August 2026: A Look Inside Lawfare

Dear Listeners & Readers,

As the summer winds to a close, the Lawfare team wonders whatever happened to the concept of a summer break.

There has been no shortage of consequential questions for our team to dig into: What happens when the government turns its critical gaze on journalists? What does it mean when intelligence is shaped to tell policymakers what they want to hear? How can institutions remain independent and objective when political pressure is at its highest? And what happens when the president’s power to remove government officials runs into his constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the law?

These are difficult questions, and we don’t pretend to know all the answers. But helping our readers and listeners understand the law and its national security implications is what Lawfare is here to do.

Over the past month, Senior Editor Anna Bower took us inside the courtroom to chronicle the government’s unsuccessful effort to subpoena New York Times reporters. Contributing Editor Renée DiResta examined Tulsi Gabbard’s release of the so-called Fauci Files, showing how the documents themselves fell far short of the sweeping claims made about them—and how the episode illustrates the dangers of politicizing intelligence. Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee and Senior Editor Michael Feinberg wrote about the “Decline and Fall” of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Curlee followed that up with an article drawing on her own experience inside the intelligence community, tracing how firings, clearance revocations, and political pressure can teach analysts that telling policymakers what they want to hear is safer than telling them what they need to know.

On the constitutional front, Contributing Editor Nick Bednar and Todd Phillips examined the executive’s removal power, arguing that President Trump’s removal of members of the Election Assistance Commission raises fundamental constitutional problems. And in the world beyond Washington, Safa Al-Saeedi and Christina Bouri examined in a foreign policy essay how Yemen’s divided politics, prolonged war, and collapsing international assistance have compounded one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises—and what the United States and international community can do to help.

While this is just a glimpse of what we’ve published lately, it represents the breadth of what Lawfare does: following the day’s news, but looking beyond it to examine the institutions, laws, and systems that determine what happens next.

Lawfare Beyond the Site

— Lawfare received generous commitments to fund our AI Research Program and the development of RAGtime. We are very excited to get this work off the ground and look forward to sharing more about what you can expect.

— Save the date for a special screening of the next chapter of Deportation, Inc. On September 24, from 6:30–8:00 p.m., Lawfare and SITU will host a screening and discussion of Deportation, Inc., at the Festival Center in Washington, D.C. Registration (required) will open on Tuesday. Be sure to check your email for the announcement!

— Scaling Laws is hitting the road! Our technology and national security podcast is taking its conversation beyond the studio, with live events already confirmed at Columbia University on September 16, the University of Oregon on October 21, Vanderbilt University on November 5, and Georgetown Law on November 11. More stops will be announced soon.

— The next Lawfare Ask Us Anything is August 26! Lawfare Material Supporters can join Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes, Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee, and Senior Editor Michael Feinberg for a conversation about politicized intelligence assessments, congressional battles over oversight, the political pressure corroding the intelligence community—and whatever else is on your mind.

Reach and Impact

Lawfare editors and contributors were cited across a wide range of national and international outlets in July, a month shaped by Jim Jordan’s criminal referral of Jack Smith, analyzing potential use of military force in the midterm elections, and the future of Ukraine policy. Lawfare articles, analysis, and expert commentary were cited in more than 260 articles in media outlets with a reach of 10,000 or greater, including Reuters, The Associated Press, The Washington Examiner, The Jerusalem Post, IBTimes UK, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, news.de (Germany), and CommonWealth Magazine-天下雜誌 (Taiwan).

Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett and Senior Editors Molly Roberts and Loren Voss published an analysis of Trump’s potential use of military force to influence the 2026 midterm elections that became one of the month’s most widely cited pieces. IBTimes UK ran a feature-length article drawing on their reporting, and the piece was subsequently picked up by AlterNet, MSN, MSN UK, and inkl. Voss was also invited to join two Brookings Institution panels—one on domestic military deployments after Trump v. Illinois and another on the use of military force against Tren de Aragua—where she was identified as a Lawfare public service fellow.

Senior Editor Anna Bower had another prolific month of original legal reporting. When Jim Jordan issued a criminal referral of Jack Smith to the DOJ, Bower’s analysis that the underlying documents were “a completely different category” from what Jordan alleged was cited by Yahoo News, AOL, and The Gateway Pundit. When Smith’s lawyers published their rebuttal, Raw Story and MSN cited Roger Parloff’s coverage of the filing. Bower’s reporting on the SAVE Act and on the DOJ’s withdrawal of subpoenas against New York Times reporters was featured by Yahoo News and MSN. Senior Editor Eric Columbus’s analysis of whether Trump could install Todd Blanche as Attorney General without Senate confirmation was cited by The News & Observer and Yahoo News.

Beyond the news cycle, Lawfare’s institutional work continued to inform policy discussions. The Cato Institute cited the Lawfare Institute’s CASE Act lawsuit in a policy analysis of congressional oversight of foreign deals, noting that the administration has declined to comply with statutory posting requirements. Senior Editor Michael Feinberg appeared on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House as a national security and intelligence analyst.

Senior Editor Roger Parloff’s coverage of the E. Jean Carroll payment dispute was cited by news.de in Germany and by Raw Story and MSN in the United States. Finally, Senior Editor Kate Klonick’s scholarship on content moderation was included in an Associated Press wire distribution that ran across more than 100 local news stations and media outlets nationwide.

Don’t miss any articles or podcasts by receiving our regular updates—Today on Lawfare and The Week That Was. You can adjust your newsletter subscription settings at https://lawfare.substack.com/account.

Hi, Kevin! What is your role at Lawfare?

I serve as a Senior Editor at Lawfare, with a focus on our AI and Rule of Law coverage. This includes writing and editing pieces at that intersection and hosting the Scaling Laws podcast.

What three Lawfare pieces from this month should supporters make time for?

Kate Klonick provided a timely and important piece on the Hugging Face-OpenAI cyber incident, which, believe it or not, is old news now! Still, it’s a compelling and thorough analysis of the merits of different regulatory responses.

My Scaling Laws co-host, Alan Rozenshtein, and I sat down with Assemblymember Alex Bores to discuss his run for Congress. Though Bores fell short in the primary, his race illustrated that AI is an increasingly salient topic on the trail. We had a great time learning what he learned as one of the first “AI candidates.”

The need for regulatory innovation in the context of AI is obvious. How best to act on that realization is less clear. That’s why this piece is an important read.

What non-Lawfare reading are you recommending right now?

I encourage everyone to dare to be technical when it comes to AI discourse. Wired regularly provides in the weeds (bits?) coverage of AI news, and this piece lived up to that reputation.

As an academic, I have concerns about the hollowing out of the Ivory Tower due to folks packing their bags for the Bay Area. The Information details this brain drain in some compelling visuals.

What are you watching closely in the weeks ahead?

Internal governance at the labs must improve. Tech has long struggled to practice what it preaches by way of transparency and independent oversight. There’s nothing stopping today’s labs from adhering more closely to those goals.

What’s life like for you outside of Lawfare?

Summer is a great time for new adventures. I’ve been getting into swimming thanks to the bevy of great pools here in Austin. My wife would tell you that I’m also exploring the craft of how to maintain a lawn (not easy in Texas). Finally, I’m always looking for the best breakfast taco in town—feel free to send me recommendations!

Anything else you’d like us to know?

Scaling Laws is doing a roadshow! We’re bringing the pod across the country to help more folks engage on AI policy issues. If you’d like to host a show in your community, let me know!

Your support makes all of this work possible, and we are grateful to everyone who reads, listens, watches, shares, and supports Lawfare. Thank you for being part of our community.

With thanks,
The Lawfare Team