Molly Roberts examined litigation in the D.C. Preservation League v. Department of Interior, in which D.C. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued a preliminary injunction preventing the National Parks Service from cutting down trees—after more than 500 were taken down—at the East Potomac Golf Links course. Roberts outlined Reyes’s frustration in potentially being misled by the government and how this fight reveals the difficult position the courts find themselves in when they are unable to trust the Department of Justice.
On Lawfare Live on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 5 p.m. ET, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Anna Bower and Roger Parloff to discuss three-day preliminary hearing before magistrate Judge Faruqui in the criminal case of former FBI analysts charged with false statements to Congress and obstruction.
Nick Bednar analyzed District Judge Jesse Furman’s decision in Maurene Comey’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, in which Comey alleges that she was removed under Article II because her father—former FBI Director James Comey—is critical of President Trump. Bednar explained how Judge Furman allowed Comey to file her lawsuit in district court and, if the ruling holds, the hope it may offer for other federal employees removed from their positions
On Lawfare Daily from last week’s Lawfare Live, Wittes sat down with Bower, Parloff, Roberts, Eric Columbus and Loren Voss to discuss developments in the litigation over the Trump administration’s plan for the East Potomac Park and Arch, the 9th Circuit ruling that President Trump exceeded his authority in the deployment of the National Guard in L.A., legal challenges to the Trump administration’s various actions surrounding the election, and more.
Tyler McBrien reported that Lawfare obtained a newly public report that revealed how in September 2025, the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General determined it would take the government over 12 years to review allegations of human rights violations against Israel Defense Force units receiving U.S. assistance. McBrien described how vetting procedures were underdeveloped and raised the risk of U.S. aid reaching ineligible units.
On Lawfare Live on Friday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. ET, Wittes sat down with Roberts, Parloff, and Columbus to discuss recent developments in litigation against the Trump administration, including former FBI Director James Comey being charged for a third time, a judge ruling that Maureen Comey was unlawfully fired as an assistant U.S. attorney, updates in the Kennedy Center litigation, and more.
On Lawfare Daily, Julia Curlee sat down with Cole Bucy, Nate Swanson, and Ariane Tabatabai to discuss the Iran war eight months in, the Trump administration's likely strategy in the Middle East after the midterms, and more.
On Rational Security, Scott Anderson sat down with Natalie Orpett, Michael Feinberg, and Roberts to discuss how the Justice Department has escalated from warning about election fraud to actively shaping how votes are counted and certified; foreign election meddling, including Kremlin-linked deepfake videos falsely accusing Texas Democratic Senate Candidate James Talarico of sexual abuse; and more.
Gregory D. Koblentz argued that the U.S.’s failure to pay the full amount it owes this year to the Chemical Weapons Convention could jeopardize programs to halt the use of chemical weapons around the world. Koblentz stated that the U.S. should deliver its full contribution immediately and outlined how the Organization for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons cannot continue to destroy weapons in Syria or defend Ukraine against Russia’s use of toxic chemicals without its regular budget.
Benjamin Carter Hett reviewed Timothy Ryback’s book “53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy,” describing it as a readable account of Hitler’s shockingly fast transformation from newly sworn-in chancellor to dictator. Hett noted Ryback’s argument that 1930s Germany offers parallels to democratic erosion in the United States today and that Hitler seized power by following a formulaic plan to dismantle German democracy.
On Lawfare Daily, Orpett sat down with Joel Braunold, Natan Sachs, and Wittes to discuss the Oct. 27 Israeli elections, whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a path to staying in power, whether opposition parties can stay unified, whether there is any prospect of a governing coalition, and more.
Elek Krizsán and Thomas N. Russo outlined how Hungary deepened its dependence on Russian natural gas and nuclear fuel under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and analyzed the feasibility of plans under current Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party to diversify its energy sources. Krizsán and Russo maintained that Hungary has fallen into import dependence due to both a lack of natural resources and by political choice, and the new government needs to balance derussification, diversification, and decarbonization.
Tymur Mykhailov detailed the growth of patriotic, Ukraine-based scam centers that target Russian citizens with fraudulent calls. Mykahilov explored whether “fraudfare”—scam campaigns as part of war—can be justified under international law, the extent to which it can be attributed to Ukraine, and the due diligence obligations Ukraine owes Russia. He concluded that there is limited justification for these scams, as they target civilians and do not qualify as cyberattacks.
On Lawfare Daily, Peter Harrell sat down with Sander Tordoir to discuss the recent deal between the European Union and China involving quotas on hybrid cars, an apparent pause in supply chain warfare, the new trade instruments the E.U. is developing, and more.
William Yuen Yee argued that the U.S.-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade contains a commitment to align Taiwan’s export controls with U.S. rules. Yee noted that this could be addressed if Taiwan expanded the category of items it restricts for import to mainland China or by amending export restriction on artificial intelligence (AI) chips into its Foreign Trade Act and argued that either way, the agreement's ambiguity may benefit both parties.
On Lawfare Daily, Justin Sherman sat down with Andy Hendrickson and Alice Jou to discuss the process for testing and certifying devices in the United States, the national security risks of offshoring of that apparatus, the future of the supply chain and risk space, and more.
Ethan Chiu explained how China’s leading chipmakers are making steps towards acquiring a domestically built advanced lithography machine. Chiu described how China has not yet put the machine into practice, so the U.S. and allied chipmaking still has an advantage. He noted, however, that export control restrictions still allow Dutch, Japanese, and nonrestricted Americans to service Chinese DUV machines, which risks allowing Chinese toolmakers to close this gap.
In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren explained how new research suggests that pro-Chinese Communist Party bias can be removed from Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) models, how AI tools continue to discover long-standing PHP software, and more.
Michael Fischerkeller, Emily Goldman, and Richard Harknett wrote a response to Jay Healey and Jack Snyder’s Sept. 2, 2026 piece, “Persistent Engagement and the Illusion of Cyber Equilibrium,” and argued that Healey and Snyder misrepresented cyber persistence theory as a theory of offense in which a country simply exploits an adversary’s cyber vulnerabilities. The authors noted that Healey and Snyder failed to explain their definition of cyber stability and incorrectly held that cyber behavior is driven by factors outside of the cyber strategic environment.
Ben Vagle argued that the government faces a dilemma in regulating open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) tools because currently the only realistic tool, the export control system, could damage the AI ecosystem by allowing the government to restrict models with few checks. Vagle outlined how a government export control regime could be configured if model weights themselves—which are trained on text and generate speech—are protected under the First Amendment.
On Scaling Laws, Kevin Frazier sat down with Nik Blosser to discuss Oregon’s approach to adopting and governing AI, including Oregon’s Medicaid information chatbot and its public disclosure card; Gov. Tina Kotek’s recent executive order on frontier-model procurement; the limits of state expertise and purchasing power; the AI issues likely to shape Oregon’s 2027 legislative session; and more.
And that was the week that was.
