Last night, 2 federal employee unions sued the Trump administration over its attempts to dismantle USAID and requested that the court issue a temporary restraining order to reverse actions dismantling USAID and halt further attempts to do so. Read the suit, from Caroline Cornett.
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Federal Employee Unions Sue Trump Administration for Dismantling USAID
Two federal employee unions seek to reverse actions dismantling USAID and halt further attempts to do so.  
"An FBI that was putting its collective foot down and refusing to be politicized, refusing to participate in a political witch hunt within its own ranks, and refusing to become political agents of the regime in power would, so far anyway, look almost exactly like what we are seeing," writes Benjamin Wittes.
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The Situation: What’s Going on at the FBI?
Don’t look now, but the FBI is resisting the political witch-hunt loosed upon it.
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump fired all of the Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Gregory Nojeim and Silvia Lorenzo Perez write that this removal threatens the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and puts civil liberties at risk.
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Trump’s Sacking of PCLOB Members Threatens Data Privacy
The firing of Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is a danger to civil liberties and trans-Atlantic data flows.
On Tuesday, over 2 million federal employees received an email with the subject line "Fork in the Road," introducing a deferred resignation program. Nick Bednar explains that not only could this violate the law, it may backfire & increase the incentives for employees to stay.
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Breaking Down OPM’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Email to Federal Workers
Though the subject line borrows a phrase from Musk’s Twitter email, the federal government is not a private company, and its HR policies are arca...
This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding Kash Patel's confirmation hearing to be FBI director. Anna Bower and Benjamin Wittes dive deep into the controversies around Patel, from his time as a staffer for Devin Nunes to his actions in the run up to Jan. 6.
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The Patel Dossier
Everything you want to know about Kash Patel—and so very much more.
"Biden’s press freedom legacy may end up dominated by his laying the groundwork for Trump or a future administration to prosecute journalists for news reporting." Seth Stern examines the prosecutions of Julian Assange and Tim Burke by the Biden Justice Department.
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Prosecuting Journalists Complicates Biden’s Press Freedom Legacy
During the Biden administration, the Justice Department pursued criminal cases that threatened to criminalize newsgathering and undermine journalis...
On Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier spoke to Aram Gavoor about the Trump administration’s initial moves on AI policy, the pivot toward relentless innovation, Trump rescinding the Biden administration’s 2023 EO on AI, and the recently announced Stargate Project.
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Lawfare Daily: Aram Gavoor on the Trump Administration's AI Pivot: Trading Safeguards for Stargate
How is the Trump administration approaching AI policy?
Today, a federal judge granted the motion by the attorneys general of Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon to temporarily block President Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship from going into effect. Read the decision, from Anna Hickey.
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Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order Nationwide
The restraining order is to remain in effect for 14 days.
In The Situation, Benjamin Wittes writes that if the goal of President Trump's pardons of the Jan. 6 defendants is to erase what happened in 2021, it won’t work because “a president can frustrate justice, but he can’t change the truth."
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The Situation: Why the Jan. 6 Pardons Won’t Work
Not even the president can change the truth.
It's the “Tornado Kash” Edition! On this week's Rational Security, Scott Anderson, Benjamin Wittes, Eugenia Lostri, and Tyler McBrien broke down the week's big national security news, including Syria’s Assad regime collapsing, President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Kash Patel for FBI director, and more.
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Rational Security: The “Tornado Kash” Edition
Scott Anderson was joined by his Lawfare colleagues Benjamin Wittes, Eugenia Lostri, and Tyler McBrien.