The Lawfare Podcast

For a period of time in the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, employer in the city of Miami. The CIA had set up a base of operations there, aimed primarily at undermining the regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. From those early days, writes historian Vince Houghton, the Cold War battle against communism shaped the city, which he says should rank am...

On April 24, President Joe Biden signed the National Security Package into law. It's a bundle of legislation that provides aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and requires TikTok's Chinese parent company to divest from the app or face a national ban, among various other provisions.  Lawfare  Associate Editor Katherine Pompilio sat down with  Lawfare  Senior Editor Molly Reynolds...

On March 20, the House of Representatives passed the  Protecting Americans’ Data From Foreign Adversaries Act . The House bill was passed by the Senate on April 23 as part of the larger foreign aid package, which President Biden signed into law on April 24.  Lawfare  Senior Editor Stephanie Pell sat down with Justin Sherman, Senior Fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Publi...

From September 28, 2020: It's been a wild few weeks with President Trump threatening to shut WeChat and TikTok out of the U.S. market and rip them out of the app stores. There have been lawsuits, a preliminary injunction—and a sudden deal to purchase TikTok and moot the issue out. To chew it all over, Benjamin Wittes spoke with  Lawfare  co-founder Bobby Chesney, a professor at the Unive...

From June 15, 2019: Russian and Chinese leaders understand that they’re unlikely to win a shooting war with the United States, but they have other ways to challenge Western interests, turning our greatest strengths—open societies, dominance of technology on Earth and in space, and military innovation—into weaknesses. CNN anchor and chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto calls it “the sh...

It's Trump's Trials and Tribulations, New York Trial Dispatch, April 26. Benjamin Wittes sat down with Tyler McBrien and Anna Bower to discuss what happened in the courtroom today. The podcast was edited by Ian Enright of Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is from Alibi Music. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's Lawfare Podcast, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Quinta Jurecic, Roger Parloff, and Alan Rosenstein. In a live conversation recorded less than an hour after Supreme Court Oral Arguments concluded, they discussed presidential immunity, and whether former president Trump is immune from prosecution for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 el...

It's Trump's Trials and Tribulations, New York Trial Dispatch, April 25. Benjamin Wittes sat down with Tyler McBrien and Anna Bower to discuss what happened in the courtroom today. The podcast was edited by Ian Enright of Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is from Alibi Music. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were finally reunited to talk through the week’s big natsec stories, including: “First is the Worst.” The historic first criminal trial of a former president has commenced in New York state courts. Both sides have sketched out their cases in opening arguments. What will the charges being brought against former President Trump relating to alleged hush money paymen...

In today's Trump's Trials and Tribulations, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Tyler McBrien, Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic and Roger Parloff for a round-up of the most recent news in all of Donald Trump's ongoing legal cases. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a  Lawfare  Material Supporter at  www.patreon.com/lawfare . You can also support  Lawfare  by making a one-time donatio...

The annual U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) Legal Conference convenes lawyers across government and the private sector working on cyber issues. This year’s conference focused on the power of partnerships. Executive Editor Natalie Orpett moderated a panel, titled “The Business of Battle: Navigating the Role of the Private Sector in Conflict,” featuring Jonathan Horowitz of the International Committe...

It's Trump's Trials and Tribulations, New York Trial Dispatch, April 23. Benjamin Wittes sat down with Tyler McBrien and Anna Bower to discuss what happened in the courtroom today. The podcast was edited by Ian Enright of Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is from Alibi Music. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Sanger has been writing for the New York Times   since he graduated from college more than four decades ago. Over that period, Sanger has served as a business correspondent in Silicon Valley, the Times bureau chief in Japan, and has covered the last five presidents—which has given Sanger a front-row seat to U.S. foreign policy for much of the post-Cold War period. It is that experience...

Ambassador Robert Lighthizer is the former United States Trade Representative in the Trump administration and the author of the 2023 book, “No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers.” He sat down with Jack Goldsmith to talk about his work as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President Reagan, why extreme neoliberal trade policy took hold in the 1990s, h...

It's Trump's Trials and Tribulations, New York Trial Dispatch, April 22. Tyler McBrien sat down with Benjamin Wittes and Anna Bower to discuss what happened in the courtroom today. The podcast was edited by Ian Enright of Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is from Alibi Music. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lawfare ’s Fellow in Technology Policy and Law, Eugenia Lostri, talks to Dr. Erica Lonergan, Assistant Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Dr. Lonergan recently  authored a report  making the case for establishing a U.S. Cyber Force as a way to address the military’s difficulty to recruit, train, and equip sufficient personnel to meet...

Starting Monday, April 22, the  Lawfare Podcast  feed is gonna look a little different. Our daily show, the Lawfare Podcast,  will remain on this feed, along with  Rational Security  and  Chatter . We’ll also be adding some important new content as well. Starting with opening statements in the New York state court trial against Donald Trump, we will discuss...

This week on Rational Security , Alan and Quinta sat down with Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes to talk through the week’s big national security news, including: “Ayatollahs and Airstrikes.” In retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed several high-ranking Iranian military officers in Syria, over the weekend Iran launched a wave of drone and missile attacks against Israel. The vast majo...

It's another episode of “Trump's Trials and Tribulations,” recorded on April 18 in front of a live audience on YouTube and Riverside. Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff to talk about oral arguments at the Supreme Court in Fischer v. United States , over an obstruction charge used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, including for...

From November 29, 2017: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in  Carpenter v. United States , a major Fourth Amendment case asking whether a warrant is necessary before law enforcement can obtain cell site data identifying a suspect phone's location from a service provider.  Lawfare  contributor and Fourth Amendment expert Orin Kerr discussed the case with Benjamin Witte...

NATO recently had its 75th birthday. And many say its trajectory traces the adage, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” That is, at least in some ways, NATO has returned to its original mission of collective self-defense. This means the alliance is concentrating less on out-of-area operations that have occupied much of its focus since the end of the Cold War. The transition comes...

Author and speaker Virginia Postrel has spent many years researching and writing about, among other things, various aspects of the economics and societal context of fashion, glamour, and consumer choice. A few years ago her book  The Fabric of Civilization  tackled the history and global effects of fabric-making, dyeing, the clothing trade, and other textile-related activities. So when h...

One year ago, fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In the intervening months, the death toll and humanitarian cost have been immense.  And yet, the suffering has gone largely overlooked by the United States and European nations. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield recently said, “Just five years after a revolu...

Last week, the House passed an overhaul and reauthorization of the FISA 702 program, a bill which now heads to the Senate for final passage. In the run-up to Senate consideration of it, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matt Olsen joined Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes to talk about the House bill. They talked about the new constraints it imposes on the Justice Department an...

Friday morning, the House of Representatives suddenly—after failing to do so earlier in the week—took up the reauthorization of FISA 702. They considered a bunch of amendments, one of which failed on a tie vote, and then proceeded to pass reauthorization of 702.  Immediately after the votes, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke with Lawfare Senior Editors Stephanie Pell and Molly Rey...