The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

The Justice Department may have inadvertently revealed sealed charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn and Benjamin Wittes provided a guide for questions to ask and things to look out for when any charges against Assange are finally revealed.

The State of Maryland filed a motion in litigation related to the Affordable Care Act in which the state asked the judge to declare that Matthew Whitaker is not the lawful acting attorney general. Matthew Kahn shared the document that same day, and on Wednesday, Kahn shared the Nov. 14 Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel’s memo defending the legality of Whitaker’s designation as acting attorney general.

Robert Litt explored the test of character at the Justice Department that the departure of former attorney general Jeff Sessions and the rise of Matthew Whitaker has caused.

Jen Patja Howell posted this week’s edition of Rational Security, which featured a discussion on Whitaker’s appointment, Trump’s international relations strategy, and North Korean actions in nuclear weapons negotiations:

On Veteran's Day, which also happened to be the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Kori Schake assessed the lessons on politics and military strategy that the first World War can provide for the Trump era, while Matthew Waxman analyzed the legal end of World War I in the United States.

Asfandyar Mir explored the question of whether drone strikes drive terrorist recruitment or degrade terrorist networks.

On Wednesday, J. Dana Stuster posted this week’s edition of the Middle East Ticker, focusing on shifting U.S. support for Saudi forces in Yemen, the violence in Gaza, and the Trump administration’s response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Two other articles looked at the new Israeli exclusion of visitors who are activists against Israeli policy; Michael N. Barnett argued that the enemy lists compiled by a group called Canary Mission ultimately undermine the Israeli cause, and Lila Margalit assessed the effects of the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in the Alqasem case on Israel’s anti-BDS laws.

On Thursday, Sarah Grant provided a comprehensive summary of last week at the military commissions, specifically the trial of alleged al-Qaeda commander Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi.

Grant also shared the government’s appeal for expedited decision and the plaintiffs’ response in two cases on the transgender servicemember ban before the Ninth Circuit and Washington D.C. Circuit courts.

Mikhaila Fogel shared Judge Dabney Friedrich’s denial of a motion by a Russian company to dismiss charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. filed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

On Tuesday, Bob Bauer argued that the best way forward in the Mueller investigation is for each institution involved to follow Robert Mueller’s example and do their assigned jobs to the best of their ability.

Matthew Kahn shared the FBI’s 2017 Hate Crimes Report.

Also on Tuesday, Jen Patja Howell posted an episode of the Lawfare Podcast which featured discussion on the U.K. and Europe on the brink of Brexit:

Megan Reiss analyzed the detrimental effects to U.S. alliances of the Trump administration’s reference to “Game of Thrones” in relation to sanctions.

Preston Lim and Rachel Brown posted the newest edition of SinoTech, which was focused on the Department of Justice’s initiative to address Chinese economic espionage, among other U.S.-China news.

In cybersecurity news, Paul Rosenzweig flagged Emmanuel Macron’s opening remarks at the Internet Governance Forum and Macron’s support for international internet regulations.

Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier explained why disinformation campaigns that are a stabilizing influence in Russia are destabilizing in the United States.

Robert Chesney flagged the "Austin Regional" competition of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber 9/12 Strategy Competition at the Strauss Center.

Stewart Baker posted this week’s episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast, an edition that takes a deep dive into new investment review regulations for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS):

On Friday, Ingrid Wuerth provided a comprehensive analysis of Russia’s invocation of sovereign immunity in the Democratic National Committee’s lawsuit against Moscow.

John Carlin and David A. Newman posted the latest edition of the Aegis paper series on election security in 2018 and beyond.

On the topic of election security, Matt Tait argued on Tuesday that election security is predicated on both an accurate tally of results and on convincing the public that the tally is accurate.

Jen Patja Howell posted an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Benjamin Wittes sat down with Paul Rosenzweig to discuss investigating presidents:

Matthew Waxman reviewed Michael Beschloss’s new book, “Presidents of War.”

And Benjamin Wittes announced two pieces of exciting news: first, that David Priess is coming on board as Lawfare’s Chief Operating Officer, and second, that the Lawfare swag shop is now open!

And that was the week that was.