The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Department of Justice released a statement highlighting the ongoing threat posed by foreign interference in the U.S. election. Victoria Clark posted their joint statement. A few hours later, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint (shared by Matthew Kahn) against a woman named Elena Khusyaynova, who allegedly acted as the chief accountant for Project Lakhta, a conspiracy to use social media to sow discord in the U.S. political system. Victoria Clarke, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, and Benjamin Wittes offered a summary of the criminal complaint and thoughts on what it could mean for the broader investigation of Russian interference in U.S. elections.

Nathan Swire summarized a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the vulnerability of Department of Defense weapons system to cyber attacks, and Megan Reiss presented some legislative solutions to the problems detailed by the GAO.

Tamara Cofman Wittes created a guide for understanding the swirling rumors around disppeared Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And Scott R. Anderson provided an analysis of what international law can tell us about the Khashoggi investigation, and why Turkey isn’t doing everything it can to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance.

On Wednesday, a senior employee at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) was arrested and charged with unlawfully disclosing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and conspiring to do the same. Mikhaila Fogel shared the criminal complaint in the case.

Jessica Marsden considered whether or not President Trump’s tweets led prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipov, and what the responsibility of the courts should be in resisting presidential influence in criminal matters.

Stephen Bates, Jack Goldsmith, and Benjamin Wittes explained the historical and contemporary importance of the coming release of the Watergate “Road Map.”

This week in cybersecurity, Lyu Jinghua analyzed the Pentagon’s Cyber Strategy from a Chinese perspective, finding that the aggressiveness of the document may lead to increased insecurity and instability.

Nicholas Weaver argued that regardless of the accuracy (or lack thereof) of Bloomberg Businessweek’s supply chain hack article, the U.S. government should re-evaluate its procurement policies.

Elaine Korzak and Herb Lin proposed on Wednesday that the International Committee of the Red Cross provide a model for a new international organization that would provide neutral, impartial, and independent assistance to victims of serious cyberattacks. Also on Wednesday, Rachel Brown and Wenqing Zhao posted the newest SinoTech article, covering Vice President Pence’s statement about Chinese intellectual property practices, backlash against the Bloomberg report on spy chips, and other U.S.-China tech policy and news. And Stewart Baker posted this week’s edition of the Cyberlaw Podcast, a conversation with the chief legal officer of GCHQ, the British counterpart to NSA: