The Lawfare Podcast
Episodes
Shorts: Why the FBI Sent So Many Agents to Roger Stone’s Home
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of Roger Stone’s arrest on Jan. 25, 2019, Chuck Rosenberg, a longtime U.S. federal law enforcement official, explained on Lawfare why t...
Herb Lin and Amy Zegart on “Bytes, Bombs, and Spies”
02 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, as part of the Hoover Institution’s “Security by the Book” series, Jack Goldsmith spoke with Herb Lin and Amy Zegart, co-directors of...
Shorts: What a Watergate Document Can Teach the House Judiciary Committee
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While researching the Watergate Road Map, Benjamin Wittes discovered a letter written by the then-Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary P...
Shorts: The Intelligence Chiefs vs. the Committee with No Bull
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee heard testimony on global threats to U.S. national security from six heads of intelligence agencies: Dir...
Stan Brand on Congressional Subpoenas and Contempt
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With the Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, the 116th Congress is expected to be one of vigorous oversight of the executive bra...
Jeffrey Tulis on 'The Rhetorical Presidency' on Steroids
26 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On a flight recently, Benjamin Wittes read a book that knocked his socks off: "The Rhetorical Presidency" by political scientist Jeffrey Tulis. While ...
Molly Reynolds and Margaret Taylor on National Security and the 116th Congress
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's a new year with a new Congress, and the Democrats now control the House of Representatives. But how will that change affect the state of play for...
Ian Bassin on Protecting Democracy
19 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Bassin served in the White House Counsel's office under President Obama. At the dawn of the Trump administration, he became the impresario behind ...
Special Edition: Bill Barr vs. the Committee with No Bull
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Barr spent Tuesday testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to take over the reins of the Justice Department as attorne...
Special Edition: The FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation of Donald Trump
12 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Wittes talks to Carrie Cordero, Chuck Rosenberg, David Kris, Jack Goldsmith and Susan Hennessey about the New York Times's report that the FB...
Greg Miller on “The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy”
12 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Jack Goldsmith got on the phone with Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist Greg Miller to discuss Miller’s new book, “The A...
Special Edition: Jaimie Nawaday on the Veselnitskaya Indictment
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Wittes talks to Jaimie Nawaday, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, to discuss the indictment of Natalia Veseln...
John Sipher on Spy Swaps: Past, Present, and Future
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Russian government's recent arrest of American Paul Whelan and its charges against him have many politicians and pundits speculating about the pos...
Mary McCord and Jason Blazakis on Criminalizing Domestic Terrorism
05 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017 and other recent events have drawn into the public discourse the fact that domestic terrorism i...
Lawfare AMA 2018
29 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For this end-of-the-year episode of the Lawfare Podcast, we wanted to hear from you and get your voice on the podcast. You called us with questions,...
Exiting Syria and the Rest of the Iceberg
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, President Trump made the unexpected announcement that he was immediately withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, ending their involvement in th...
David Priess on 'How to Get Rid of a President'
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Priess is man of many national security hats. Long before becoming Lawfare's head of operations, Priess was an intelligence officer, manager, an...
Senator Mark Warner on a New Cyber Doctrine
15 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia addressed a crowd at the Center for New American Security (CNAS), offering what he called a “New Doctrine...
The War in Yemen (and Congress’s Response)
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Gregory Johnsen, a former member of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen and the author of the...
Congressman Adam Schiff on the Future of the House Intelligence Committee
08 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On January 3, Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives and all of its committees. Congressman Adam Schiff of California, the curren...
Special Edition: Preet Bharara Discusses…Everything
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today Benjamin Wittes got on the phone with former U.S. attorney and podcast empresario Preet Bharara to discuss a recent report Preet has published ...
Global Developments in Encryption and Surveillance Law
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In August, legal and technical experts gathered in Santa Barbara for the Crypto 2018 Workshop on Encryption and Surveillance to further the ongoing de...
Special Edition: Michael Cohen’s Trump Tower Moscow Plea
29 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thursday saw another plea deal from Michael Cohen: this time with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congre...
Alina and Scott Talk Ukraine and Russia
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Russia and Ukraine went at it in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov. It's the latest salvo in Russia's (n...
John Carlin on "Dawn of the Code War"
24 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Carlin served as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division from April 2014 to October 2016. In his new...
