The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes argued that the Justice Department's handling of the sentencing of Trump associates Roger Stone and Michael Flynn gives reason to worry about how Attorney General Barr will handle allegations against the Biden family.

Hadley Baker shared federal prosecutors’ amended sentencing memorandum in the case of Stone, as well as the original sentencing memorandum recommending that he serve seven to nine years in prison.

Scott Anderson discussed the legal limits on Trump’s reprisals against career civil servants who served as impeachment witnesses.

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck shared an episode of The National Security Law Podcast in which they discuss Trump pressuring the Department of Justice to override Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation and the White House retaliation against Lt. Col. Vindman:

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security in which the gang talks about the Justice Departmen's contradicting its sentencing recommendation, as well as the White House purge of officials who testified in Trump’s impeachment trial:

Charlotte Butash and Hilary Hurd analyzed how the Trump impeachment defense team deployed Office of Legal Counsel memos to defend the president.

Richard Altieri and Benjamin Della Rocca analyzed the Department of Justice’s indictment against People's Liberation Army officers for the 2017 Equifax hack in Lawfare’s biweekly roundup of U.S.-China technology policy news. Graham Webster questioned what the indictment of the four Chinese military hackers will actually accomplish. And Elliot Setzer shared the indictment itself.

Mikhail Fogel shared the superseding indictment against Huawei Technologies filede in the Eastern District of New York. Herb Lin responded to a senior Huawei’s official’s acknowledgement that the company has a significant ability to clandestinely access mobile networks.

For this week’s Foreign Policy Essay, Julianne Smith and Torrey Taussig analyzed Europe’s relationship with China following the European Commission’s white paper naming China as a systematic rival in March 2019.

Thomas Bollyky and Samantha Kiernan argued that no nation can fight coronavirus on its own. Preston Lim analyzed Canada’s response to the coronavirus epidemic, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s campaign for a U.N. Security Council seat.

And Lester Munson shared an episode of the Fault Lines podcast discussing the geopolitics of coronavirus and what the coronavirus pandemic may mean for China’s place in the world:

In Middle East news and commentary, Elliot Setzer shared a report from the White House outlining its legal and policy justifications for the Jan. 2 airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani. Darya Dolzikova analyzed how U.S. sanctions against Iran affect Europe’s leverage in the Iran deal dispute resolution mechanism. And Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast, featuring an interview with Afshon Ostovar on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps:

Shibley Telhami criticized President Trump’s Middle East peace plan, and Bruce Riedel argued that U.S.-Saudi relations are in need of a re-think. Hayley Evans and Paras Shah analyzed the International Criminal Court’s hearings on whether to overturn an April 2019 decision blocking investigations into alleged war crimes by the Taliban and U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

New legislation is stirring new debate over end-to-end encryption. Stewart Baker argued that the EARN IT Act, introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, could affect the deployment of end-to-end encryption but makes sense as social policy. In turn, Alan Z. Rozenshtein criticized the EARN IT Act and made the case that if Congress wants to restrict end-to-end encryption, it should do so directly, not through the Justice Department.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast’s "Arbiters of Truth" series, featuring an interview with former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos:

Todd Carney argued that Russia’s proposed new pipeline threatens U.S. national security interests. And Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast with Joshua Yaffa talking about Putin’s Russia:

Setzer shared a livestream of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s hearing on security assistance to Mexico.

Stewart Baker shared an episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, in which Baker and his guests discussed whether an upcoming European Court of Justice ruling could spark a US-EU trade war:

Aditi Shah discussed an upcoming Supreme Court case that will tackle the question of whether an asylum-seeker facing expedited removal is constitutionally entitled to judicial review.

And Jack Goldsmith shared an obituary of his step-father Charles Lenton O’Brien, long-time suspect in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and the subject of Goldsmith's recent book, who passed away on Feb. 13.

And that was the week that was.