Lawfare Presents: ALLIES

In the season finale of Escalation, Anastasiia Lapatina and Yulia Tymoshenko recount Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022. The western world is shocked, and US President Joe Biden and the US Congress attempt to send weapons to Ukraine to fight back. But fundamentally different perspectives on the fight will emerge and lead to tensions that leave Ukraine's fate uncertain, and its relationship with The United States in jeopardy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, hear our conversation with Professor John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer is a historian and foreign policy expert at The University of Chicago, and he has some controversial opinions on the relationship between The United States, Ukraine, Russia and NATO. Our conversation with him was at times tense, but always interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of 'Escalation,' we give you a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, featuring a conversation with our reporting and production team of Anastasiia Lapatina, Tyler McBrien, Benjamin Wittes and Max Johnston Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, you'll hear more music from the Ukrainian Cultural Forces. The Cultural Forces are a group of Ukrainian artists and veterans who travel the world as emissaries from the Ukrainian army. In September 2024, they were in Washington, DC, where our production team captured some of their performances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2019, the relationship between The United States and Ukraine faces one of its biggest tests during a phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The resulting scandal makes Ukraine a toxic issue for some lawmakers in the US Congress, where Ukrainian veterans are still trying to generate support for the war to this day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, you'll hear our conversation with Evelyn Farkas, who is the Executive Director for The McCain Institute, and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia in the Obama Administration. Farkas describes the US government's reaction to the invasion of Crimea, and discussions over aid to Ukraine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Ukraine's new president backs out of a deal with the EU, thousands of Ukrainians protest in Kyiv's main square. The West watches as Russia invades parts of Eastern Ukraine & Crimea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, we're bringing you an extended cut of our conversation with Mary Sarotte, a NATO Historian and International Relations Expert at John Hopkins University. Mary tells us about NATO's history and origins, it's strange relationship with Russia, and Ukraine's murky status in the alliance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A dirty presidential campaign in Ukraine culminates in an attempted assassination and ‘The Orange Revolution,' where Ukrainians stop The Kremlin's attempts to rig the election. Years later at a NATO summit in 2008, The United States and European allies concoct a high-risk plan to protect Ukraine going forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, we're bringing you a conversation with Daria Kaleniuk, a Ukrainian anti-corruption expert and activist. Daria tells us about Ukraine's history with corruption, the roots in the Soviet system, and the country's efforts to fight it. Stay tuned each week for the next chapter of Escalation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the late 90's, Russia is reverting back to its corrupt, authoritarian ways and Ukraine begins to slide backward with it. In Ukraine, that corruption will lead to a gruesome murder and cover-up. While in Russia, that corruption will destroy any hopes for an emerging democracy. But after 9/11, The United States is solely focused on the fight against terrorism. About Escalation:In this narrative series from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, Escalation lays bare the stakes of the Ukraine-Russia War through powerful storytelling and compelling voices. It reveals forgotten promises and fragile alliances that have shaped the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and how the decisions of policymakers in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow have global consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, we're bringing you an extended conversation with Mariana Budjeryn, a Historian and Senior Research Associate at Harvard and an expert on Ukraine's denuclearization. Stay tuned each week for the next chapter of Escalation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newly-independent Ukraine has inherited thousands of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. So The United States, Russia and Ukraine craft a high-stakes deal to disarm Ukraine in exchange for national security protection. But has Washington held up their end of the bargain? Or has Ukraine been betrayed?About Escalation:In this narrative series from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, Escalation lays bare the stakes of the Ukraine-Russia War through powerful storytelling and compelling voices. It reveals forgotten promises and fragile alliances that have shaped the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and how the decisions of policymakers in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow have global consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode of Escalation, we're bringing you an extended conversation with Russia expert and diplomat Fiona Hill. Stay tuned each week for the next chapter of Escalation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world watches The Cold War end and The Soviet Union break apart. And after centuries of Russian rule, Ukrainians may soon have their independence back. But in Washington, there's fear that that independence could actually make the world more dangerous.About Escalation:In this new narrative series from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, Escalation lays bare the stakes of the Ukraine-Russia War through powerful storytelling and compelling voices. It reveals forgotten promises and fragile alliances that have shaped the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and how the decisions of policymakers in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow have global consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Russia invades Ukraine in February 2022, the Western world is shocked. But to Ukrainians, the invasion has been centuries in the making. So how did we end up here? And have American efforts to avoid escalation in Ukraine & Russia created something deadly in its wake?COMING FEB 24THIn