What to Expect from the New Iraqi Government
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, just as the United States was preparing to kick-off its national elections, the country of Iraq was finalizing the results of its o...
Jung Pak at #NatSecGirlSquad
17 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Following the #NatSecGirlSquad’s first conference, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Jung Pak before a live audience at the Bier Baron in Washington, DC...
The U.K. and Europe on the Brink of Brexit
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that U.K. and EU officials have reached a provisional Brexit agreement. Though as of this recording, the text ...
Paul Rosenzweig on Investigating American Presidents
10 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With the firing of Jeff Sessions and his replacement with former U.S. attorney Matt Whitaker, all eyes this week are focused on whether Special Counse...
Special Edition: Sessions is Out!
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday and replaced him on an interim basis with the attorney general’s own chief of staf...
Cybersecurity and Financial Stability
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The rate and intensity of cyber attacks on financial institutions has increased in recent years, but the risk that these attacks pose to our financial...
U.S. Policy and the Crisis in Yemen
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Since 2011, Yemen has transitioned from the scene of a political crisis to one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, but how U.S. policy a...
The Migrant Caravan and its Dissenters
27 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is a caravan—you've probably heard something about it. Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Robert S. Strauss ...
András Pap on Viktor Orbán and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week while traveling in the United Kingdom, Benjamin Wittes met up with András Pap, a Hungarian scholar of constitutional law. Pap is a professo...
John Mearsheimer on 'The Great Delusion'
19 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In recent decades, both democratic and republican administrations have tried to guide other countries toward liberal democracy. But international rela...
The State of Rule of Law in the U.S.: National Security and Law Enforcement
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On October 3, Benjamin Wittes co-hosted an event with his Brookings colleague, Norm Eisen, on The State of Rule of Law in the U.S. Ben moderated a pan...
Through the Looking Glass with Mike Doran, An Update
13 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in January, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Mike Doran—a foreign policy and Middle East specialist who served in the George W. Bush White House, ...
Ambassador David O'Sullivan on the US-EU Relationship
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's easy to spend all our time focusing on American domestic politics these days, but the rest of the world is not going away. Take the European Unio...
Mark Risher on Google Advanced Protection
06 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stories of grievous hacks, data breaches and their fallouts have become an almost daily addition to the news cycle. On Wednesday, Benjamin Wittes sat ...
High School SCOTUS Visits Lawfare
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Salvatore is the impresario behind the High School SCOTUS blog. She got in touch with Benjamin Wittes a number of months ago asking for an interv...
Robert Kagan on 'The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World'
29 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan sat down with Susan Glasser of The New Yorker to discuss Kagan's new book The Jungle Grows Back: Am...
Jim Baker on AI and Counterintelligence
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The United States has become the global leader in both defense and private-sector AI. Inevitably, this has led to an environment in which adversary an...
Elsa Kania on China’s Quantum Quest
22 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you ask scientists what is most likely to kick off the next great wave of technological change, a good number will answer “quantum mechanics”—...
Bruce Schneier on 'Click Here to Kill Everybody'
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Security technologist Bruce Schneier's latest book, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World, argues that it won...
Special Edition: Paul Manafort “Breaks”
14 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered a plea agreement with the special counsel. To figure out what it means for Manafort, t...
John Brennan and Jerrold Nadler on 20 Months Under Trump
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The challenges that President Donald Trump has posed to the rule of law are well documented, from his delegitimization of the law enforcement investig...
Special Edition: Kavanaugh vs. the Committee with No Bull, Part II
07 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Brett Kavanaugh spent Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for his second day of marathon questioning about his qualifications to join ...
Special Edition: Kavanaugh vs. the Committee with No Bull, Part I
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Judge Brett Kavanaugh faced the Senate Judiciary Committee in Day 1 of a two-day marathon Q&A session for his nomination as an associate justice of th...
John Sipher on Human Sources in Moscow
01 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The New York Times reports that CIA human sources in Moscow are drying up. The newspaper speculates that this may be because of the political environm...
What is Too Far When Former Intelligence Community Leadership Criticizes the President?
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This edition of The Lawfare Podcast grows out of an email exchange between David Kris and Jack Goldsmith over a draft article Jack had written about J...
Solomon Wisenberg on Interviewing the President
25 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bob Mueller and the president's legal team are engaged in an extended negotiation over whether the president will sit for an interview with the Muelle...
