Type of site | online multimedia publication |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Owner | The Lawfare Institute |
| Editors | Benjamin Wittes Roger Parloff |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | September 1, 2010[1] |
| Current status | Active |
Lawfare is an American non-profit online multimedia publication dedicated tonational security issues, produced by The Lawfare Institute in cooperation with theBrookings Institution.[2][3] It has received attention for articles onDonald Trump's first presidency.
Lawfare was founded as ablog in September 2010[1] byBenjamin Wittes (a former editorial writer forThe Washington Post),Harvard Law School professorJack Goldsmith, andUniversity of Texas at Austin law professorRobert Chesney.[3] Goldsmith was the head of theOffice of Legal Counsel in theGeorge W. Bush administration'sJustice Department, and Chesney served on a detention-policy task force in theObama administration.[3] Its contributors include legal scholars, law students, and formerGeorge W. Bush administration andBarack Obama administration officials.[3]
On June 28, 2023, Wittes said thatLawfare has become "a full-featured multimedia magazine."[4]
Lawfare's coverage ofintelligence andlegal matters related to theTrump administration has brought the website significant increases in readership and national attention.[5][6]
In January 2017PresidentDonald Trump tweeted "LAWFARE" and quoted a line from one of its posts that criticized the reasoning in theNinth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that blocked Trump'sfirst refugee-and-travel ban.[3][7][8] TheLawfare piece called the ban "incompetent malevolence".[9] Trump tweeted the excerpt minutes after the line was quoted onMorning Joe.[7] Wittes, who supported the court ruling, criticized Trump for the tweet, asserting that Trump distorted the argument presented in the article.[8]
On May 18, 2017,Lawfare's editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes was the principal source of an extensiveNew York Times report about President Trump's interactions withFBIDirectorJames Comey, who is a friend of Wittes, and how those interactions related toComey's subsequent firing.[10] Wittes also provided a 25-minute interview toPBS NewsHour on the same subject. According to him, Trump's hug "disgusted" Comey.[11] Wittes said Comey was not expecting a hug, adding "It was bad enough there was going to be a handshake."[10]
SeveralLawfare contributors argued that Trump'sreported disclosure of classified intelligence to Russia in mid-May 2017 was "perhaps the gravest allegation of presidential misconduct in the scandal-ridden four months of the Trump administration". The column further alleged that Trump's reported actions "may well be a violation of thePresident's oath of office".[12][13]
ColumnistDavid Ignatius describedLawfare as "one of the most fair-minded chroniclers of national security issues".[14]
The website has been criticized by attorney and journalistGlenn Greenwald. He said it has a "courtierBeltway mentality" devoted to "serving, venerating and justifying the acts of those in power".[3]