Today's Headlines and Commentary

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that the U.S. public remains sharply divided over whether President Trump should be impeached and removed from office with 49 percent of Americans in support of impeachment and removal of the president and 47 percent opposed to it.

Lawyers for former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman appeared separately in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday over whether their clients can be forced to testify on Capitol Hill, reports the Washington Post.

President Trump’s administration is withholding $105 million in security aid for Lebanon after the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, according to Reuters. State Department officials reportedly notified Congress of the decision on Thursday but did not offer a reason why the aid was blocked.

In Bolivia, the Organization of American States began an audit on Thursday of the recent presidential election in which incumbent President Evo Morales claimed victory, reports the New York Times. Two people have died thus far in violent protests over the disputed election, and some segments of the armed forces have warned that they would not crack down on demonstrators.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi has decided to resign on the condition that a successor is agreed on to replace him, according to CNN. The announcement comes after weeks of anti-government protests.

Facebook announced the removal of three networks of accounts operating a disinformation campaign with African countries as the target, reports CNN. The pages were linked to Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for funding the Internet Research Agency that allegedly meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Quinta Jurecic introduced a new Lawfare podcast series on disinformation and misinformation in the runup to the 2020 election and posted the first episode.

Robert Chesney and Steve Vladeck shared this week’s episode of the National Security Law Podcast, featuring commentary on the al-Baghdadi raid, who will be the next Secretary of Homeland Security and frivolity about the World Series.

Jonathan Shaub proposed a less expansive understanding of executive privilege that aligns more with historical precedent and constitutional principles.

Charlotte Butash considered the historical relationship between judicial review and impeachment in the context of current legal disputes before the court involving the Trump administration.

Lester Munson posted episode three of the Fault Lines podcast, which delves into the recent wave of popular protests around the world in places like Lebanon, Chile and Iraq.

Stewart Baker shared the latest episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast that covers several topics including the debate around revenge porn laws in the wake of Congresswoman Katie Hill’s resignation.

Simon Gregory Jerome discussed the increased prevalence of provisions related to the Arctic in the draft 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

Paul Rosenzweig announced a new annotated bibliography of resources dealing with cybersecurity measurement methodologies from his colleague, Kathryn Waldron.