Special Edition: The Mueller Investigation's Weird Weekend
21 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What a weird weekend it has been. The Manafort jury is deliberating, the White House lawyer is cooperating with the special prosecutor and giving 30 h...
Brad Moss on Presidential Power and Security Clearances
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The President of the United States this week stripped the former CIA Director John Brennan of his security clearance in a dramatic White House stateme...
A Worthwhile Canadian Dust-Up
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Canada and Saudi Arabia have been at loggerheads over the past week ever since the Canadian Foreign Minister condemned Saudi Arabia’s arrest of Sama...
Special Edition: Buzzfeed Follows Peter Smith’s Money
11 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a new twist in one of the stranger subplots of L’Affaire Russe: Buzzfeed News reports that Peter Smith, a Republican operative who repo...
The Challenges of Digital Evidence
08 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Encryption usually takes center stage in debates over digital evidence, and the sensitivities around the issue often halt discussions before reaching ...
Fighting Deep Fakes
04 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Technologies that distort representations of reality, like audio, photo, and video editing software, are nothing new, but what happens when these tech...
Should Humans Communicate with Aliens?
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years, Shane Harris of The Washington Post has been fascinated with the search for extraterrestrial life in the universe. But that search raises a...
Talking Brexit
28 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The British government is falling apart, Brexit talks are on the rocks, and into the maelstrom walks Donald Trump to walk in front of the Queen after ...
Kennedy, Kavanaugh, and the Future of National Security Before the Supreme Court
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Justice Kennedy's resignation and the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his replacement promises to usher in a new era of the U.S. Supreme Court,...
Jennifer Hillman and Clark Packard on Trade and National Security, Part Deux
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance on U.S. trade relations, opting for bilateral negotiations, and in many cases, eschewing the m...
Julia Ioffe and Ian Bremmer on the Trump-Putin Summit
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Helsinki for their first one-on-one summit, where the U.S. presiden...
Emergency Edition: GRUccifer 2.0 Indictment!
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for their role in the theft and dissemination of documents from th...
#AbolishICE?
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
#AbolishICE is the hashtag that has proliferated all over Twitter. Anger over the family separation policy of the Trump administration has many people...
Radek Sikorski on the Week's Events in Poland
07 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 to replace them wi...
Amanda Sloat Talks Turkey
03 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the Turkish election the other day, and becomes the first president under Turkey's new empowered presidential system. His pa...
Jim Baker and Orin Kerr on the Carpenter Ruling
30 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On June 22, the Supreme Court released its long-awaited ruling in Carpenter v. United States, a case challenging whether law enforcement agencies need...
Stephanie Leutert on the Other Southern Border
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With the media and political commentators focused on family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, few are paying attention to how developments along M...
Michael Hayden on 'The Assault on Intelligence'
22 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Gen. Michael Hayden has served as the head of both the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency—and he says that intelligence is und...
Artificial Intelligence and Security
20 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From manufacturing to healthcare, and from criminal justice to national security, artificial intelligence is changing nearly every sector of the globa...
All Things Inspector General...and Emails!
16 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a gigantic report on the FBI's handling of the Clinton emails matter/investi...
Mira Rapp-Hooper and Steph Haggard on the Singapore Summit
12 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday, in Singapore, after doubts about whether the Summit would happen, President Trump met for several hours with North Korean Leader Kim Jong ...
Soumaya Keynes and Megan Reiss on Trade and National Security Under the Trump Administration
08 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Economic welfare and national security have never been mutually exclusive, but trade has factored into the national security discourse prominently in ...
Clint Watts on 'Messing with the Enemy'
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Former FBI agent and Army officer Clint Watts has spent years hunting down terrorists and Russian disinformation on the Internet in his spare time. In...
The Future of CFIUS
02 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) plays an essential role in advising the president on how to exercise his or her autho...
Counterterrorism Under the Early Trump Administration
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2017, Donald Trump inherited a complex, multifaceted counterterrorism campaign, and since taking office, he has escalated it rhetorically a...
Vladimir Milov on Russia Beyond the Headlines
26 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Vladimir Milov is the current economic advisor to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the former deputy minister of energy in the Russian go...
