The Lawfare Podcast
Episodes
Chatter: Lessons from the Decade of Mass Protests, with Vincent Bevins
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the protests in Brazil initially focused on bus fares to the protests in Hong Kong seeking to stop an extradition bill to the protests across the...
Israel, Gaza, and the Law of War
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is provoking heated debates about which side is in the right. Each accuses the other of things like war crimes. ...
How Are the TikTok Bans Holding Up in Court?
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In May 2023, Montana passed a new law that would ban the use of TikTok within the state starting on January 1, 2024. But as of today, TikTok...
Ask Us Anything About 2023
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to our annual “Ask Us Anything” episode, a hallowed Lawfare tradition. Every news alert in 2023 seemed to bring new questions. But fear no...
Lawfare Archive: Hardcore Dan Carlin
01 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From September 27, 2014: A few weeks ago, Benjamin Wittes began listening to a podcast called Hardcore History, which is the brainchild of a fell...
Rational Security: The “Unboxing Day” Edition
31 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott rang in the New Year with co-host emeritus Benjamin Wittes by discussing some listener-submitted topi...
Lawfare Archive: The Future of Warfare
30 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From February 9, 2019: From the increasing development of autonomous weapons systems to the expansion of the traditional battlefield to cyber and oute...
Sam Lebovic on the Espionage Act's Unlikely History
29 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Former President Trump’s prosecution for mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate has brought an old law back to the front pages—...
Chatter Archive: Spy Movies with John Sipher
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we're taking time off for the holidays, so we reached into the Chatter archives for one of our favorites.In this episode from January ...
America’s First War On Terror with Fergus Bordewich
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1865 and 1872, the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan conducted a reign of terror across the former Confederate States, harassing, intimidati...
Amanda Tyler on Rahimi and Taking Guns Away From Loyalists
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court last month heard oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi, in which the Court will decide the constitutionality of a federal l...
The Court at War
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court during World War II issued some of the most notorious opinions in its history, including the Japanese exclusion case, Korematsu v. U...
Rational Security: The “Arose Such a Clatter” Edition
25 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett and Cyber Fellow Eugenia Lostri to t...
Year-End Event, Part Two: A Conversation with the Lawfare Team
24 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's part two of our Lawfare year-end event. Yesterday, we brought you the headliner conversation with Adam Kinzinger. Today, it's three panels of Law...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Removal, Not to Federal Court but From the Colorado Ballot
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another episode of “Trump's Trials and Tribulations,” this one recorded on December 21 in front of a live audience on YouTube and Zoom. This ...
A Conversation with Adam Kinzinger
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The other day before a live audience, we had our Lawfare year-end extravaganza. It was two hours long, so we've broken it up for purposes of the podca...
Three CISA Senior Advisers on Secure by Design
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Secure by Design means different things to different people. As part of Lawfare’s ongoing project to understand what Secure by Design might mea...
Chatter: Secrecy and Transparency in Early America, with Katlyn Carter
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Modern representative democracy was born in darkness. Transparency in representative bodies can spur unintended consequences for freedom, while secrec...
The Colorado Supreme Court Has Its Day
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In an end-of-the-day ruling on Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court struck Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot on grounds that he was disqu...
Jeff Horwitz on Broken Code and Reporting on Facebook
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, the Wall Street Journal published a monster scoop: a series of articles about Facebook’s inner workings, which showed that employees within...
A Conversation with Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan Vorndran is Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division, a position he's held since around March 2021. Prior to that, he was the special agen...
Joel Braunold on Gaza and What Comes Next
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The conflict in Gaza may be approaching a turning point. An increasingly frustrated Biden administration has reportedly told Israeli officials that th...
Rational Security: The “A Friend in Need is a Friend Security Guaranteed” Edition
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to talk through the week’s big natio...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Mr. Smith Goes to the Supreme Court, not the D.C. Circuit
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another edition of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” recorded on Thursday before a live audience of Lawfare Material Supporters. This week...
Lawfare Archive: Jim Baker and Carl Ghattas on Section 702
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From July 29, 2017: On December 31, 2017, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act will sunset. While U.S. officials insist that the provision authorize...
Fossil Fuel Flops at COP28
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
According to the resolution signed at the end of the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on ...
