The Week That Was: All Of Lawfare in One Post

On the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Robert Chesney argued that Washington’s focus has shifted away from the threat of terrorism and the viability of our counterterrorism policy that dominated our national discourse for the first decade after the attacks. In another article about post-9/11 policy, Carrie Cordero discussed the 9/11 Commission’s call for updated and modernized congressional intelligence oversight—and why those recommendations are still relevant today.

National security adviser John Bolton gave his first major speech in his current position, and it was a whopper. On Monday, Matthew Kahn posted the text of Bolton’s speech, and John Bellinger commented on how the International Criminal Court should respond to Bolton’s threats. On Tuesday, David Bosco offered his take on the speech and the likelihood that Bolton's threats will materialize. On Wednesday, Bosco flagged the lack of response of four key states—Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and Afghanistan—to Bolton’s speech, and the treacherous position those countries are now in. Robert Chesney and Steve Vladeck covered the speech, plus much more, on this week's National Security Law Podcast:

That same day, Jen Patja Howell posted this week’s episode of Rational Security. The crew covered Bolton’s speech, possible Russian involvement in mysterious illnesses at U.S. diplomatic facilities, and a meeting between Trump administration officials and Venezuelan coup plotters:

On Tuesday, J. Dana Stuster posted this week’s Middle East Ticker, which covered the Assad regime’s new round of bombings in Syria, the influx of refugees into Turkey, the unpredictability of Iraq’s new government, and the U.S.’s response to all of these events.

Stewart Baker posted this week’s episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, which brought the podcast back from its August hiatus with an interview with Bruce Schneier on his new book, “Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World.”

Jack Goldsmith flagged two essays on lawyering for the president in a time of crisis—one by Mary DeRosa and the other by Christopher Fonzone and Dana Remnus.

Jen Patja Howell posted this week’s episode of the Lawfare Podcast—a conversation with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and former CIA director John Brennan:

On Sunday, Sept. 9th, Bruce Jentleson assessed the post-liberal international order, and four key trends that define it and prevent a move back to the pre-Trump era. Timothy Edgar analyzed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh’s support for the NSA's bulk collection of call detail records and opposition to net neutrality.

Lawfare has kept a running database of litigation against the Trump administration’s various iterations of the travel ban, and as of Monday, Sept. 10th, it is updated to current status. Quinta Jurecic also posted about the progression of Alharbi v. Miller and Emami v. Trump—two recent cases concerning the process of travel ban waivers.

Last week, the U.S. government criminally charged a North Korean hacker, and on Monday, Robert Chesney discussed the importance of treating certain intelligence activities as criminal activities in order to effectively deter threats to national security.

Roger Stone associate Andrew Miller filed his brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging Special Counsel Robert Mueller's authority to subpoena him to appear before a grand jury. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a contempt order against Miller in August 2018 for his refusal to comply with the subpoena, which Miller is now appealing. On Wednesday, Mikhaila Fogel uploaded the text of the brief in full.

Paul Rosenzweig posted an excerpt of the Na andional Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recent report on securing elections.

Daniel Byman assessed rising tensions in Palestine and Israel, and the possibility of a third intifada.

Mieke Eoyang, Ben Freeman, Ryan Pougiales and Benjamin Wittes posted the results of another interesting study about public confidence in various government institutions’ ability to protect our country’s security.

Bob Bauer took a look at a recent op-ed from the New York Times that highlighted the “resistance” within the Trump administration, and explained why the vigilante “unsung heroes” of the resistance pose a threat to our democracy.

On Thursday, Sept. 13th, Peter Swire and Justin Hemmings analyzed the Cloud Act between the U.S. and the UK, and why the British side of the agreement needs some work. Alan Z. Rozenshtein reviewed Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt book, “How Democracies Die.”

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed a superseding criminal information in the case against Paul Manafort. Quinta Jurecic uploaded the document in full on Friday, Sept. 14th. David Laufman analyzed how the Department of Justice has made the Foreign Agents Registration Act a significant tool in addressing foreign influence operations in the U.S.

The Lawfare team analyzed the news of Paul Manafort's cooperation agreement. Matthew Kahn posted an emergency podcast on the development:

Stephen Bates, Jack Goldsmith, and Benjamin Wittes argued for the release of the last great Watergate document due to its contemporary relevance. Ashley Deeks discussed the posibility of Trump sanctioning China’s new facial recognition software.

And Mikhaila Fogel posted a new internship opening at Lawfare for spring 2019.

And that is the week that was.