Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Former State Department inspector general Steven Linick told the House Oversight and Reform, House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees in an interview that he had been investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for misuse of government resources before Linckwas fired last month, the Hill reports.

President Trump hinted on Twitter that he planned to pardon his former political adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to the House Intelligence Committee about his role in the Trump campaign’s cooperation with WikiLeaks in the website’s release of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails, the Washington Post reports.

Unidentified law enforcement or military personnel have extended an additional perimeter around the White House. The Park Police have denied that the force is theirs, according to The Hill.

U.S. Representative Justin Amash plans to introduce a bill which would eliminate qualified immunity and thus significantly lower the barriers for citizens to file civil lawsuits against police acting in official capacity, writes Reuters.

Senators Ted Cruz and Jeanne Shaheen will introduce a bill that would expand sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The U.S. contends that the pipeline will make Europe too reliant on Russia for its natural gas, Reuters reports.

Thousands of protesters held a vigil in Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Hong Kong authorities had broken with past practice and banned the vigil, nominally due to coronavirus fears, the New York Times reports.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign a law that classifies a host of crimes as terrorism-related and creates a council with the power to designate individuals or organizations as terrorists. Critics say the law will be used to stifle opposition, according to the New York Times.

Iran freed Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran held for 683 days on charges of privacy violations and insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, writes the Washington Post. White had been sentenced to ten years in prison and was released a day after an Iranian scientist was freed by the U.S.

Kim Yo Jung, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has threatened to pull out of a series of security and economic agreements with South Korea because of anti-government leaflets sent over the border by a human rights group, according to the Wall Street Journal.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring Benjamin Wittes’s interview with Dr. Rashawn Ray on the mechanisms of police violence, what causes it, what can be done to address it and reduce it, and the role of race.

Justin Key Canfil wrote that there is no clear explanation for why the Trump administration believes withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty serves U.S. interests.

Scott Anderson and Michel Paradis explored the Trump administration’s ability to deploy military forces within the U.S. and the limitations of the Insurrection Act.

Elliot Setzer shared the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing featuring former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the first in a series of new hearings on oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Carrie Cordero advocated for more oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement activity.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security on the George Floyd protests and the roles of the military, the attorney general and Justice Department.

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