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Lawfare Daily: The President’s Hand in Russia’s Covert Action, November 6

Benjamin Wittes, Julia Curlee
Friday, November 6, 2026, 9:06 AM

Benjamin Wittes sits down with Julia Curlee to discuss her new essay, “The Unhidden Hand.” 

In this episode, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sits down with Lawfare Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee to discuss her new essay, “The Unhidden Hand.” The essay judges Russia’s 2016 election interference by the standards the intelligence profession uses for covert action.

Covert operations usually pay off early and then fade. They discuss why this one did the opposite: It was exposed before the votes were counted, yet Moscow’s gains have grown over the decade since, largely because of the man Russia helped elect. They also cover the dismantling of U.S. defenses against foreign election interference, the purge of the analysts and investigators who exposed the operation, and what Congress could do to build election defenses that no president can switch off.

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Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
Julia Curlee is a Public Service Fellow at Lawfare and a former CIA analyst with twenty-five years of experience in national security. She served as an NSC director in the Biden and second Trump White Houses and as a PDB briefer to the Vice President. She completed multiple tours in the Middle East and South Asia and served in CIA's China Mission Center. She holds master's degrees from the National War College and American University. The opinions presented here are her own and not those of the U.S. government.

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