Benjamin Wittes
Senior Fellow at @BrookingsInst. Editor in Chief of @lawfareblog. Law Analyst for @nbcnews and @msnbc. It was snowing. And it was going to snow.
Last synced from Twitter 2m ago
White Lies
In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the...
1
Benjamin Wittes
If you have not listened to the White Lies podcast from @NPR, take a little time with this astonishingly rich and deeply reported piece of investigative history. I promise it is worth your time.
3h
Trump’s America Is Following a Pattern Europe Knows All Too Well
Polarization. Conspiracy theories. Attacks on the free press. An obsession with loyalty. History can tell us where this leads.
Benjamin Wittes
It made me think about a lot of things, not least being this exceptional piece by @anneapplebaum
4h
READ: Here's The Resolution Condemning Trump's Racist Comments About Congresswomen
The House will vote Tuesday evening on a resolution "condemning President Trumps racist comments directed at Members of Congress"
Balkinization: What's newsworthy, or important, about the President's racist tweet-storm? (Short answer: It's not anything about Trump himself.)
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
Claremont Would Make Founders Weep, by Mona Charen
The Claremont Institute was part of the flowering of intellectual conservatism that graced America in the 1970s and '80s. Founded by students of Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa, the California think tank was devoted to teaching
Women In National Security Push To Move Beyond 'The First' And 'The Only'
For years, women have fought for inclusion in the high-stakes world of national security. Now, they say, the effort to build a pipeline of qualified women leaders is paying off.
Oral Argument Summary: Trump v. House Oversight Committee
The sitting president of the United States and his businesses are suing a congressional committee to try to prevent that committee from obtaining documents and information from a third party.
Benjamin Wittes
Nobody else brings you coverage like this of the confrontation between the president and Congress over oversight issues
54h
Announcing a New Lawfare Podcast Series: The Report
We are excited to announce a new project we’ve been working on for the past few weeks here at Lawfare. We are launching a new podcast documentary series on the Mueller Report. Called, “The Report,” it will tell the story of what is actually in the...
The Report (Trailer): A Lawfare Podcast
On April 18th 2019, The Justice Department released the redacted Mueller Report to the public. The 448 page document details a story that has captured Americ...
Benjamin Wittes
We've got big projects in the works. We'll be releasing the first episode of "The Report" in the coming days
54h
Ben Wittes on What Congress Should Ask Mueller
Benjamin Wittes joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the upcoming Mueller hearing, the recent reporting about Russia's involvement promoting the Seth Rich conspiracy, the resignation of Ambassador Kim Darroch, and the future of the emoluments clause.
IBM: A Precision Regulation Approach to Stopping Illegal Activities Online
Media companies must take responsibility for what happens on their platforms. IBM supports reasonable measures to regulate illegal online activities.
Benjamin Wittes
Wow. This is unexpected. Some time back, the great @daniellecitron and I wrote a paper on possible reform of CDA 230. Today, @IBMpolicy endorsed the approach.
#whoknew?
6d
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’: Disdain for Trump Runs Among Ambassadors
Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador who resigned Wednesday, was not alone in his criticism of the Trump administration and its habit of leaving foreign envoys in the dark.
Benjamin Wittes
This is the point I made yesterday in @lawfareblog about the foreign diplomatic corps and Trump. Cosi fan Tutte. Why? Because they are obliged to be candid with their home governments. And the truth is ugly.
6d
Exclusive: The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation.
In the summer of 2016, Russian intelligence agents secretly planted a fake report claiming that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was gunned down by a squad of assassins working for Hillary Clinton, giving rise to a notorious...
Benjamin Wittes
This is a remarkable story from @Isikoff. It would have merited a #BabyCannon blast had I noticed it before now.
7d
What the British Government Really Thinks
A diplomat’s job is to represent his government’s position stoutly in public and to advise it with unstinting candor privately. Sir Kim Darroch has done both.
Benjamin Wittes
A few words on Ambassadorgate—or what happens when an ally has the temerity to speaks the truth...
7d
Benjamin Wittes
An ambassador represents policy to the outside world—and gives the unvarnished truth to his own government. Thought on @KimDarroch
7d
The Lawfare Podcast: Ambassador Kim Darroch on the State of the Special Relationship
There's a special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, but with Brexit and the erratic presidency of Donald Trump, it hasn't exactly been business as usual between the two countries. Or has it?
If I Had Five Minutes to Question Robert Mueller
Developing a coherent line of questions for the former special counsel is hard given what he will not talk about and the time constraints. Here’s what I would ask him.
The Lawfare Podcast: Dan Byman on 'Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad'
Benjamin Wittes sat down with Dan Byman, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Middle East Studies and Lawfare's foreign policy editor, to discuss his new book, "Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad." Recent...
The Lawfare Podcast: @CrimeADay Teaches You How to Become a Federal Criminal
We don't usually do humor on the Lawfare Podcast, but this week, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Mike Chase, whom you probably know better on Twitter as @CrimeADay, the long-time anonymous Twitter feed that tweets out one fact pattern a day that...
Mississippi is forbidding grocery stores from calling veggie burgers "veggie burgers"
Proponents of the law say it’s necessary to avoid confusing consumers. That...doesn’t sound right.