The Week that Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

The week started off on a historic note as President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un met on Tuesday for the first time. The two leaders signed a joint statement at the end of the summit, which Matthew Kahn shared on Tuesday.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, Stephan Haggard, and Benjamin Wittes kicked things off with a discussion of the summit’s implications on the Lawfare Podcast:

On Rational Security, Susan Hennessey, Shane Harris, and Tamara Cofman Wittes walked us through Trump’s promises for North Korea and his surprises for U.S. allies. They also talked press leaks and Middle East policy:

Robert Chesney and Steve Vladeck offered their impressions on the president’s authority to negotiate sanctions. They also discussed Doe v. Mattis, the indictment of Senate intelligence committee aide James Wolfe, and Lakhdar Boumediene on this week’s edition of the National Security Law Podcast: “Live from Singapore, Malaysia?!”

Finally, Philip Bobbitt responded to Sam Roggeveen’s critique of his plan to end the Korean crisis for good.

On Thursday, the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Justice released its long-awaited report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. For those of you who want some light weekend reading, Kahn uploaded a copy of the 568-page report. For everyone else, Autumn Brewington, Victoria Clark, Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Kahn, and Wittes outlined their nine initial takeaways.

Sen. Mark Warner shared his speech from the National Security Agency’s 29th annual Law Day. And the U.K. government weighed in on investigative powers by updating its codes of practice to establish procedures and safeguards.

Immigration debates took center stage after the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled on Sunday that forced labor constitutes material support under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Jurecic posted the full decision. Jennifer Daskal and Paul Rosenzweig underscored the many problems with the ruling, and urged us not to forget it in a crowded news cycle. Carrie Cordero laid out the ethical considerations of separating parents from their children at the border.

Soumaya Keynes, Megan Reiss, and Shannon Togawa Mercer dove deep on the connections between trade and national security on another episode of the Lawfare Podcast:

Sen. Bob Corker struck a similar tone when he introduced legislation to restrict the president’s authority to issue tariffs in the name of national security. Jurecic posted the full legislation on Sunday.

Congress took a foray into the tech trade world this week. In Water Wars, Wenqing Zhao and David Stanton highlighted the Senate’s efforts to block the president’s ZTE deal, as well as other cyber news. Stewart Baker addressed leaks, China, and the Southern Poverty Law Center on the latest Cyberlaw Podcast:

David Pozen announced Jack Goldsmith’s new essay on internet freedom for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, while Daphne Keller shared her new essay in the Hoover Aegis series on the call for internet platforms to police online speech.

In L’Affaire Russe news, George Conway tackled the legal arguments behind the president’s claim that the Mueller investigation is unconstitutional. And Timothy Edgar argued that Trump would face legal consequences if he chose to end the probe.

Noting Trump’s spree of pardons and commutations, Jurecic argued that we can best understand the president’s grants of clemency as an expression of his instincts toward authoritarianism.

Trump’s legal troubles took on a new dimension after New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a lawsuit against the president, his family, and the entire Trump Foundation. Kahn posted the petition on Thursday.

In the latest edition of Middle East Ticker, J. Dana Stuster brought our attention to the imminent attack in Yemen, an aid package for Jordan, and Iraq’s electoral crisis. Cori Crider stressed the important lessons behind the U.K.’s recent apology in a Libyan rendition case. And Mara Revkin cautioned against Iraq’s policy of punishing Islamic State “collaborators.”

Aqil Shah presented his research on whether drone strike “blowback” actually helps recruit terrorists. Daniel Byman predicted that the next administration will struggle to undo Trump’s foreign policy.

In this week’s notable court decisions, a U.S. District Court judge allowed the “kill list” lawsuit to move forward with its challenge of the targeted killing program. Eliot Kim sketched an outline of Jam v. International Finance Corporation after the Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Goldsmith shared the latest issue of Harvard National Security Journal. And Mieke Eoyang, Ben Freeman, Ryan Pougiales, and Wittes posted the results of their May survey of public confidence on national security issues.

And that was the week that was.