The Lawfare Podcast

From June 8, 2020: On May 27, the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing sanctions waivers that had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to work with Iran on sensitive Iranian nuclear sites in support of the goals of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Margaret Taylor talked about what it really means with two experts: Peter Harrell, an attorney and adjunct senior fellow at...

Alan Rozenshtein, research director at Lawfare , spoke with Francis Shen, Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, director of the Shen Neurolaw Lab, and candidate for Hennepin County Attorney. The conversation covered the intersection of neuroscience, AI, and criminal justice; how AI tools can improve criminal investigations and clearance rates; the role of AI in adjudication and plea neg...

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Tyler McBrien, Michael Feinberg, and Ariane Tabatabai to talk through the week’s big news in national security, including: “Between Iraq and a Hard Place.” Iran is engaged in perhaps its most serious bout of domestic unrest in a decade, spurred on by a failing economy and the seeming political weakness of the regime after its devastating milita...

On today's episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with Lawfare Contributing Editor Professor Ashley Deeks of the University of Virginia School of Law and Professor Kristen Eichensehr of Harvard Law School to discuss their recent article entitled, " Federalism and the New National Security ," recently published in the Harvard Law Review. Together, they discuss the new ways that...

On today’s episode,  Lawfare  Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), to discuss his organization’s latest report, entitled, “ At the Breaking Point: The State of the U.S. Foreign Service in 2025 .” They talk about why AFSA undertook such a project after the federal government workforce survey wa...

Iran is once again witnessing large-scale protests, on which the regime is cracking down through mass arrests and deadly force. President Trump has stated that the United States would come to the rescue of Iranians if the regime continues to kill protestors. Meanwhile, Tehran continues to reconstitute its nuclear program, which was damaged during the 12-day war over the summer. President Trum...

In a live conversation on YouTube ,  Lawfare  Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with  Lawfare  Senior Editors Roger Parloff Michael Feinberg and Eric Columbus to discuss the shooting by an ICE agent in Minnesota, what the Maduro indictment means for the Alien Enemies Act cases, the disqualification of the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, and moreYou c...

From June 18, 2024: On June 2, Mexico held one of the largest elections in its history and the electorate voted in the country's first women, and Jewish, president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum was endorsed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who critics charge as pushing a series of anti-democratic policies including a substantial judicial overhaul.  To discuss this his...

From February 15, 2023: The Jan. 6 committee’s final report on the insurrection is over 800 pages, including the footnotes. But there’s still new information coming out about the committee’s findings and its work. Last week, we brought you an  interview with Dean Jackson , one of the staffers who worked on the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation into the role of social media in the insurrection....

Lawfare Senior Editor Anna Bower speaks with fellow Senior Editors Eric Columbus and Mike Feinberg about the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. The discussion covers what is currently known about the incident and the conflicting accounts offered by DHS and the White House in contrast with bystander video. The panel also discusses DHS use-of-force policies, the fe...

Connecticut State Senator James Maroney and Neil Chilson, Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute, join Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law and a Senior Editor at  Lawfare , and Alan Rozenshtein, Associate Professor at Minnesota Law and Research Director at  Lawfare , for a look back at a wild year in AI policy. Neil provides his...

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Benjamin Wittes, Natalie Orpett, and Molly Roberts for a special deep-dive into the intervention in Venezuela, including: “A Hop, Skip, and Jump Across the Rubicon.” This past weekend, the Trump administration took the step that Trump has been threatening for months: he deployed special operations to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro a...

Senior Editor Michael Feinberg and Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick sit down to discuss Mary Clare’s oral history of the events of Jan. 6, “ Storm at the Capitol .” The two reflect on their own experiences from that day, and try to puzzle out what lessons can be drawn from them five years later. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a  Lawfare  Material Supporter at  www....

In a live conversation on YouTube , Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Scott Anderson, Michael Feinberg and Eric Columbus and Lawfare Associate Editor Katherine Pompilio to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision on President Trump’s domestic deployment of the National Guard in many cities, Jack Smith’s testimony in front of the House, development...

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. That day marked the beginning of a reckoning across the entirety of the U.S. government. How did this happen? What does it mean? And how do we stop it from happening again?  On today's podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett discusses how Congress has been responding to these questions with current and forme...

During a  live YouTube discussion on Jan. 4 ,  Lawfare  Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with  Lawfare  Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson, Foreign Policy Editor Dana Stuster, and Public Service Fellow Loren Voss to discuss what we know—and what we don’t know—about the legal issues raised by the U.S. strike on Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Mad...

From October 9, 2024: For today’s episode, Loyaan Egal, the Chief of the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), sat down with  Lawfare  Senior Editor and General Counsel Scott R. Anderson and  Lawfare  Contributing Editor and Morrison Foerster partner Brandon Van Grack to discuss the FCC’s growing but often underappreciated role in advancing U.S. n...

From September 30, 2024: New York Mayor Eric Adams is facing indictment in connection with a foreign influence scheme involving Turkey. It’s the latest in a long string of actions by the Justice Department to counter foreign efforts to interfere in the American political system.  Lawfare  Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Managing Editor Tyler McBrien, Senior E...

Today's  Lawfare Daily  is  Lawfare's  annual "Ask Us Anything" mailbag episode where  Lawfare  contributors answered listener-submitted questions. Scott R. Anderson, Natalie Orpett, Benjamin Wittes, Kevin Frazier, Eric Columbus, Loren Voss, Molly Roberts, Jakub Kraus, Anna Bower, and Roger Parloff address questions on everything from presidential immunity to AI regul...

From April 16, 2024: 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 &nbs...

From April 4, 2023: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has tested the international legal order like never before. For many, the fact that a nuclear power and member of the U.N. Security Council would commit unveiled aggression against another state seemed like it might be the death knell of the international system as we know it.  But last week, in the annual Breyer Lecture on International Law at...

For the podcast’s annual end-of-year episode, Scott sat down with co-host emeritus Benjamin Wittes, Senior Editor Anna Bower, and Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to talk over listener-submitted topics and object lessons, including: Which sphere of influence is Western Europe in today? What should we make of President Trump's lawsuit against BBC? After nearly a year of the Trump Administration, how d...

Senior Editor Michael Feinberg and Tom Brzozowski, formerly of the Justice Department, sit down to talk over recent changes set in motion by the White House and Justice Department with respect to domestic terrorism investigations and prosecutions, and sound a warning from history at how these changes hearken back to pre-Church Committee practices. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a  Lawfar...

In this episode, Ariane Tabatabai, Scott R. Anderson, and Loren Voss discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. They take stock of how Congress is reasserting itself vis-a-vis the Trump administration on matters related to the national defense, as well as the NDAA’s key provisions.  Relevant links: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 United...

From March 6, 2024: Executive branch constraints and the posture of the media have shifted in significant ways over the past two decades. Lyrissa Lidsky and Christina Koningisor, law professors at the University of Florida and the University of California San Francisco, respectively, argue in  a forthcoming law review article  that these changes—including the erosion of certain post-Wate...