Chatter: The Ghost Army of World War II with Journalist Rick Beyer
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1944, a group of artists, visual designers and sound engineers--all of them GIs--began a series of secret operations in occupied Fran...
A New United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Saul is the Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, Australia, whose internationally recognized work has focused ...
Argentina’s New President: An Anarcho-capitalist in the Pink House
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard of Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, thanks to some of his eccentricities, like his five cloned dogs or his reliance on a ...
Preston Marquis, Molly Reynolds, and Benjamin Wittes on the Two House FISA Sec. 702 Bills
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
FISA Section 702 is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2023. Last week, two bills were marked up by two different House committees—one in the House Judiciary...
The Complicated Politics of Ukraine Aid
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Senate last week failed to move forward the national security supplemental, which includes a large package of aid for Ukraine. The holdup? Migrati...
Rational Security: The “Based in Eunuchs” Edition
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, co-hosts Quinta and Scott were joined by co-host emeritus Benjamin Wittes to talk over the week’s big national secur...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: A Fulton County Hearing, Filings in D.C., and 14th Amendment Updates
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another edition of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” recorded on Thursday before a live audience of Lawfare Material Supporters. Lawfare S...
Lawfare Archive: Matt and Ken Speak at Hoover on Autonomous Weapons
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From November 6, 2013: On October 25, 2013, the Hoover Institution held a day-long media colloquium out at Stanford University for a first-rate group ...
Graham Allison on Henry Kissinger
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger passed away. To assess his legacy, Jack Goldsmith sat down with Gra...
Chatter: World War I and Intelligence in American Memory, with Mark Stout
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
World War I was a seminal event for American national security and foreign policy, as the United States deployed nearly two million soldiers and sailo...
Preparing for War with Bradley Onishi
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Watching the footage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Bradley Onishi thought to himself, “If I hadn’t left evange...
Bill Wright on the AI Executive Order
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A little over a month ago, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) covering a broad set of AI issues, such a...
Two Courts Rule on Presidential Immunity
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, two courts weighed in on the question of presidential immunity. First, Judge Chutkan of the DC District Court ruled that Trump is not immun...
Matthew Tokson on Government Purchases of Private Data
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is the Fourth Amendment doing any work anymore? In a forthcoming article entitled “Government Purchases of Private Data,” Matthew T...
Rational Security: The “We’re Moving to Microsoft” Edition
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, a contentedly full post-Thanksgiving Scott and Quinta sat down with two Lawfare colleagues—Senior Editor and Brookin...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Gag Orders, Telephones, and Other Stuff
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another edition of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” recorded on Thursday before a live audience of Lawfare Material Supporters. Lawfare E...
Lawfare Archive: Jim Baker on AI and Counterintelligence
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From September 25, 2018: The United States has become the global leader in both defense and private-sector AI. Inevitably, this has led to an environm...
Anna Bower Critiques the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Bower is a Legal Fellow at Lawfare and our Fulton County Correspondent, and has been digging into the weird events in Coffee County in the afterm...
Chatter: Coups and Counterintelligence with Peter Strzok
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Strzok is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Di...
Comparing Civilian Casualty Tolerance in the Israel-Hamas War to the War Against ISIS with Mark Lattimer
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s military response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre has raised deep concern from international legal observers and the general public. The IDF’...
Will Generative AI Reshape Elections?
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard a great deal over the last year about generative AI and how it’s going to reshape ...
U.S. Arms Transfers to Israel, with Brian Finucane and Josh Paul
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, President Biden announced that his administration would ask Congress for “an unprecedented ...
Tiana Epps-Johnson on Lawsuits and the Big Lie
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tiana Epps-Johnson is the Executive Director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, an organization which provides technical and financial assistance ...
Lawfare Archive: Building a Bridge Between 20th Century Law and 21st Century Intelligence
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From November 7, 2015: Last week, George Washington University and the CIA co-hosted an event entitled Ethos and Profession of Intelligence. As p...
Lawfare Archive: The Jerusalem Embassy Opening and Protests in Gaza
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From May 19, 2018: The past week saw the culmination of a major shift in U.S. policy as the United States formally opened its embassy in Jerusalem. Ye...
