Today’s Headlines and Commentary

In a meeting with law enforcement officials yesterday, President Trump pledged to maintain funding for police departments and rejected the idea that there are systemic problems with American policing, reports the New York Times.

Joe Biden said he opposes “defunding” police departments, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a morning news conference yesterday that such decisions fall to local governments, writes the Washington Post. Pelosi touted congressional Democrats’ “Justice in Policing Act of 2020,” which has more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors, and would ban chokeholds, establish a national database to track police misconduct and eliminate no-knock warrants in drug cases, among other measures.

Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy briefed members of the House Armed Services Committee yesterday about the military branch’s response to protests in Washington, D.C., according to the Hill.

The U.S. and Russia have agreed to begin arms control discussions this month, with less than a year until the one remaining treaty between the two countries is set to expire, reports the Post. Russia has offered to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires early next year, but the Trump administration hopes to negotiate a new arms treaty that would also include China. Beijing, however, has expressed little interest in signing such a pact.

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ruled today that the country’s Health Ministry must revert to releasing cumulative totals of coronavirus deaths, after a decision last weekend to abruptly remove counts of COVID-19 fatalities sparked outrage across the political spectrum, reports Reuters.

The Government Accountability Office has published a 12-page report on concrete steps lawmakers could take to protect federal inspectors general, even as President Trump has sought to remove critics of his administration in recent months, writes the Hill.

An Iranian man who spied for the U.S. and Israel and provided intelligence on Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani has been sentenced to death in Iran, according to Reuters. The Iranian government said the man was not linked to the killing of Soleimani earlier this year.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Scott Anderson, Emma Broches, Eric Halliday and Julia Solomon-Strauss analyzed the unique relationship between Washington, D.C. and the federal government that allowed Trump to deploy National Guard troops and federal law enforcement across the capital without the city’s consent.

Justin Sherman and Tianjiu Zuo discussed the supply-chain security risk of Chinese component suppliers in the U.S. energy grid.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Margaret Taylor discusses the Trump administration’s latest moves to dismantle the Iran nuclear agreement with Peter Harrell and Richard Nephew.

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