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Roger Parloff shared a narrative account of the seditious conspiracy trial of five members of the Proud Boys. In his overview of the trial, Parloff highlighted pivotal moments that the jury will consider in their deliberations. Parloff’s coverage of the trial can also be found in his Proud Boys Trial Diary on Lawfare, where he covered all 62-days from the courthouse in Washington, D.C.
Benjamin Wittes sat down with Parloff and Brandi Buchman on the Lawfare Podcast to discuss their long-running coverage of the Proud Boys trial. They covered the government’s case against Proud Boys leadership, their defense, possible holes in the case, and the jury’s deliberations:
Katherine Pompilio shared a letter sent by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis that indicates a timeline for charging decisions—potentially of former President Donald Trump—that stem from her office’s investigation into possible criminal interference into the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Eric Ciaramella reviewed Mariana Budjeryn’s book, “Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022). He considered the lessons learned from U.S. security policy in Ukraine during the collapse of the Soviet Union amid the failure of the Budapest Memorandum as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Wittes sat down with Polina Ivanova, a friend and colleague of Evan Gershkovich, on the Lawfare Podcast to discuss the context for his detention, his conditions in prison, and more:
In the latest installment of Lawfare’s foreign policy essay series, Rachel Tecott Metz considered how conventional U.S. military aid can have adverse effects in conflict zones.
On the Lawfare Podcast, Pompilio sat down with Ashley Merryman to discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse and harrassment at U.S. military academies, the dangerous shortcomings of the Pentagon’s “lowest level” policy to address harrassment, and policy recommendations for the future:
Tucker Ring proposed using federal kidnapping and hostage taking statutes to prosecute vigilante militias that target migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Louise Marie Hurel outlined the importance of cybersecurity in Latin America, which has suffered a series of damaging and high-profile attacks in recent years. She argued that the issue demands national action and international cooperation to develop resiliency in the region.
Riana Pfefferkorn considered the detriments of mandatory transparency clauses for online safety legislation in light of proposed bills in Congress and weighed the likelihood that such requirements will be abused by malicious users, private companies, and other actors.
In an installment of the Aegis paper series, Anjali Sugadev and Nicole Starosielski outlined the impact of climate change on the global undersea cable system and described the policy and legal framework surrounding the issue.
Mark Grzegorzewski and William Holden considered the worrying fragility of emergency response systems in the face of increasing targeted cyberattacks and laid out proposals for improving their resiliency.
On the Lawfare Podcast, Alan Rozenshtein and Quinta Jurecic sat down with Erin Egan and Michel Protti to discuss Meta’s approach to privacy and responding to the Federal Trade Commission’s recent settlement order to improve the company’s privacy policies:
Steven Feldstein and Allie Funk discussed President Biden’s March executive order, prohibiting federal agencies from using commercial spyware, and the imperatives of consistent action to protect U.S. citizens, legislation to permanently codify federal policy, and coordination with American allies abroad.
John Emmons shared two recently published FBI internal documents, distributed in 2021, guiding employees on the query of information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Matt O’Shaughnessy considered how disclosing the details of software development publicly, internally, and to limited stakeholders could illuminate and enhance democratic values in AI algorithms.
Rozenshtein sat down with Eugene Volokh for an episode of Arbiters of Truth to discuss defamation in the context of large language models, with insights from Volokh’s article, “Large Libel Models:”
On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson, Jurecic, and Rozenshtein sat down to discuss the week’s big national security news stories, including the outbreak of armed conflict in Khartoum, Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News and its possible relation to the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, President Joe Biden’s announcement of his reelection campaign, and more:
Emmons shared the Biden administration’s letter to congressional leadership informing them of an operation conducted by United States Armed Forces to evacuate personnel from Khartoum in light of Sudan’s deteriorating security situation.
Emma Svoboda provided context for the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Türkiye Halk Bankasi S.A. v. United States, discussed the Court’s interpretation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), and identified open questions pertaining to the FSIA after the ruling.
And on Chatter, David Priess sat down with Mariel Borowitz, author of “Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data,” to discuss space diplomacy, satellite data sharing, the Space Force, and more:
And that was the week that was.
