Escalation

Escalation Ep 7: Boiling The Frog

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:00:00 GMT

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.

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BONUS: Conversation with John Mearsheimer

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:32:57 GMT

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.

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Escalation Finale Preview: Making 'Escalation'

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 10:00:00 GMT

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

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BONUS: Music from Ukrainian Cultural Forces

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 18:30:47 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 6: Nothing Else Matters

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 04:06:00 GMT

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.

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BONUS: Conversation with Evelyn Farkas

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 20:23:08 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 5: Resets

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:00:00 GMT

When Ukraine’s Russia-backed president refuses to sign a deal with the European Union, millions of Ukrainians take to the streets to force him out. Then the West watches as Russia invades Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine.

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BONUS: Conversation with Mary Sarotte

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 20:10:58 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 4: The Worst of Both Worlds

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:00:00 GMT

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.

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BONUS: Conversation with Daria Kaleniuk

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 22:27:56 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 3: Us vs. Them

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:00:00 GMT

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.

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BONUS: Extended Conversation with Mariana Budjeryn

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 22:28:32 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 2: No Guarantees

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:00:00 GMT

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:

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BONUS: Extended Conversation with Fiona Hill

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 14:12:15 GMT

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.

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Escalation Ep 1: Chicken Kyiv

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

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.

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Trailer: Escalation

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 17:15:36 GMT

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 24TH

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The Aftermath S2E5 - With Liberty and Justice for Some

Thu, 02 May 2024 08:00:46 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath S2E4 - The Hidden Insurrection

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:00:02 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath S2E3 - #StormtheCapitol

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:31:34 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath S2E2 - Lawyers for the Coup

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:28:05 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath S2E1 - The Grossly Impudent Lie

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 10:00:18 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath- Episode 6: Going Dark

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 13:37:05 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath- Episode 5: Who Tells Your Story?

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 06:04:44 GMT

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?

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The Aftermath- Episode 4: A Bipartisan Interlude

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:59:24 GMT

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?

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The Aftermath- Episode 3: Congress Responds

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:56:48 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath - Ep 2: Scattered to the Four Winds

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:35:14 GMT

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.

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The Aftermath - Episode 1: Day Zero, Ground Zero

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 02:31:44 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 7

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:06:20 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 6

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:05:12 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 5

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:04:34 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 4

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:03:33 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 3

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:02:10 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 2

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:01:33 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES Ep. 1

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:00:51 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: ALLIES

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 14:00:03 GMT

From Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, this is ALLIES: A podcast about America’s eyes and ears during 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

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Trailer: The Aftermath

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 19:56:13 GMT

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...

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Lawfare Presents: Chatter, a new podcast from Shane Harris and David Priess

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:07:34 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: After Trump, Obstruction and Pardons

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 04:44:30 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: After Trump, Enemy of the People

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 19:58:52 GMT

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.

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Lawfare Presents: After Trump, Follow the Money

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 04:23:00 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Final Day

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 04:50:09 GMT

The Impeachment Trial concludes with a final vote on the Articles of Impeachment.

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The Impeachment: Day 12

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 02:59:49 GMT

The Impeachment Trial continues with Day 12. Senators are given time to make statements pertaining to their vote of impeachment happening the next day.

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The Impeachment: Day 11

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:48:44 GMT

The Impeachment Trial continues with closing arguments from House Managers and White House Counsel.

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the Impeachment: Day 10

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 03:45:39 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 9

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 04:34:43 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 8

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 04:49:29 GMT

The Impeachment Trial continues, as questions from Senators are asked of House Managers and Counsel.

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The Impeachment: Day 7

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 22:22:49 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 6

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 03:13:45 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 5

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 20:09:57 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 4

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 03:39:21 GMT

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.

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The Impeachment: Day 3

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 04:56:56 GMT

Today is Day 3 of the Impeachment -- the House Managers continue their cases to the Senate.

