Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
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It's the end of a very busy year. And we suspect that people have questions. So this week on the Lawfare Podcast, we will have answers.
The investigation may have taken steps that the inspector general thinks unwise, thinks should have been forbidden by policy, and thinks should have required more Justice Department consultation. But it was, in fact, about Russia. It was always about Russia. Full stop.
The Horowitz report poses a deep challenge to those of us who have broadly defended expansive surveillance authorities over the past several years. That challenge is not the one President Trump and his supporters have lodged against the FBI and its integrity.
Our latest FOIA lawsuit.
The concerns of a member of Congress focused on political messaging aren’t the concerns of a prosecutor. And when a single document tries to speak to both sets of goals at the same time, compromises will have to be made.
Yes, the investigation had problems—some of them serious. But the problems were not political in character. There was no effort to “get” candidate Trump. There was no “insurance policy,” no coup, no treason.
The rules under which Donald Trump will face trial in the Senate are a combination of theatrically detailed and maddeningly vague.