Coming Around on Ukraine
The President's progress
Good Morning:
The sunflower army is coming in:
Give ‘em a few more weeks and they’ll be ready to march on the embassy.
Speaking of which, the papers are full this morning of stories about how President Trump is about to do the right thing and set up a “new NATO weapons pipeline for Ukraine”:
How should we all feel about this?
Good.
It’s good.
Very good.
Trump comes to this decision as grudgingly as possible. And it’s easy to make fun of how duped he has been by Putin over how long a period of a time.
But getting Ukraine aid right—or as right as possible—is way too important for schadenfreude. I’ll leave that to the Epstein files issues.
The plan itself is needlessly indirect. Under it, the US will sell weapons—including advanced Patriot air defense batteries—to NATO countries, which will then provide them to Ukraine. But this is a hell of a lot better than, say, cutting off Ukraine’s access to air defense interceptors, which is where the administration was a few days ago. And Trump does genuinely seem frustrated that Putin hasn’t just stopped being a genocidal maniac because Trump asked him to.
All of this is progress.
In those rare instances in which Trump does the right thing on a massive issue on which human lives depend, I will never fire on his retreat.
Friday on #DogShirtTV, I welcomed the extremely estimable Mike Feinberg, recently forced out of the FBI for the terrible crime of being personal friends with the no-less-estimable Pete Strzok. I also discussed funeral arrangements for the cactus:
The Situation
In yesterday’s “The Situation” column, I talked about the case of former Justice Department litigator Erez Reuveni:
What’s different about Reuveni is that he has brought a remarkable collection of receipts to the conversation. It’s not just the 27-page whistleblower complaint, which details in carefully crafted prose three separate incidents of the administration behaving—and demanding that he behave—unethically or illegally over a remarkably short period of time. It’s not just the 150 pages of supporting documentation, which includes multiple text exchanges, emails, and phone records supporting Reuveni’s claims. It’s the way all of this material intersects with an already-vibrant public record in the three cases at issue: The JGG case on Alien Enemy Act deportations to El Salvador, the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, and the DVD case on deportations to third countries.
One can say, I suppose, that the public here has only one side of the story—a document dump from Reuveni and nothing from Bove or the other officials he accuses. But that’s not quite true. In all three of these cases, the government has had ample opportunity to explain its position before the courts, and in all three, the government has made its position very clear: It’s a big middle finger.
Friday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Mary Ford
Russian and Ukrainian Peace Plans Remain a World Apart
Anastasiia Lapatina compares the most recent Russian and Ukrainian peace plans and explains that the plans clearly illustrate why President Trump’s belief in an imminent peace agreement was misguided.
To see how little Trump’s appeasement of Moscow has achieved toward ending the war, it’s useful to consider just how far apart the most recent Russian and Ukrainian peace plans are. The Russian peace “memorandum,” presented during the latest round of the U.S.-brokered peace talks in Istanbul, is the first formal, written account of Russia’s terms for peace since 2022, and it is a world apart from its Ukrainian counterpart. The memo reiterates most of the Kremlin’s previously voiced maximalist demands and is widely seen in Ukraine as effectively seeking its capitulation.
The Paramount and Global Law Firm Settlements With Trump Don’t Constitute Bribery
John Keller responds to claims that both Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with President Trump and agreements between top global law firms and the Trump administration amounted to bribery. Keller argues that these scenarios threaten to erode constitutional rights, but are not instances of criminal bribery because they do not have a corrupt mens rea.
But despite the illegality of Trump’s attacks on law firms, the frivolity of his suit against Paramount, and the repugnance of the administration’s efforts to violate core constitutional protections, neither of these scenarios amounts to criminal bribery.
Bribery, as defined by federal law, is a corrupt offer to—or solicitation by—a public official of anything of value, in exchange for official action. Bribery requires a corrupt mens rea, which, while not defined precisely by the Supreme Court in the context of bribery, generally equates to a specific intent to trade a thing of value for an official act with a wrongful purpose.
An offer made merely to ingratiate or with a generalized hope of future official benefit is insufficient. Bribery law requires an unambiguous intent to influence a public official’s action through money or something else of value.
Four Key Players Drive Scattered Spider
In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren details the successes of Scattered Spider, how leaks from Chinese cyber espionage firms are sold to the highest bidder, and more.
Scattered Spider is responsible for a number of significant, high-impact hacks that have left many victim organizations struggling to recover, sometimes for months. The group first achieved notoriety in 2023 for the hacks of Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International. Since May this year, the group is believed to have struck retailers in the U.K. and the U.S., insurance companies, and then airlines in quick succession. Overall, it's responsible for the compromise of hundreds of companies since 2022. It is financial cybercrime’s apex predator.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, James Pearce speaks with John Keller about the basics of bribery law, if three instances from the start of the second Trump administration could plausibly be considered bribery, and the dismissal of the criminal indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Videos
On July 11 at 4 pm ET, I sat down with Anna Bower, Roger Parloff, and Scott Anderson to discuss ongoing litigation targeting actions by the Trump administration.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is a snake inventing the game Snake:
In honor of today’s Beast, remember Nokia phones fondly.
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