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The Impeachment: Day 2

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 03:31:42 GMT

Today is Day 2 of the Impeachment -- the House Managers bring their opening cases to the Senate. They walk through the chronology of Trump’s interactions with Ukraine, as well as the other central figures involved. They also stress the need for documents in this trial, urging Senators to subpoena where they see fit. With today marking the first day of opening arguments, the trial is just getting under way.

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The Impeachment: Day 1

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 04:43:24 GMT

It’s January 21st, 2020. A month ago, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Now the United States Senate must decide whether to convict the president and remove him from office. Chief Justice John Roberts has been sworn in and is presiding over the first day of the trial.

There’s no report this time; no definitive document laying out what happened. Instead, there is a trial. House impeachment managers will present the case against Trump. Then the president’s representatives will present a defense. When that is over witnesses may be called, but we don’t know who or how many. And then the Senate will have to vote. Two-thirds of the senate are required to convict and remove a president from office, 67 votes.

This podcast will let you hear what those senators hear. They have to sit there silently, without phones or laptops or anything else to read; they don’t get to skip the boring parts. We’re going to make it easier on you; we’ll cut down the many hours of testimony and procedural motions so you can just listen to the substance. You’ll get a fair representation of what members heard each day, just in less time. This is unfolding in real time. So this podcast won’t always be polished, or put together perfectly. But you’ll be able to hear it for yourself--not a highlight reel, not someone else’s opinion of what mattered, but the actual trial--and you can make up your own mind.

The following weeks will become an important part of American history, whatever happens. The outcome isn’t just about 67 votes. Because every American faces the same fundamental decision as those 100 senators: Does the evidence show that President Trump is unfit to carry out the office of the commander in chief.

This is the Impeachment. Day One.

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The Impeachment: Trailer

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 05:40:21 GMT

On January 21, 2020 The Impeachment Trial of President Donald Trump will begin. Each day, on the Senate floor, the case for and against his impeachment and removal from office will be made to Senators. During this trial there will be dozens of hours of speeches, testimony, and procedures. Impeachment is one of the most consequential actions taken by our government. And while the proceedings of the impeachment trial should be carefully heard by each and every American, the reality is most do not have the luxury of sitting through the daily grind of lengthy testimony. Which is why Lawfare & Goat Rodeo are going to be releasing a daily cut of the impeachment distilled to a manageable and accessible podcast. This abridged version will contain the compelling and substantial elements of throughout the day. No analysis. No punditry. Simply the unfolding events in the Senate.

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The Report Part XV: Mueller's Report

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 05:29:17 GMT

It Friday, March 22, 2019. It’s been nearly two years since Robert Mueller was first appointed Special Counsel. Now, he’s ready to submit a final report to the Attorney General. He has uncovered a sprawling and systematic effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. And he’s developed a mountain of evidence about the president’s efforts to obstruct his investigation, things like witness tampering, ordering the creation of false records, and trying to fire Mueller himself.

But Mueller’s got a problem: a Department of Justice memo says he can’t indict a sitting president. So what is he supposed to do with all this evidence? Mueller decides to just lay it all in the report, all 448 pages of it. It’ll be someone else’s problem to decide what to do about it: maybe a future prosecutor, maybe Congress, maybe the America electorate. That isn’t really Mueller’s concern. He’s done what he was asked to do. Now his report can speak for itself.

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Thank you for listening to the final chapter of The Report.

This podcast is made possible by the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Democracy Fund. And by listeners like you. To support this project, please go to lawfareblog.com.

The Report is a production of Lawfare & Goat Rodeo in Washington D.C. Ian Enright is the executive producer. Production assistance from Char Dreyer. From the Lawfare team, the Project is lead by Executive Editor Susan Hennessey. Editor in Chief is Benjamin Wittes. Interviews conducted by Managing Editor Quinta Jurecic. Recordings by Mikhaila Fogel and Jacob Shulz. Additional assistance by Gordon Ahl .

Special thanks to Daniel Hemel, Chuck Rosenberg, Jack Goldsmith, John Barrett, Paul Rosensweig, Mary McCord, Mike Schmidt, and everyone who made this podcast possible. And thank you, the listening audience.

