Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Aug. 29
Listen to the Aug. 29 livestream as a podcast.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
In a live conversation on YouTube, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower and Scott Anderson, Lawfare contributor James Pearce, Lawfare Public Service Fellow Loren Voss, and The Atlantic staff writer Quinta Jurecic to discuss the legality of the Trump administration’s cancellation of $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding using a “pocket rescission,” how that impacts ongoing litigation surrounding foreign aid grant cancellations, the expanding role of the Pentagon in domestic law enforcement in D.C. and across the country, Fed. Governor Lisa Cook’s lawsuit challenging President Trump’s attempt to remove her from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and more.You can find information on legal challenges to Trump administration actions here. And check out Lawfare’s new homepage on the litigation, new Bluesky account, and new WITOAD merch.
Anna Bower is a senior editor at Lawfare. Anna holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Cambridge and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. She joined Lawfare as a recipient of Harvard’s Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service. Prior to law school, Anna worked as a judicial assistant for a Superior Court judge in the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. She also previously worked as a Fulbright Fellow at Anadolu University in Eskişehir, Turkey.
A native of Georgia, Anna is based in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
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.
James Pearce worked at the Department of Justice for over a decade until January 2025. Pearce is now senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group. In the Criminal Division at Main Justice, he worked in the Appellate Section and in the Public Integrity Section. He served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Offices in Maryland (Greenbelt) and in the District of Columbia. He also worked for Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Quinta Jurecic is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She was previously a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare.
Loren Voss most recently served as Director for Defense Policy and Strategy at the National Security Council. She chairs the Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict at the American Society of International Law and previously served as a Senior Advisor for the Department of Defense and taught classes on domestic deployment of the military and disinformation at GW Law. Loren previously served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force.
Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
