The Week That Was

Benjamin Wittes sardonically extended his support for the Trump administration’s wide-ranging efforts to crack down on crime in the District—from new prohibitions on cash bail and burning American flags to stationing National Guardsmen outside the Dupont Circle Krispy Kreme.

On August 29 at 4 pm ET, Wittes sat down with Anna Bower, Scott Anderson, James Pearce, Loren Voss, and Quinta Jurecic to discuss President Trump’s decision to expand the Department of Defense’s role in domestic law enforcement, the latest updates in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, the attempted firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and more.

Mary Ford shared the text of President Trump’s recent executive order expanding the Department of Defense’s role in domestic law enforcement.

Wittes shared photos of the National Guard from his afternoon walk around the capital and argued that the presence of the National Guard is not about changing the District’s crime problem, but rather is a way for the president to demonstrate his control over the military as well as the District of Columbia.

Bower covered the status conference in Kilmar Abrego Garcia v. Noem et al., a lawsuit challenging Abrego-Garcia’s impending removal from the United States to Uganda. 

Wittes sat down with Bower, Parloff, and Pearce to discuss the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s warrant to search John Bolton’s home, a federal judge ruling that Alina Habba lacked legal authority to continue serving as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland, and more.

Bower broke down a hearing in Cook v. Trump, a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

Wittes, Renee DiResta, and Michael Feinberg joined Anderson to take stock of investigations into Trump’s enemies, Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to pull security clearances from 37 percent of current and former intelligence officials, Bluesky’s announcement that it was shutting down services in Mississippi, and more.

Peter E. Harrell—amid the Trump administration’s recent announcement that the U.S. government had taken a 9.9 percent equity stake in Intel—examined the legal basis for government stakes in private companies. Harrell argued that even though the executive branch can lawfully acquire equity stakes, Congress can take action to stipulate the circumstances under which this can occur.

Anastasiia Lapatina sat down with Eric Ciaramella to discuss the history of American security commitments around the world, how historical precedent can inform the debate surrounding security guarantees for Ukraine, and more.

Mykhailo Soldatenko sat down with Michael O’Hanlon and Andiy Zagorodnyuk to discuss ways of defending Ukraine from present and future Russian attacks in the absence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership.

Lapatina—writing from Kirkenes, a Norwegian town not far from the Russian border—weighed the dynamics, politics, and history of an area that is increasingly representative of Russia’s hybrid war against the West.

Emily Hoge examined the implications of Russian convicts, recruited to fight in Ukraine in exchange for pardons, returning home at the end of the Russia-Ukraine war. Hoge argued that although Moscow’s gamble has fed the war effort up until now, this strategy is a double-edged sword—and the partial or full return of recruited convicts could contribute to disorder in Russia.

Bailey Ulbricht and Allen S. Weiner argued that Israel’s official objective in its war with Hamas—wiping out the group’s military capabilities and removing them from power—is questionable, suggesting that the force necessary to carry this out in Gaza violates the principle of jus ad bellum proportionality. Ulbricht and Weiner emphasized that states allied with Israel have a responsibility to urge the Israeli government to end the war and halt any security cooperations that would enable Israel to continue using excessive force in Gaza.

Faisal Kutty responded to Jeffrey Lovitky’s recent Lawfare article where he argued that Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” was a lawful exercise of its right to self-defense. Kutty contended that Lovitky’s defense of Israeli military action against Iran hinged on an elastic interpretation of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, emphasizing that stretching Article 51 to rationalize long pauses between strikes blurs the line between lawful and unlawful conduct. 

Cory Pihl—in response to Israeli strikes on the Hezbollah-linked bank Al-Qard Al-Hassan—examined the legal, humanitarian, and threshold conditions that render institutions that help facilitate the financing of terrorist organizations legitimate military targets.

Harrell joined Kevin Frazier to examine the Trump administration’s announcement that it had acquired a 9.9 percent equity stake in Intel, the policy rationale and legality of this decision, and more.

MacKenzie Price and Rebecca Winthrop joined Frazier to take stock of how artificial intelligence (AI) is being integrated into classrooms in the United States and abroad.

Derek Slater and Aram Sinnreich responded to a claim made by federal district court Judge Vince Chhabria that a market saturated by AI-enabled work could harm existing copyrighted content. Slater and Sinnreich drew from historical precedent to argue that the broader integration of AI may increase the unpredictability of markets, but will not necessarily prove detrimental to existing creative works.  

Michael Fischerkeller, Emily Goldman and Richard Harknett urged the United States to complement its current efforts to deter Beijing from invading Taiwan by using “contingency campaigning”—that is, using cyber activity in peacetime to create an advantageous operational environment—for maximum strategic impact.

Justin Sherman sat down with Matthew Ford to discuss the role of smartphones in armed conflict, how smartphones are reshaping open-source intelligence and open-source investigations of violence and conflict around the world, the current state of “participatory warfare,” and more.

Christian Wiese Svanberg suggested European Union member states respond to shifting security concerns in the region by adopting a more balanced and flexible “trust-but-verify” approach to data protection, privacy, and security policies. 

In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discussed legislation proposed by a Republican congressman that would allow private-sector entities to hack foreign crime enterprises that target the U.S., Microsoft’s attempts to disentangle itself from Chinese security firms, and more.

And Jon Roozenbeek reviewed Dannagal Goldthwaite Young’s book entitled, “Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation.” Roozenbeek argued that although Young’s focus on the United States limits the universality of some of her arguments, her refusal to frame misinformation as stemming from individual failure—instead placing the impetus on information suppliers and curators—strengthens the quality of her analysis.

And that was the week that was.