If you think this story matters, and the more Americans should understand what is in the Mueller Report, please share this podcast widely and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. And continue following this feed for bonus episodes and additional content in the future.

On behalf of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, thanks for listening.

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The Report Part XIV: The Fixer Flips

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 07:40:16 GMT

We’re almost at the end of our story. This episode will cover the final set of activity that the Special Counsel examines for possible obstruction of justice: the president’s behavior towards his long time attorney Michael Cohen. Unlike the other possible acts of obstruction in Volume II, which mostly occur after Trump takes office, the relevant conduct towards Cohen spans the entire time period at issue in the Mueller investigation. It starts all the way back before the campaign. To Trump Tower Moscow.

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The Report Part XIII: Pardons On The Table

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 08:30:46 GMT

It’s January 2018. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are in a whole lot of trouble. The past is catching up to them. Three months earlier, they’d both been indicted on multiple felony counts and now it looks like there might be even more charges coming. Gates is getting nervous--they’re facing many years in prison. Manafort tells Gates to relax. He’s talked to the president’s personal counsel. He says they’re going to “take care of us.” Manafort tells Gates he’d be stupid to plead guilty now, “just sit tight, we’ll be taken care of.” Gates wants to be crystal clear on what exactly Manafort’s getting at. So he asks: Is the president going to pardon them?

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The Report Part XII: It Will Never Get Out

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 08:30:45 GMT

It’s February 6, 2018. Don McGahn is back in the Oval Office with President Trump and the new White House chief of staff John Kelly. The New York Times has just published a story reporting that, back in June of 2017, Trump had directed McGahn to have Mueller fired and that McGahn had threatened to resign rather than carry out the order. The story doesn’t look good. Trump says: “You need to correct this. You’re the White House counsel.”

Trump wants McGahn to say it never happened. But McGahn knows that it did happen. The White House Counsel is sticking to his guns. He’s not going to lie. The president asks again. Is McGahn going to do a correction? McGahn feels Trump is testing his mettle, seeing how far he can be pushed. And so he answers: No. He’s not.

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The Report Part XI: A Special Counsel

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 08:45:50 GMT

It’s May 17, 2017. White House Counsel Don McGahn is in the Oval Office with the president. McGahn’s job is to represent the office of the presidency, which isn’t quite the same as representing the president personally. It’s a delicate line to walk, and Trump hasn’t made the job any easier. McGahn is supposed to act as the point of contact between the White House and the Department of Justice, to ensure all the rules are being followed. But the president has made clear, he’s not interested in following the rules. Trump has already fired his FBI director. That’s why McGahn is in the Oval that morning, they need to interview a new nominee for the position. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is there too.

Sessions interrupts the meeting. He has an urgent phone call from the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, so he steps outside to take it. Sessions returns a moment later and relays the message: Rosenstein has appointed a Special Counsel to oversee the Russia investigation. It’s the former FBI director, Robert Mueller.

Trump slumps back in his chair. He says, “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.”

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The Report Part X: You're Fired

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 09:00:08 GMT

It’s March 7, 2017. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the nomination of Rod Rosenstein to be the Deputy Attorney General. Rosenstein’s whole career has been leading up to this moment. He’s a non-partisan sort of guy. He’s served under both President Bush and Obama. Now he’s being elevated to the role of running the day to day at DOJ.

But this hearing is about more than just confirming a new deputy attorney general. On March 2, five days earlier, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had announced his recusal from all investigations involving the 2016 election, a recusal which included the Russia investigation. And so, the moment he becomes deputy, Rosenstein will also become the acting attorney general for the purposes of the Russia investigation.

Rosenstein is confirmed and he’s sworn in on April 26, 2017. But his oath is about to be tested, like never before. Less than two weeks later, President Trump says he wants to fire the FBI Director and Rosenstein decides to help.