this new narrative series from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, Escalation lays bare the stakes of the Ukraine-Russia War through powerful storytelling and compelling voices. It reveals forgotten promises and fragile alliances that have shaped the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and how the decisions of policymakers in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow have global consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fate of Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 prisoners are intertwined. The prisoners' biggest hope for freedom is if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, takes office and makes the federal cases go away. But the people who stormed the Capitol committed straightforward crimes that were easier to investigate, easier to indict, easier to prove. Three years after Jan. 6, the story of how they have been held criminally accountable is mostly over.But for Trump and other Jan. 6 plotters, that story is just beginning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's December 2020. Donald Trump continues to deny that he has lost the election. He and his inner circle are working feverishly to try to overturn it while Trump is getting more and more irate. Then, on Dec. 21, he meets a man named Jeffrey Clark. Suddenly, the full might of the Justice Department is within reach. And he plans to use it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Social media was key to Jan. 6. End to end. It was key to gathering the crowd that stormed the Capitol. It was key to generating the sentiment that led people to drop their lives to come to Washington willing to commit crimes. It was key to sending them home when the deed was done. Of course, we're all on social media. But how does social media propel people to action, even inspire them to move from online to on the ground—and to the grounds of the Capitol? It's impossible to track. But we know that some accounts wielded enormous influence, and none more so than Donald Trump's. The thing is, Trump wasn't the only one behind his social media face. He had one trusted aide who ran the accounts with him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In December 2020, The President and his advisors are still fighting to overturn the results of November's presidential election. Then, in the middle of the month, a lawyer in Wisconsin sends a memo to the president's legal team. This memo marks the beginning of a scheme that works its way through state legislatures and the halls of Congress, then to Trump himself. It is a scheme that ends with the Vice President of the United States in mortal danger. The main architect and proponent of this scheme is a little-known law professor from California, John Eastman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been three years since the insurrection of January 6th. There have been congressional investigations, prosecutions, and legal reforms, and it's looking like 2024 will be the year that Donald Trump and his inner circle finally confront the criminal justice system. But is that enough to respond to an existential threat to our democracy?It all started with a lie: that Trump had won the 2020 election. So we begin there, with a look at the man who—other than Trump—mattered more to the Big Lie than anybody else: Rudy Giuliani.Guests include: Kyle Cheney, Congressional Reporter at POLITICO & Aaron Blake, Political Reporter and author of the upcoming Campaign Moment newsletter at the Washington Post. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The season finale delves into what was going on behind the scenes in the Jan. 6 committee's investigation in the months between its first public hearing to its second, almost a year later. To many, the Jan. 6 committee's public silence seemed to indicate that it simply wasn't doing anything. The records trickling out of the court system, however, told a much different story. Episode 6 details the committee's legal battles over subpoena compliance, executive privilege, contempt, investigating fellow members of Congress, and more. It was these battles that provided glimpses into the committee's efforts to build a case against the former president to prove that Trump and his allies did, in fact, attempt to shatter the foundation of American democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this fifth episode of The Aftermath, we explore another aspect of Congress's response to Jan. 6: efforts to create an investigative body to find out what had happened. Proposals for a national commission began the day after the attack and continued to gain traction with support from both Democrats and Republicans. After a months-long negotiation, the House passed a bill establishing a bipartisan national commission on the model of the 9/11 Commission, which had conducted a widely-respected investigation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But by the time the bill came to the floor, the political winds had shifted, and Senate Republicans ensured its ultimate failure. This led, perhaps surprisingly, to the creation of the now-famous Jan. 6 Select Committee—which was no one's first choice. But why did it come to this? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mahnaz was a member of a Female Tactical Platoon in the Afghan Military. She was one of tens of thousands of Afghans who came to the United States during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. In our final episode, you'll learn about the bureaucratic mess they're still going through to get resettled. And how Congress could pass legislation to help, but it might not even come up for a vote. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 years of war and broken bureaucracy culminate during the US withdrawal at the Kabul airport. Thousands of Afghans rush to the tarmac where American forces sort through the crowds. Veterans, advocates and politicians try to get their allies out while the Taliban rapidly takes control of Afghanistan. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

