The Lawfare Podcast

Brian Hochman, historian of intelligence practices, and Matthew Guariglia, surveillance scholar and journalist, discuss the Church Committee’s revelations of Cold War intelligence abuses. They trace shocking programs, human costs, agency roles, and the reforms that followed. The conversation also connects past excesses to modern surveillance, corporate data, encryption debates, and local police intelligence growth.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor and author who studies extremist movements and gender, discusses how misogyny threads through varied violent movements. She examines media blind spots, the incel phenomenon, sexual exploitation networks, attacks on LGBTQ people, and how everyday gender policing and online rhetoric enable radicalization. She closes with practical prevention steps and a call for men to act.

They break down the FBI search of the Fulton County elections warehouse and the statutes cited. They discuss arrests at Minnesota protests, charging choices, and controversies over mugshot tweets. They review a Ninth Circuit ruling on temporary protected status for Venezuelans. They cover litigation over immigration enforcement, civil observer injunctions, and a lawsuit over leaked tax returns.

From January 27, 2025: In a live conversation on January 23, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke to Lawfare Senior Editors Scott R. Anderson, Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, and Alan Rozenshtein and assistant law professor at Pace University Amelia Wilson about the first batch of executive orders by President Trump in his second term, including suspending enforcement of the TikTok ban, the use of the military at the border, the birthright citizenship order, and the legal challenges some of these orders are facing.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From July 16, 2024: On July 15, Judge Cannon granted former President Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith for the alleged mishandling of classified documents. She found that Smith was appointed as a special counsel in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.In a live podcast recording, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes talked to Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett, Legal Fellow and Courts Correspondent Anna Bower, Senior Editors Alan Rozenshtein and Quinta Jurecic, and Columbia Law professor Michel Paradis about Judge Cannon's decision, what Special Counsel Jack Smith may do next, how the Eleventh Circuit may rule on an appeal, how Justice Thomas’s immunity concurrence plays a role, and more.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, walks through thousands of habeas filings against a Trump administration policy that compels detention of many noncitizens. He breaks down the policy shift, the July ICE memo and statutory arguments. He highlights why judges across districts push back, the limits of classwide relief, and which appeals and circuits will matter next.

Eric Columbus, a legal reporter tracking DOJ tactics; Molly Roberts, a political and policy analyst; and Alan Rozenshtein, a constitutional law professor, dig into the national fallout from Border Patrol killings and shifting federal tactics. They then unpack Anthropic’s “constitution” for its AI model, debating persona-first design, governance choices, and what it means for AI behavior and status.

John Drennan, Brussels-based NATO expert, and Ariane Tabatabai, international security and geopolitics analyst, unpack the Greenland crisis and its fallout. They trace how tensions de-escalated, whether they could return, and how Europe is hedging. They explore NATO’s value to the U.S., political pressures on alliance leadership, and how Russia and China exploit fractures in the Western order.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton PhD candidate who was held 903 days by an Iranian-backed militia, recounts her captivity and how humor helped her survive. She describes militia incompetence, being lured and seized, observing captors’ psychology after October 7, and how U.S. and other governments responded to secure her release.

Jim Dempsey, a cybersecurity policy adviser and lecturer, and Andy Grotto, an operational technology and infrastructure expert, discuss U.S. military vulnerabilities in operational technology. They cover mapping installations' critical dependencies. They examine common OT flaws, why air gaps are often illusory, and how procurement, standards, and energy resilience efforts shape exposure.