What Disqualifying Trump From the 2024 Ballot Would Mean for Election Law
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few weeks, there have been several notable developments in lawsuits seeking to disqualify Donald Trump from the 2024 election under Sectio...
Lawfare Archive: Samuel Moyn on “How Warfare Became Both More Humane and Harder to End"
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From October 22, 2016: This week, Samuel Moyn, Professor of Law and History at Harvard University, closed out a one-day conference on “The Next...
Chatter: The JFK Assassination and Conspiracy Culture, with Gerald Posner
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty years ago today in Dallas, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John Kennedy. For almost as long, various (often contradictory) co...
The Pigeon Tunnel: Errol Morris Interviews John le Carré
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The great documentary filmmaker Errol Morris is best known for films such as “The Thin Blue Line” and “The Fog of War.” His latest film, ...
Brooks, Wohlforth, and Keohane on the Strength of the United States in International Politics
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the Cold War, there was no question that the United States was the most powerful country in the world—militarily, economically, and te...
Why Pakistan is Deporting Afghan Refugees with Madiha Afzal
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few weeks, the country of Pakistan has pursued an aggressive wave of deportations targeting thousands of Afghan refugees, some of whom h...
Rational Security: The “Talking Turkey” Edition
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott were jointed by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to talk over some of the week's big n...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: What Is Judge Cannon up to Now?
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another episode of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” the last one before Thanksgiving, when we will take a week off. Lawfare Editor-in-Chi...
Lawfare Archive: Turnover and Turmoil Inside the State Department
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From September 7, 2019: This summer has been a tumultuous one inside the U.S. State Department. In August, the department’s Office of the Inspector ...
Assistant Secretary Matt Axelrod on Enforcing Export Controls
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The United States has long set restrictions on the export of certain sensitive goods and technologies, particularly to strategic rivals. But over the ...
Chatter: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop with Martine Powers
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1983, Maurice Bishop, the revolutionary leader and prime minister of Grenada, was executed alongside seven others amid a power struggle in ...
Data Brokers and the Sale of Data on U.S. Military Personnel
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On November 6, researchers at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy issued a report on “Data Brokers and the Sale of Data on...
Deepfakes and Human Subjects Protection with Aimee Nishimura
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The use of deepfakes—a form of artificial intelligence known as deep learning to create manipulated or generated images, video, and audio—is on th...
Ryan J. Reilly on the Sedition Hunters
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Three weeks ago, an amazing new book came out about the prosecutions stemming from the Capitol Siege of Jan. 6, 2021. It’s called "Sedition Hunters:...
Anatomy of a Somali Drone Strike with Nick Turse
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In August, the U.S. Africa Command, aka AFRICOM, reported that it had killed 13 al-Shabaab fighters in southern Somalia. Though the U.S. government sa...
Rational Security: The ”Alan Revoir” Edition
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott bade a temporary farewell to Alan and spent one last afternoon (for a few months, anyway) digging int...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Trump Ungagged
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another edition of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” recorded on Nov. 9 before a live audience of Lawfare Material Supporters. To talk thr...
Lawfare Archive: Luke Murry and Daniel Silverberg on National Security in Congress
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From March 2, 2019: It's hard to open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing about the dysfunction and partisan polarization affecting ...
Lawfare Archive: Jack Goldsmith on Obama's War Powers Legacy
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From November 8, 2014: Last month, Jack gave a talk at the Hoover Institution on President Obama's war powers legacy. It's a remarkable address: hard-...
Chatter: Rachel Maddow on her book "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism"
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When she's not hosting The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow has been diving deep into the history of fascism in America. First on her podcas...
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin on Counterterrorism and Human Rights
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin completed a productive six-year tenure as the UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights last week. Among other ...
Mike Johnson’s National Security Agenda
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You probably already know that Rep. Mike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House. What you may not know is that every single one of the issues on his ...
Data Brokers, Public Records, and Violence with Justin Sherman
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the debate about data privacy and harms, one issue has not received adequate attention by the press or in policy conversations relative to the seve...
Rational Security: The “Regulatory Cage Match” Edition
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by Lawfare Fellow in Technology Policy and Law Eugenia Lostri to tackle some of th...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Judge Cannon, Section 3, and a Fulton County Update
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another episode of “Trump's Trials and Tribulations,” recorded live on Zoom before an audience of Lawfare Material Supporters. Lawfare Editor...