We return to Fred—an Afghan combat interpreter who served with American soldiers for more than 13 years. After years of denials, an ad hoc team of lawyers and veterans tried to push his Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) application through federal bureaucracy. Then, we describe how a new president aimed to bring the SIV program to a screeching halt. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt Zeller deployed to Afghanistan in 2008, where an Afghan interpreter saved his life. Matt spent years trying to get him resettled in the United States and saw the problems with the SIV program firsthand. Together, they started lobbying to fix it in Washington, DC. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fred took a job as an Afghan interpreter in 2004. He ended up serving side-by-side with American soldiers for more than 13 years. But when the Taliban started targeting him after a mission, Fred started looking for a way out. The SIV program was supposed to help. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2003 the US started another war with the military invasion of Iraq. There, soldiers, aid workers, diplomats and politicians saw the threat that local interpreters, translators and partners faced for their work. That's when Congress created the SIV program for Iraqi interpreters and then recreated it for Afghanistan. But it quickly became clear that this program wasn't working as intended. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In order to tell you this story, we need to start at the beginning. After 9/11, the CIA set their sights on al-Qaeda's base in Afghanistan. When the military invaded that fall, people up and down the chain of command learned that, in order to fight this war, the US needed local partners to help. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, this is ALLIES: A podcast about America's eyes and ears during 20 years of war in Afghanistan. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The Aftermath recalls the brief period where Democrats and Republicans worked together to respond to Jan. 6—and actually made a lot of progress. How? Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the days after the January 6th insurrection, for Raskin and his colleagues, it wasn't entirely clear that the insurrection was over. And for at least a brief moment, there seemed to be some kind of consensus. The moment turned out to be brief indeed, at least with respect to accountability for Trump himself. Within a week, the consensus had devolved into a sharp partisan divide. The House had passed an article of impeachment charging Trump with incitement to insurrection—but only a small handful of Republicans supported it. Less than two weeks after that, President Biden had taken office and Raskin was prosecuting the former president in Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of January 6, there were immediate calls for en masse arrests of all individuals on the Capitol compound, and demands that every one of them be hauled into court to stand trial. But our justice system does not work that way. The bedrock of our legal system is the due process of law. You can't be tried for being part of an insurrectionist mob, only for the specific things that you did–or, more precisely, what prosecutors can prove you did. January 6, is not one case, but thousands of cases. In this episode, we explore what happened inside the Department of Justice in the days after the Capitol Attack. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Aftermath is not a podcast about the insurrection itself, or about how we got there. It's a podcast about what happened next – how our democracy is attempting to right itself in the face of an existential threat. Who is being criminally prosecuted, and who isn't. How is Congress taking action—and what is it ignoring. And how are our institutions telling the story—and who gets to tell it. To set the scene for this project we are going to spend one episode—this one—on the events of the day itself. How what happened on January 6 revealed the difficult questions that people have spent the last year trying to answer. This is Episode 1: Day Zero, Ground Zero. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Their goal was to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and they intended to do it by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes. President-elect Joe Biden's victory would not be official until that count was complete. The Capitol was breached and lawmakers and staff were evacuated, while rioters assaulted law enforcement officers, vandalized property and occupied the complex. Five people died because of the events of that day. 138 police officers were injured. It was the most severe assault on the Capitol building in more than two centuries and the most forceful attack on the peaceful transition of power in the history of the American presidency.The Capitol attack created fraught legal and political challenges that have played out over the year since. How do we combat an attempted insurrection against our nation's institutions? Who is responsible, and how do we hold them accountable? What reforms do we need to prevent this from happening again? Can we even tell the whole story? From Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, this is The Aftermath, a new series to explore the government's response to January 6th and the search for accountability. What exactly has our legal system been doing the last year? Are we actually equipped to deal with a growing call for political violence? How does one prosecute a riot? Can Congress pass reforms and tell the story? And where do we go from here? This series isn't about the events leading up to the attack, or about the attack itself, it's about what happened next—about the efforts to confront and counter an insurrection.Coming on January 6, 2022... Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brand new podcast from Lawfare. Weekly long-form conversations with fascinating people at the creative edges of national security. Unscripted. Informal. Always fresh.Chatter guests roll with the punches to describe artistic endeavors related to national security and jump into cutting-edge thinking at the frontiers where defense and foreign policy overlap with technology, intelligence, climate change, history, sports, culture, and beyond. Each week, listeners get a no-holds-barred dialogue at an intersection between Lawfare's core issue areas and something from Hollywood to history, science to spy fiction.On this week's Chatter, Congressman Adam Kinzinger sits down in his office with David to share his thoughts about his career in congress on heels of his announcement to not seek re-election. They talk about leadership, what the partisan divide means for future office holders, and how his time in the cockpit prepared him for tough matters of national security. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pardon power was designed to be a tool for correcting wrongs. Any system of justice applied to a whole nation is going to have failures. A pardon is there to correct miscarriages of justice—and injustice. It was always believed that if a president abused his pardon authority, it would be so appalling to so many, at such a gut level, that the checks on the President would instantly kick in: He's be impeached, forced to resign, voted out. Trump pushed this theory. And the results were worrisome—to say the least. