The Week That Was

Anna Bower discussed her Signal conversation with interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan.

On Lawfare Live: The Now, Benjamin Wittes and Bower discussed Bower’s article on her Signal conversation with Halligan, how the correspondence unfolded, the case Halligan is prosecuting against New York Attorney General Letitia James, and more. You can also listen to this episode of The Now as a podcast here.

Tyler McBrien shared James’s Oct. 23 motion requesting that the court of the Eastern District of Virginia curb extrajudicial statements by prosecutors.

McBrien also shared watchdog group American Oversight’s letter urging Attorney General Pam Bondi and Acting Archivist of the United States Marco Rubio to preserve Halligan’s Signal messages with Bower, arguing that disappearing messages constitute federal records destruction. 

On Lawfare Live: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Wittes sat down with Scott R. Anderson, Molly Roberts, Roger Parloff, Eric Columbus, and James Pearce to discuss legal challenges to Alina Habba’s and Halligan’s appointments as U.S. attorneys, the arraignment of James, litigation over the federalization and deployment of the National Guard, and more. You can find the recording here or on the Lawfare Youtube channel. 

Roberts reported from the Oct. 24 arraignment of Letitia James in the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Anna Hickey shared former FBI Director James Comey’s motion to dismiss the indictment against him, alleging vindictive and selective prosecution.

Wittes—amid the prosecution of Comey, Halligan’s texts to Anna Bower, the bulldozing of the White House, and more—discussed the value of deliberate slowness, thoughtfulness, and rest in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to “flood the zone with shit.” 

Bobby Kogan explained that President Trump’s choice to pay troops during the ongoing government shutdown with money appropriated for Department of Defense research and development is unlawful and upsets the constitutional separation of powers. Kogan described how service members have been paid legally during previous shutdowns, then explored the risks of allowing Antideficiency Act violations to continue unchecked.

On Rational Security, Anderson sat down with Columbus, Anastasiia Lapatina, and Loren Voss to discuss President Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, the Supreme Court’s anticipated ruling on domestic military deployments, the Trump administration’s efforts to link individuals accused of attacking an immigration detention facility to the antifa movement, and more.

Mykhailo Soldatenko broke down how President Trump’s executive order assuring Qatari security could serve as a model for a future U.S. commitment to Ukraine. Soldatenko analyzed the extent to which the order imposes obligations on the U.S. and discussed how a similar order safeguarding Ukraine’s “armed neutrality” could help in negotiations with Russia.

On Lawfare Daily, Lapatina sat down with Soldatenko and Eric Ciaramella to discuss the latest meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy, the prospect of armed neutrality for Ukraine, how Ukraine can nudge ongoing peace negotiations in its favor, and more.

Emily Hoge broke down why Russia’s deployment of mafia convicts to Ukraine strains the relationship between the Russian state and Russia’s organized criminals. Hoge explained how Russia’s mostly stable state-mafia dynamic first emerged from the lawlessness of the 1990s and considered whether the pressures of war will usher in a new age of organized crime.

Preston Marquis reviewed Tim Weiner’s book “The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century.” Marquis praised Weiner’s account for impressive sourcing, page-turning coverage of operations, and powerful warnings about the threat of CIA weaponization under the Trump administration, but pointed out that it provided little fresh insight into the United States’s arc during the war on terror.

In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Rueben Dass examined the rise of African non-state actors’ use of drones to carry out attacks. Dass evaluated the economic calculations and strategic influences behind that rise and weighed the new threat that drone-armed groups pose to African militaries.

On Lawfare Daily, Daniel Byman sat down with Holly Berkley Fletcher to discuss the recent coup in Madagascar, the coup’s effect on Madagascar’s international relationships, the death of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, and more. 

Also on Lawfare Daily, Katsiaryna Shmatsina sat down with Beverly Ochieng to examine the ways external powers compete for influence in Africa, perceptions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the role of Russian military contractors, how African regional organizations shape foreign agendas, and more.

Laura Galante and Tal Feldman explained how global technical standards-setting allows nations to build geopolitical influence and position their own technologies for competitive success. The authors examined the Chinese government’s aggressive campaign to shape standards across a range of emerging technologies and urged U.S. lawmakers to catch up with China on standards for artificial intelligence (AI).

Alistair Simmons outlined a series of steps U.S. government agencies can take to defend against future cyberattacks like Salt Typhoon, emphasizing the need to deter attacks through proportional and predictable offensive cyber responses.

Ben Gil Friedman argued that sharing catastrophic harm liability between frontier AI firms would resolve thorny incentive issues that hamper AI safety.

Lam Tran examined the contents of California Senate Bill 53 (SB 53), the first state law to regulate advanced AI systems. Tran explained how SB 53 differs from SB 1047, an earlier California bill also aimed at reducing catastrophic AI risks, and analyzed SB 53’s viability as a blueprint for AI governance nationwide. 

On Scaling Laws, California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D) joined Kevin Frazier and Alan Rozenshtein to discuss SB 53, which Sen. Wiener authored. The three discussed the contents of SB 53, the bill’s significance for AI governance, the lessons Senator Wiener learned from California’s earlier battle over SB 1047, and more.

Simon Goldstein and Peter Salib argued that AI tools should be able to train on publicly available copyrighted material, reasoning that richly trained AI tools will advance the innovation aims of copyright more effectively than legal protections for creators.

In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discussed a recent report on how the private sector could close the offensive cyber gap between the U.S. and China, the splintering ecosystem of ransomware-as-a-service, the takedown of scam SIM boxes and Starlink terminals, and more. 

And Wittes reflected on how humor punctures authoritarianism, from deliberate silliness at protests to Elizabeth Tsurkov finding comedy in the brutal torture she suffered at the hands of  Kata’ib Hezbollah.

And that was the week that was.