Jack Goldsmith is the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard Law School, co-founder of Lawfare, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2004, and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense from 2002-2003.
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President Biden warned Vladimir Putin that the U.S. will take “necessary action” if Russia does not disrupt ransomware attacks from its soil. The problem with this warning is that the U.S. has been pledging to impose “consequences” on Russia for its cyber actions for at least five years.
President Trump bypassed the traditional pardon attorney process more often than any other president. Our new essay in the Federal Sentencing Reporter evaluates how many of Trump’s 238 clemency grants were recommended by the pardon attorney.
The newly introduced bipartisan legislation would constitute the most significant improvement in the transparency of international agreements since the enactment of the Case Act in 1972.
Among the most discussed provisions of the Tallinn Manual 2.0 is Rule 4: “Violation of sovereignty.” Rule 4 provides: “A State must not conduct cyber operations that violate the sovereignty of another State.” Considered alone, Rule 4 is banal and unobjectionable, since there are many established sovereignty-based international-law rules that cyber operations might violate.
A new report entitled “Chinese Technology Platforms Operating in the United States” sets forth a framework for understanding the various threats posed by Chinese-owned technology platforms operating in the United States and for assessing the various costs and benefits of proposed responses to these threats.
Trump could consult the Office of Legal Counsel, the White House Counsel, personal attorneys—or no one at all.
President Trump’s incitement of insurrection stands out as the worst presidential behavior in America’s two-century history. How can he be kept from doing more damage with only two weeks left in his term?