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The Report Part IX: Honest Loyalty

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 08:40:22 GMT

It’s January 26, 2017. Sally Yates is the acting Attorney General; she’s leading the Justice Department until Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the Senate. Yates has just learned some alarming news. The new National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has lied to FBI agents. He’s told them that he hadn’t discussed sanctions in a call with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. But he had. And it looks like Flynn has lied to the vice president about it as well. Yates calls White House Counsel Don McGahn. She says they have to meet right away. Yates knows that the FBI has the tape to prove Flynn lied, which is a crime, but right now there’s an even bigger problem: the Russians probably have the tape too.

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The Report Part VIII: End Of The Beginning

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 09:05:23 GMT

It’s May 12, 2017. The FBI is still reeling from the sudden firing of Director James Comey. Andrew McCabe has only been the acting Director for 3 days. He’s trying to talk to Rod Rosenstein about the issue weighing on his mind: how are they going to protect the Russia investigation? The FBI is already investigating whether the president has tried to interfere with that inquiry. But the Deputy Attorney General is distracted and upset; he can’t believe the White House is making it look as if firing Comey were his idea. He says “There’s no one I can talk to. There’s no one here I can trust.”

McCabe urges Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel. The credibility of the FBI and DOJ are on the line; without a special counsel a firestorm threatens to destroy the nation’s storied law enforcement institutions.

It’s five days later—Wednesday, May 17—when McCabe sits beside Rosenstein in the basement of the United States Capitol where they’ve assembled the Gang of Eight. Then Rosenstein announces that he’s made a decision. He’s appointed a special counsel to oversee the Russia investigation and the new inquiry into the president: Robert S. Mueller III.

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BONUS: The Bodybuilder, The Son, & The Turkish Plot

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 09:12:15 GMT

We’ve just finished Volume I of our podcast bringing to life Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference, and are hard at work on Volume II. We’ll have that ready for you soon. But in the meantime, we’ve put together some bonus episodes for you to enjoy. In this episode, the Lawfare teams brings you some of the more interesting pieces of Volume I that didn't make it into our episodes. From Donald Trump Jr's grand jury redactions, the role of Bitcoin in election interference, to Michael Flynn's wild plot involving a Turkish national, in the footnotes of the Mueller Report are some wild details.

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BONUS: The Death of Peter Smith

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:24:56 GMT

It’s July 2016. Then-FBI Director James Comey gives a press conference explaining that, while he has recommended that the Justice Department not pursue charges against Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information, Clinton’s conduct was “extremely careless.” Evidence has never surfaced that Clinton’s account was compromised. But a Republican political operative named Peter Smith becomes obsessed with the idea that Russia might have gained access. He spends the next year trying to get ahold of Clinton emails that he thinks Russia has hacked. But he never gets to see what Special Counsel Robert Mueller makes of his efforts—because a year later, he dies by suicide.

This is a bonus episode of The Report. We’ve just finished Volume I of our podcast bringing to life Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference. In a few weeks, we’ll be back with new episodes on Volume II of Mueller’s report—covering President Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation.

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Part VII: Charging Decisions

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 10:30:03 GMT

It’s April 18, 2019, Attorney General Bill Barr summons reporters to the Department of Justice in Washington DC. Robert Mueller’s report is about to be released. Before the press and the public finally see the document for themselves, Barr wants a chance to tell his own version of the story it contains. But is the bottom line according to Barr the same as the bottom line according to Robert Mueller? We’ll let you decide.

Previous episodes have told the story of the factual findings of the Mueller report—what did investigators figure out about what happened? And what were the questions they couldn’t fully answer? Conducting the investigation is one part of the Special Counsel’s job: collecting evidence and assembling a record. But the investigation actually supports Mueller’s larger responsibility: he must reach a set of legal conclusions about the evidence his team has found. The Special Counsel needs to decide which parts of the story laid out in Volume One of the Report amount to prosecutable crimes.

This episode covers those decisions. Where does Mueller decide to bring charges? And when he doesn’t, is that because he thinks nothing improper or possibly criminal occurred? Or is it because he finds that the evidence just isn’t sufficient to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt? Here’s what the Mueller Report says about how the Special Counsel’s office made these decisions.