Lawfare Archive: Stephanie Leutert on the Other Southern Border
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From June 26, 2018: With the media and political commentators focused on family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, few are paying attention to how ...
The West Bank and the Israel-Hamas War
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the Israel-Hamas war has largely been fought in Gaza, a small strip of land along the border of the Medite...
Chatter: The British Empire's Territorial Peak, 100 Years Later, with Matthew Parker
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The British Empire was already buckling under its own internal tensions in the 1920s. One hundred years later, historian and author Matthew Parker use...
A Criminal in the White House: How It Might Work and What It Might Mean
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, an organization that works in the democracy protection space asked Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes and Lawfare Senior Editor ...
What Disqualifying Trump from the 2024 Ballot Would Mean for American Politics and Democracy
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of Donald Trump's role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, lawsuits in states around the co...
Breaking Down the Menendez Indictment with Dan Richman
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a rough few months for Senator Bob Menendez. The powerful New Jersey Democrat has pleaded not guilty to federal charges related to an alle...
The Dangers of a Contingent Election with Beau Tremitiere and Aisha Woodward
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are a little more than a year out from the 2024 election—an election that, in countless ways, promises to be unlike any other. One way it may be ...
Rational Security: The ”Covered in Lyes” Edition
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott came together in the virtual studio to talk over the week’s big national security news, incl...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Three Pleas in a Pod
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another episode of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” recorded live before an audience of Lawfare Material Supporters on Thursday. Lawfare ...
Lawfare Archive: Amanda Sloat Talks Turkey
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From July 3, 2018: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the Turkish election the other day, and becomes the first president under Turkey's new empowered presiden...
The U.S. Diplomatic Response in Gaza with Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Robbie Gramer
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s probably fair to say that the Israeli government was not the only one caught flat-footed by the deadly attack launched by Hamas on Oct. 7. On t...
Chatter: Lincoln, Leadership, and Difficult Conversations with Steve Inskeep
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many will recognize the voice of Steve Inskeep from his nearly two decades-long role hosting NPR's Morning Edition. But he's also the author of what i...
Roger Parloff on a Potential Problem for the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 Prosecutions
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week faintly endorsed the Justice Department’s reading of a critical felony charge, “corrupt obstruction of...
Pleas Please Me, Jenna Ellis
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Another morning, another surprise plea deal in Fulton County Superior Court. It was Jenna Ellis this time, in front of Judge Scott McAfee, pleading ou...
Rules for Civilian Hackers in War, with Tilman Rodenhäuser and Mauro Vignati
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to advances in digital technologies, it is now easier than ever for civilians to get involved in military cyber operations. From private civili...
Comparing Approaches to AI Regulation with Arianna Evers and Itsiq Benizri
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The promise and risks posed by artificial intelligence appear to have captured our collective imagination. The risks seem to span from global doom bro...
Rational Security: The ”Third Ballot’s the Charm” Edition
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by their Lawfare colleague and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior F...
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: A Surprise Plea in Fulton County
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another episode of “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations,” our weekly YouTube livestream conducted on Zoom for Lawfare Material Supporters. It w...
Lawfare Archive: Radek Sikorski on the Week's Events in Poland
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From July 7, 2018: It's been a bad week for Polish democracy, with the government removing a bunch of judges from the country's Supreme Court in order...
The Crisis Facing Efforts to Counter Election Disinformation
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of the last two presidential elections, efforts by social media platforms and independent researchers to prevent falsehoods from sprea...
Chatter: The Secret History of Women at the CIA with Liza Mundy
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Liza Mundy’s new history of the world’s most storied spy service focuses on the women of the CIA, who for decades worked in jobs that m...
China’s Approach to Software Vulnerabilities Reporting
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In July 2021, the Chinese government published its “Regulations on the Management of Network Product Security Vulnerabilities.” These rules requir...
‘The Lumumba Plot’ with Stuart Reid
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Stories of armies, governments, agencies, and institutions have a way of obscuring the humans behind them,” writes Stuart Reid, an executive edit...
Part Two of the PCLOB on FISA Section 702
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On September 28, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, or PCLOB, issued its long-awaited report on FISA Sec. 702, a surveill...