Special Edition: Outing a Confidential Informant
22 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bob Bauer, Jack Goldsmith and David Kris join Benjamin Wittes to discuss the sequence of events between the Justice Department, the FBI, the House int...
The Jerusalem Embassy Opening and Protests in Gaza
18 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The past week saw the culmination of a major shift in US policy as the United States formally opened its embassy in Jerusalem. Yet ongoing protests al...
Special Edition: Anthony Cormier on Trump Tower Moscow
17 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Wittes speaks to Buzzfeed reporter Anthony Cormier about his latest story, co-authored with Jason Leopold, about the negotiations to build a ...
Amanda Tyler on Habeas Corpus in Wartime
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, "Habeas Corpus in Wartime: From the Tower of London to Guantanamo Bay," Amanda Tyler presents a comprehensive account of the legal an...
The Lawfare Podcast: James Comey on 'A Higher Loyalty'
11 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Wittes speaks to former FBI director James Comey before a live audience at the Brookings Institution.Support this show http://supporter.acast...
The Lawfare Podcast: Special Edition: Gina Haspel vs. the Senate Intelligence Committee With No Bull
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee to lead the CIA, testified for two-and-a-half hours on her nomination before the Senate intellige...
Shane Harris on the Gina Haspel Nomination
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Gina Haspel, the CIA's current deputy director, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow, May 9, 2018, for confirmation as the CIA's dir...
Mira Rapp-Hooper and Steph Haggard Preview the North Korea Summit
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Only a few months ago, President Donald Trump threatened to rain fire and fury on North Korea and Kim Jong Un’s missiles were crashing into the ocea...
Democracy's Morticians: Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt on 'How Democracies Die'
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt talk to Benjamin Wittes about their new book, "How Democracies Die."Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/la...
Preserving Justice Department Independence
28 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
At Georgetown Law, Matt Axelrod, Bob Bauer, John Bellinger, Jack Goldsmith, and Don Verrilli reflect on the norms that govern contact between the Whit...
Lisa Monaco and Wayne Williams on Protecting the 2018 Election
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Rosenbach moderates a conversation between former homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and current Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams on...
Bobby Chesney and Scott Anderson on the Corker-Kaine AUMF
20 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Sens. Bob Corker and Tim Kaine introduced a proposal to reshape the legal authorization for U.S. counterterrorism operations abroad. On Thu...
Toomas Ilves on the Situation
18 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Former Estonian President Toomas Ilves sits down with Benjamin Wittes and Megan Reiss to talk about the use of social media by the presidents of the U...
Taking Stock on Syria
14 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
All week, President Trump has promised airstrikes in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, but so far nothing has come. Does this ...
Tim Maurer on 'Cyber Mercenaries'
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of proxy conflict dates to the Cold War and earlier, but Tim Maurer’s new book “Cyber Mercenaries: The State, Hackers, and Power” makes...
Vladimir Kara-Murza on Russia's So-Called 'Election'
06 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Vladimir Kara-Murza is the vice chairman of Open Russia, founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation and a contributing opinion writer for the Washington...
Special Edition: The President is a 'Subject'
04 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Washington Post reports this evening that: "Mueller told Trump’s attorneys the president remains under investigation but is not currently a crim...
Bobby Chesney, Matt Tait and Steve Vladeck on War, Law and Cyberspace
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bobby Chesney, Matt Tait and Steve Vladeck speak at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law on "War, Law and Cyberspace."Support this show htt...
Chimène Keitner on the State Department Before and After #Rexit
30 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Chimène Keitner speaks to Scott Anderson about her experience as international law counselor at the State Department and the future of the department...
Niall Ferguson on 'The Square and the Tower'
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Goldsmith interviews Niall Ferguson about Ferguson's latest book, "The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies, and the Struggle for Power."S...
Amy Chua on 'Political Tribes'
24 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Goldsmith talks to Yale Law School professor Amy Chua about her new book, "Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations," at the Hoov...
Liza Osetinskaya on Journalistic Freedom Under Putin
21 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Shortly before last Sunday's election in Russia, Alina Polyakova spoke to Liza Osetinskaya, editor of The Bell and former editor of Forbes Russia and ...
A Real Live Framer of the Constitution
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Kahn speaks to John Feerick, dean emeritus of Fordham Law School and an adviser to the congressional committees that drafted the 25th Amendmen...