This is The Report: Episode 7: Charging Decisions

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Part VI: Back Channels

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:20:58 GMT

It’s December 29, 2016. The Obama administration announces that it’s imposing sanctions on Russia, as punishment for election interference. Michael Flynn has been tapped to become Trump’s national security advisor when the new administration takes office in January, but it’s still the transition period. Flynn is taking a few days vacation at the beach, when he sees the news. He grabs his phone and texts the transition team at Mar a Lago. He writes “Tit for tat with Russia not good” and says that the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak is reaching out to him today. Flynn calls Kislyak and asks that Russia not escalate in response to the sanctions. Apparently, it works. The next day, in a surprise move, Putin says that Russia won’t retaliate. Trump tweets, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin). I always knew he was very smart.”

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The Report Part V: Russian Overtures

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:15:54 GMT

It’s the morning of April 25, 2016. At a hotel in London, a Maltese professor meets with a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. The two have been in touch over the past few weeks; the professor has been helping the young man connect with Russian officials. Now, over breakfast, the professor lets him in on a secret. On a recent trip to Moscow, high-level government officials told him that the Russians have “dirt” on Trump’s opponent. What was the “dirt” in question? “Emails,” he says. They have “have thousands of emails.”

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The Report Part IV: A Tale of Two Trump Towers

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:30:02 GMT

As the Russians were engaged in operations to hack and dump emails, the Trump campaign and its associates were in communication with Wikileaks about the distribution of stolen materials. But that’s far from the whole story of the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia during the 2016 election.

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller began to piece together the rest of that story, his investigation came to focus on two Trump Towers.

The first is Trump Tower Moscow. Beginning all the way back in 2013 and through the spring of 2016, the Trump organization is pursuing a project to build a skyscraper in Russia. For a long time, the plans for Trump Tower Moscow had gone nowhere. But when Donald Trump announces he is running for president, things start to get interesting.

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The Report Part III: The Campaign & The Leaks

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 11:00:40 GMT

It’s July 27, 2016. Donald Trump has just given a press conference during which he suggests that Russia hack Hillary Clinton and release the 30,000 allegedly missing emails from her private email server. The Russians, unbeknownst to people in the United States, appear to take the request seriously and hour later begin cyber-attacking Clinton’s private office for the first time.

Privately, Trump has instructions for his top aides: He repeatedly asks individuals affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails too. His national security adviser, Michael Flynn, says Trump made this request repeatedly. And so Flynn acts on it, teaming up with a shadowy Republican political operative in an ill-fated attempt to track down a trove of Clinton emails from Russian hackers

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The Report Part II: Hack. Dump. Divide.

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 12:54:04 GMT

It's March 2016. John Podesta is sitting at his computer. He opens an email. Something’s wrong with his password, it says. It looks a little fishy, but IT says it is legit. And so he clicks. He follows the prompt. inputs his old password, resets a new one. And just like that hackers from a Russian military intelligence unit are in. It barely takes a minute, one click and a few keystrokes and there is no going back.

This is Episode 2 of The Report: Hack. Dump. Divide

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The Report Part I: Active Measures

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:10:39 GMT

It is 2014 in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the heart of the city, a small nondescript office building sits beside the Bolshaya Nevka River. Inside, workers stare at computer screens open to Facebook and Twitter, furiously typing. Their task: Sow discord, disinformation, and doubt. Their target: The United States of America. Through fake social media accounts and armies of bots, they are flooding online media with disinformation. This is a Troll Farm. It’s name: The Internet Research Agency.

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Trailer

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 20:38:07 GMT

On April 18th 2019, The Justice Department released the redacted Mueller Report to the public. The 448 page document details a story that has captured America’s attention. From Russian plots to interfere in our election to constitutional questions of executive power, the Mueller Report is potentially one of the most important and consequential documents of our time. But there’s a problem: Very few people have read it.

There is still so much confusion about the Report. What it says, who it implicates, and what it means for our country. At Lawfare, we are distilling the report into a multi part audio narrative series, telling you the story of what is in this document, the story Mueller wants you to understand.

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