''Lawfare'' is an American
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
dedicated to
national security issues, published by the Lawfare Institute in cooperation with the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
.
It has received attention for articles on
Donald Trump's presidency
Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory o ...
.
Background
The blog was started in September 2010 by
Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes (born November 5, 1969) is an American legal journalist and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is the Research Director in Public Law, and Co-Director of the Harvard Law School–Brookings ...
(a former editorial writer for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''),
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
professor
Jack Goldsmith, and
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
law professor
Robert Chesney.
Goldsmith was the head of the
Office of Legal Counsel in the
George W. Bush administration's
Justice Department, and Chesney served on a detention-policy task force in the
Obama administration.
Its writers include law professors, law students, and former
George W. Bush and
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
officials.
Donald Trump
''Lawfare''
's coverage of
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...
and
legal matters related to the
Trump administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
has brought the blog significant increases in readership and national attention. In January 2017, the website's traffic was up by 1,101% from 12 months before.
Executive Order 13769
In January 2017
President Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...
tweeted "LAWFARE" and quoted a line from one of its blog posts that criticized the reasoning in the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that blocked Trump's
first refugee-and-travel ban.
Trump tweeted the excerpt minutes after the line was quoted on ''
Morning Joe''.
Wittes, who supported the court ruling, criticized Trump for the tweet, asserting that Trump distorted the argument presented in the article.
Wittes also wrote that it was disturbing that Trump cited the line "with apparently no idea who the author was or what the publication was, and indeed without reading the rest of the article", and that no one in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
vetted the tweet.
Dismissal of FBI Director James Comey
On May 18, 2017, ''Lawfare''
's editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes was the principal source of an extensive ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' report about President Trump's interactions with
FBI Director James Comey, who is a friend of Wittes, and how those interactions related to
Comey's subsequent firing.
Wittes also provided a 25-minute interview to ''
PBS NewsHour
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...
'' on the same subject. According to him, Trump's hug "disgusted" Comey.
Wittes said Comey was not expecting a hug, adding "It was bad enough there was going to be a handshake."
According to Wittes, Comey had been "disgusted" with Trump's attempts to publicly ingratiate himself with Comey, which Comey saw as calculated attempts to compromise him by agitating
Democrats. Wittes elaborated on this shortly thereafter in a post on ''Lawfare''.
Trump's disclosure of classified intelligence
Several ''Lawfare'' contributors argued that Trump's
reported disclosure of classified intelligence to Russia in mid-May 2017 was "perhaps the gravest allegation of presidential misconduct in the scandal-ridden four months of the Trump administration".
The column further alleged that Trump's reported actions "may well be a violation of the
President's oath of office".
Reception
Columnist
David Ignatius described ''Lawfare'' as "one of the most fair-minded chroniclers of national security issues". According to
Daniel W. Drezner, professor of international politics at the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...
, ''Lawfare'' is an example of "outside intellectuals" who "exercised real influence in the Trump era".
The blog has been criticized by attorney and journalist
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substa ...
. Writing in ''The New York Times'' he said the blog has a "courtier Beltway mentality" devoted to "serving, venerating and justifying the acts of those in power".
References
External links
*{{official website, www.lawfareblog.com
American political blogs
National security of the United States
Publications established in 2010
Internet properties established in 2010
American legal websites
Donald Trump