The Week that Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes discussed Roger Stone’s connections with the 2016 Trump campaign and what they reveal about President Trump's commutation of Stone's prison sentence. Jack Goldsmith and Matt Gluck examined the nature of President Trump’s pardons and commutations thus far. In light of these pardons, Keith Whittington advocated for a constitutional amendment to the executive’s pardon power.

Eric Halliday analyzed the federal government’s prosecutions of individuals protesting racial inequality and law enforcement behavior in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Steve Vladeck discussed recent reports of unidentified U.S. federal law enforcement officers at protests and raised questions about their actions in Portland, Oregon.

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck shared an episode of the National Security Law Podcast covering the Supreme Court’s rulings in Vance, Mazars and McGirt and Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s petition for a rehearing en banc in the Michael Flynn case:

Andrew Scobell discussed the centrality of Wuhan to both the Cultural Revolution and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring a deep-dive discussion on China and the Uighurs with Jessica Batke, a senior editor at ChinaFile; Darren Byler, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder whose research focuses on Uighur dispossession; and Maya Wang a senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch:

Lester Munson shared a discussion on the Fault Lines Podcast about Xinjiang Province, the new Hong Kong National Security Law and U.S. immigration, among other topics:

Jordan Schneider shared an episode of ChinaTalk discussing the corruption and competence of the Chinese government:

Robert Williams analyzed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement on maritime claims in the South China Sea and examined the practical implications of this pronouncement.

Emma Broches and Julia Solomon-Strauss discussed the recent governmental prosecution of white supremacists and far-right terrorism.

Elliot Setzer shared a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing about violent extremists and accelerationists.

Jacob Schulz provided a timeline of the firing of Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, based on Berman’s July 9 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Schulz also shared the transcript of Berman’s testimony before the House.

Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring a conversation with Mona Yacoubian, a senior adviser on Syria, the Middle East and North Africa at the United States Institute of Peace; Nilanthi Samaranayake, the director of the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at CNA with expertise on Indian Ocean and South Asia security; and Judd Devermont, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a former national intelligence officer for Africa. They discussed the significant political and national security implications of COVID-19 in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia:

Setzer also shared a livestream of a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on federal and state authorities’ pandemic response and supply preparedness.

Todd Carney and Patrick McDonnell summarized the Trump administration’s reversal and re-reversal on international student visa policy with online coursework.

Setzer also shared a livestream of a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on ICE contractors’ conduct during the coronavirus pandemic.

Durward Johnson and James Kraska argued for a collaborative international approach to fortifying national defense against biological weapons.

Setzer also shared a livestream of a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on the importance of transatlantic cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peter Margulies praised Ilya Somin’s new book, “Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom,” for its libertarian defense of “open borders.”

Lester Munson shared a discussion on the Fault Lines podcast with Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a member of the congressional Foreign Affairs and Energy and Commerce Committees who formerly served in the Air Force. They spoke about the congressional response to the Russian bounties and U.S.-China online conflict, among other topics:

Howell also shared a conversation with David Rohde, an executive editor of the New Yorker's website and author of the new book, “In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America’s ‘Deep State,’” about intelligence, inspectors general and public trust in government, among other topics:

Frank Rose discussed the political challenges of implementing the U.S. Defense Space Strategy.

Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring a conversation with Jane Lytvynenko, a senior reporter at BuzzFeed who concentrates on disinformation:

Darya Dolzikova and Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi discussed European states’s continued opposition to the U.S. maximum pressure campaign in Iran and argued that the E3 should focus on maintaining a united front with Russia and China in order to save the JCPOA.

Kenneth Propp and Peter Swire analyzed the implications of the EU Court of Justice’s Schrems II decision, which effectively invalidated a transatlantic data transfer deal because of concerns about personal data privacy and U.S. surveillance.

Stewart Baker shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast discussing TikTok’s trouble, the security of the Internet-of-things supply chain and a Supreme Court ruling on robocalls, among other things:

Philip P. Reitinger argued that establishing a national cyber director is not the answer to cybersecurity challenges currently facing the United States.

Setzer also shared a livestream of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the recommendations of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.

Kate Klonick examined the substance and implications of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in a series of five 90-minute webinars.

Bobby Chesney analyzed the Yahoo News story which revealed the existence of an expansive 2018 presidential CIA authorization for cyberattacks.

Howell also shared a conversation on Rational Security about TikTok, the Yahoo News report and Sebastian Gorka's appointment to a new government post, among other topics:

Hilary Hurd examined Britain’s new sanctions and argued that despite a considerable amount of U.S.-U.K. overlap, coordination on human rights issues between the two countries remains incomplete.

Stephen Bates discussed First Amendment theorist Alexander Meiklejohn’s early critique of what we have come to call cancel culture.

David Turetsky, Brian Nussbaum and Unal Tatar discussed information sharing in the cybersecurity field and detailed a few successful collaborative efforts.

And Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring an interview with John Allen, president of the Brookings Institution, and Darrell West, vice president of Brookings and director of its Governance Studies program, on their new book, “Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence”:

And that was the week that was.