to Mainland China and other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong does not have extradition agreements, according to Reuters.

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif said that the U.S. “cannot expect to stay safe” after launching what he described as an “economic war” against Iran, referencing sanctions reimposed after the U.S’ withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, the Post says. His comments precede Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Iran, an apparent attempt to ease tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Reuters reports.

The acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget is seeking a two-year delay of a ban for U.S. agencies and recipients of federal grants and loans from doing business with Huawei and other Chinese technology companies, per the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad held meetings on Monday in Kabul with the aim of starting a new round of Afghan-to-Afghan talks, according to the Post.

G20 finance ministers have agreed to work on common rules to prevent global tech giants from reducing their corporate taxes, Reuters writes.

Tech companies, such as Intel, Qualcomm, InterDigital and LG Uplus, have halted contact with Huawei in order to avoid potential noncompliance with U.S. regulations, according to Reuters.

The Russian government requested VPN providers in Russia link their servers to a blacklist system or risk being blocked, reports MIT Technology Review. The system registers services and sites banned in the country.

ICYMI: Last Weekend on Lawfare

Jason M. Blazakis called for greater U.S. involvement in Sudan to facilitate a smooth transition from military to civilian rule following the military coup and recent protests over elections.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast, the latest of the Culper Partners Rule of Law Series, in which David Kris and Nate Jones spoke with John Bellinger about recent assaults on the rules-based international order.

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.


Hadley Baker was an Assistant Editor of Lawfare. She is a recent graduate from the University of St Andrews, studying English literature and Spanish. She was previously an intern at Lawfare.
Vishnu Kannan is special assistant to the president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously he was a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow in Carnegie’s Technology and International Affairs Program, a researcher at Lawfare and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and an intern at the Brookings Institution. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University where he studied International Relations, Political Theory and Economics.

Subscribe to Lawfare