Today’s Headlines and Commentary

The Manhattan District Attorney indicted the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg on 15 counts, including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records, according to the Washington Post. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to the charges. He is the first person to be indicted in connection with a criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and New York Attorney General Leticia James into the former president’s business practices.

The Supreme Court upheld Arizona voting restrictions in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, writes the New York Times. Justice Alito, writing for the 6-3 majority, said that, according to Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, courts can only strike down voting regulations that impose a substantial burden on minority voters and that the Arizona law does not meet that requirement. The ruling makes future challenges to the flurry of voting restrictions enacted by state legislatures since the 2020 election unlikely to succeed.

At a centennial celebration of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping declared China’s global rise unstoppable and threatened any foreign leaders who might try to stop it according to the New York Times. He said to a crowd of 70,000 people on Tiananmen Square, “The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us. Whoever nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on the Great Wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people.” Xi also praised his government’s crackdown on free press in Hong Kong and handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld died at his home in Taos, New Mexico, reports the New York Times. A spokesman for the family said the cause of death was multiple myeloma. Rumsfeld, who was 88 years old, served under Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, overseeing U.S. Cold War policy and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The World Health Organization warned that Europe could be on the brink of another wave of coronavirus infections, reports the BBC. Cases have risen by 10 percent in a week, and the WHO says the Euro 2020 soccer tournament could be a superspreader event. Increased social mixing, paired with slow vaccine rollouts and the more infectious Delta variant, could be to blame. WHO senior emergency officer Catherine Smallwood called on cities hosting soccer matches to better monitor the movement of fans before and after matches.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which former chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Adam Klein talks about what he found in 19 FISA applications.

Stewart Baker shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast which includes analysis of the six antitrust bills reported out of the House Judiciary Committee last week.

Amy Robinson and Jim Waldo discussed the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the future of net neutrality and the broader internet ecosystem.

Quinta Jurecic analyzed why the FBI failed to review relevant social media posts before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Lawfare Managing Editor Jacob Schulz and Executive Editor Scott Anderson discuss the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias along the Iraq-Syria border.

Keith S. Gibel argued that the U.S. military’s current definition of extremism should be updated.

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