The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post
Your weekly summary of everything on the site.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Rohini Kurup and Katherine Pompilio posted a court filing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that said that there was enough evidence to conclude that former President Donald Trump and some of his allies might have conspired to commit fraud and obstruction in their effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Roger Parloff, Elizabeth McElvein, Stephanie Pell and Benjamin Wittes examined whether the Jan. 6 committee’s recent filing will be enough to push the Justice Department to commence a criminal inquiry of Trump.
Parloff explained that in the first trial of a Capitol riot defendant, prosecutors plan to present a shock-and-awe campaign of video, audio and other digital evidence.
Will Mackie explained how members of the Oath Keepers promoted self-serving, distorted “patriotic” rhetoric to justify criminal acts against government officials in both the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and a 2010 attempt to take over a Tennessee courthouse.
Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Drew Harwell about Truth Social, a new, Trump-run platform to share his thoughts with the world:
David Priess shared an episode of the Chatter podcast in which Shane Harris sat down with Elizabeth Samet to discuss Hollywood’s portrayal of World War II and how that influences what Americans think about “the good war:”
Francine Hirsch outlined how Vladimir Putin’s memory laws regarding World War II set the stage for his war in Ukraine.
Pompilio announced this week’s Lawfare Live which featured a live-recording of the Lawfare Podcast with an expert panel on the crisis in Ukraine. Panelists included: Dmitri Alperovich, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Dominic Bustillos, Lt. Col. (ret.) Alex Vindman and Alina Polyakova.
Daniel Byman evaluated the benefits and risks of foreign fighters joining in the war against Russia.
Ben Connable published an early-war assessment of Ukrainian and Russian will to fight.
Howell also shared an episode of Rational Security in which Alan Rozenshtein, Jurecic and Scott R. Anderson discussed the conflict in Ukraine. They talked about how the Ukrainians were able to stymie Russian efforts to remove its government and the potential impact the conflict may have on our domestic political scene:
Additionally, Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Anderson, Julia Friedlander and Rachel Ziemba discuss the unprecedented sanctions on Russia. They talked about the different types of sanctions being applied, what impact they will have on the Russian economy and the implications for Ukraine and the rest of the world:
Henry Farrell published a book review of Nicholas Mulder’s “The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War.”
Stewart Baker shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast in which Baker, Alperovitch, Nate Jones and Jane Bambauer discussed topics ranging from how modern networks and media are influencing what has become a major shooting war between Russia and Ukraine to the proposed European Data Act:
Kenneth Propp analyzed the European Commission's recently released Data Act.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Alvaro Marañon sat down with Bridget Fahey to discuss her new law review article “Data Federalism.” They discussed the hybrid structures governing these exchanges of individual data, the risk and protections afforded by existing federalism principles and doctrines, and how and why data is power:
Ciaran Martin outlined how activity in the digital domain may affect the war in Eastern Europe and provides insight into the West’s cyber posture.
Geoffrey S. Corn explained why Congress needs to amend the War Crimes Act to align federal criminal jurisdiction over war crimes with the international law concept of universal jurisdiction.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Pell sat down with Daniel Solove and Woodrow Hartzog to talk about their new book “Breached! Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve It.” They discussed a number of issues they raise in their book, including how current data security law overemphasizes the conduct of breached entities and fails to distribute responsibility among a range of actors in the data ecosystem that contributes to the data breach:
Christopher Gorman published a roundup of recent developments in artificial intelligence and national security.
Jessica Davis published a foreign policy essay on global counterterrorism in and after a pandemic.
Phillip D. Cave, Don Christensen, Eugene R. Fidell, Brenner M. Fissell and Dan Maurer analyzed Congress’s reform of the military justice system and suggested plans for the next phase of reform.
Susan Landau outlined how a reintroduced Senate bill runs the risk of failing to combat the problem of online child sexual abuse material while simultaneously decreasing internet security.
Kurup posted the unanimous court decision in FBI v. Fagaza that ruled that a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not displace the state secrets privilege.
Kurup also posted a Supreme Court decision that ruled that the federal government could invoke the state secrets privilege to block two CIA contractors from testifying about a Guantanamo detainee’s treatment at a CIA black site.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Jacob Schulz sat down with Vanda Felbab-Brown and Madiha Afzal to discuss China’s involvement in numerous acts of transnational criminal activity:
Raquel Leslie and Brian Liu explained the Justice Department’s move to end the China Initiative and curated a roundup of U.S.-China technology policy news.
Jordan Schneider shared an episode of ChinaTalk in which he sat down with Justin Sherman to discuss Vladimir Putin's history of cyber operations and what he is thinking about as he considers escalating in the cyber domain:
Schneider shared another episode of ChinaTalk in which he and Chris Miller discuss if Putin is on drugs and the Russia-China tech trade in the context of global sanctions:
Schneider shared yet another episode of ChinaTalk in which he, Adam Tooze and Matt Klein discussed “NATO for Trade” for sanctions and how the conflict in Ukraine will affect Taiwan:
And Schneider shared one more episode of ChinaTalk in which he sat down with Ivana Karásková and discussed the German political about-face in favor of supporting Ukraine and what President Xi thinks about the conflict:
And that was the week that was.
