The End of the Sunflower Garden 2025
We'll be back next year. #ExpectMe
Good Morning:
The sunflower garden is done for the year. Thanks so much to the property owners who let us use their field this year. And thanks to everyone who helped plant and care for the sunflowers, particularly Connor O’Brien, Nadiya Shaporynska, and the good folks at US Ukrainian Activists.
We’ll be back this spring.
Promise.
Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable
and I discussed our experiences at last weekend’s Frog March. As it turned out, the Frog March involved rather more discussion of frogs than we had anticipated:Yesterday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Isabel Arroyo
Scandal Roils Ukraine’s Energy Sector
The estimable
analyzes a corrupt scheme uncovered by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, in which high-profile Ukrainian officials close to President Zelensky extorted payments from nuclear power plants central to the country’s energy system. Lapatina notes that, while the scandal is egregious, the fact that the Bureau had enough investigative power to bring it to light is itself a sign of progress:This is undoubtedly the worst possible time for the Ukrainian people to find out about large-scale corruption in the energy sector.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that while the Energoatom scheme implicates two sitting members of the cabinet and a number of President Zelensky’s friends, the administration has pinned the energy sector’s problems on another energy official—a well-respected manager who appears to be innocent—prosecuting him for corruption and using him as a scapegoat for the country’s energy woes.
But despite all the recent scandal, there is a crucial silver lining: an investigation that reaches as high and wide as the Energoatom case is ultimately a good thing for Ukraine, as it shows that the country’s institutions are capable of standing up even to the highest echelons of Ukrainian power.
Dispatch from the Nov. 13 Hearing on Lindsey Halligan’s Appointment
Roger Parloff reports on a Nov. 13 hearing on the legality of Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney. Parloff relays a notable exchange between Judge Cameron Currie and government counsel over whether Attorney General Pam Bondi had honestly reviewed relevant grand jury minutes, then summarizes arguments raised by attorneys for James Comey and Letitia James.
During the hearing, Currie appeared skeptical of both the legality of Halligan’s appointment and of the contention that any error might be harmless, but took the matter under advisement, and promised to try to rule by Thanksgiving.
The dispute hinges on the interpretation of 28 U.S.C. § 546, a law that permits the attorney general to temporarily fill a vacancy in a U.S. attorney post. Since U.S. attorneys are considered “inferior officers” under the Constitution’s appointments clause (article II, section 2, clause 2), the law effectuates a constitutional commandment.
The Limits of America Alone
In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Jacob Sharpe and Sam Denney argue that the United States should strengthen its defense industrial base against China through closer integration with Europe. The authors outline different pathways toward that integration and caution members of the Trump administration against a short-term view that casts European states as dependents rather than critical allies.
A smarter approach would treat America’s European allies as co-producers of power, retooling U.S. defense-industrial capacity and strengthening its geoeconomic toolkit to compete with China. This would result in pooled capacity characterized by industrial interdependence, shared military might, free-moving innovation, and contributions aligned with each nation’s competitive advantages. The Trump administration’s current path will all but guarantee a United States that is weakened and alone.
Cyber Operations on Domestic Networks Redux
Jason Healey and Paul Rosenzweig warn that President Trump’s moves to designate “Antifa” as a terrorist group—coupled with his lack of scruples about deploying military forces domestically—might soon be used to justify offensive cyber operations against domestic political enemies. The authors evaluate a possible role for Big Tech in thwarting unconstitutional operations.
Trump is increasingly using the military in domestic contexts. He has threatened to go further—even further than we speculated he might a few short months ago. And he has doubled down on his characterization of his political enemies as potential domestic terrorists. All of this raises even higher the specter that military domestic intervention may occur—and if it does there will no doubt be a cyber component to that intervention as cyber tools are deployed against Trump’s adversaries. Trump’s war on Antifa—and other political adversaries—will only grow in the next few months. Whether Big Tech will resist that prospect remains to be seen.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, Natalie Orpett sits down with Parloff, Anna Bower, Eric Columbus, and Loren Voss to discuss an update in the Georgia prosecution of President Trump, a hearing on whether Lindsey Halligan was lawfully appointed interim U.S. attorney, and a district court barring the deployment of the National Guard to Portland.
Videos
On Lawfare Live, I sat down with Parloff to discuss Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick ordering all grand jury minutes and recordings turned over to James Comey’s defense team by close of business today due to potential irregularities in the proceedings.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the bear, seen here working smarter, not harder:
In honor of today’s Beast, be in the right place at the right time.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is not a dog named Wendy. However, Wendy did inspire her person, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib, to the following reflection on protest tactics:
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