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we consider the problem of foreign interventions in American political campaigns—and what to do about it. And we're also going to look at how Trump blocked and tackled the free press, especially when it reported on Trump's foreign ties. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our first episode, we explore some of President Trump's most brazen transgressions—the conflicts of interest, the self-dealing and those elusive tax returns. In the run up to his inauguration, Trump created a sort of original sin when it came to his conflicts of interest, proclaiming that he is above any conflict of interest norms and regulation. Throughout his presidency, Trump continued to challenge any transparency when it came to his personal dealings and conflicts while in office.Virginia Heffernan explains how After Trump authors Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith propose reforming our laws and norms on a President's financial ties and activities while in office. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Impeachment Trial concludes with a final vote on the Articles of Impeachment. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Impeachment Trial continues with Day 12. Senators are given time to make statements pertaining to their vote of impeachment happening the next day. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Impeachment Trial continues with closing arguments from House Managers and White House Counsel. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's January 31, 2020. It's the 10th day of the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. I'm Margaret Taylor, Senior Editor at Lawfare. Today, Senators listened to the arguments of the parties, and then voted 49-51 not to call new witnesses or subpoena new documents. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney voted with Democrats, but the vote was nonetheless unsuccessful. Senate leadership then offered a new procedural resolution to govern how the trial would conclude over the coming days. Closing statements from the parties will occur at 11am on Monday, and a final vote on the articles of impeachment will occur at 4pm on Wednesday. Democrats offered 4 amendments to the resolution. The first was an amendment to subpoena acting white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Michael Duffey, and David Blair, as well as documents from the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State. The second was to subpoena just John Bolton. The third was to subpoena Bolton and allow for one day for a deposition and one day for live testimony. The fourth and final amendment was to require the Chief Justice to rule on motions to subpoena witnesses and documents, and to rule on any assertions of privilege. On all four amendments, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to table--or defeat--them, and all were defeated. Thereater, the resolution setting out the path for resolution of the trial passed on a 53-47 party line vote.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell then asked for unanimous consent to include statements of Senators explaining their votes in the Congressional record next week, along with a full record of the Senate's proceedings and handling of the impeachment proceedings. The Senate then agreed, by unanimous consent, to allow Senators to speak for up to 10 minutes each on Monday. This is The Impeachment, Episode 10. The Senate votes not to subpoena witnesses or documents, and charts a path forward to end the impeachment trial. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the 9th day of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Senators have a second day to ask questions through the Chief Justice to house managers and white house counsel. As Senators pass their questions on small cards in 5 min rounds, the question of the testimony of witnesses and documents looms large over Friday's proceedings. This is the Impeachment, Day 9. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Impeachment Trial continues, as questions from Senators are asked of House Managers and Counsel. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's January 28th, 2020. It's the seventh day of the impeachment trial of president Donald J. Trump. The president's team of lawyers wrap up their arguments in defense of the president. Over the last two days of the trial, senators heard about 10 hours of presentations from White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his team, along with the president's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, former independent counsels, Robert Ray and Kenneth Starr, as well as professor Alan Dershowitz. Today, they wrap up their arguments, before the senators' questioning begins. This is the Impeachment: Day Seven. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's January 27, 2020. On the sixth day of the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, the President's team of lawyers resume their arguments in defense of the President. On Saturday, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his team began their presentation, spending two hours summarizing their arguments. They continue today, just as press reports indicate that former National Security Adviser John Bolton wrote in his not-yet-published book manuscript that President Trump told Bolton in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats. including the Bidens. This is The Impeachment, Day 6. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Day 5 of the Impeachment. In this short session, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone opened the case for the president's defense, laying out what the defense believed are the stakes of impeachment. He noted that the defense would focus on facts that, he asserts, the House Managers ignored in their presentation. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the fourth day of the Impeachment, the house managers wrap up their case. They close their arguments on Trump's first article of impeachment, and then turn to the second--obstruction of Congress. Today is their last chance to speak before the President's counsel presents their case. The managers have left everything they have on the gallery floor. For the past three days, they have spoken for eight hours or more, trying to convince the senators before them that Trump should be removed from office. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today is Day 3 of the Impeachment -- the House Managers continue their cases to the Senate. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.