Intelligence & Surveillance
Just Security’s expert authors provide legal and policy analysis of intelligence and surveillance activities, focusing on their impact on national security and on civil liberties and privacy rights, and their oversight by Congress and the courts.
1,846 Articles
Russia and a Divided United States: What Comes After Trump?
While the United States, along with its Western allies, became preoccupied with post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, global counterterrorism operations, and the aftermath of…
Can Flynn Assert a Fifth Amendment Privilege to Withhold Documents?
The news that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor and campaign aide, has refused to comply with a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena…
The Drip, Drip of Obstruction News
The news yesterday that Donald Trump asked the Director of National Intelligence, Daniel Coats, and the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, to publicly…
Trump’s Disclosure Did Not Break the Law
Since the Washington Post revealed that President Trump had provided “classified” information to Russian diplomats, there have been three rounds of reactions. The first comments…
Connecting the Dots: Political Microtargeting and the Russia Investigation
In many respects, we’re all in the dark when it comes to the ongoing Russia investigations. Behind closed doors, what are congressional and FBI investigators learning? What new…
Norms Watch: Tracking the Erosion of Democratic Traditions (May 12-19)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the latest installment of Norms Watch, our series tracking both the flouting of democratic norms by the Trump administration and the erosion of…
So You Want to Share Intelligence with Russia … There Are Less Risky Ways to Do It
President Donald Trump clearly believes there is an opportunity for the United States to work with Russia on counterterrorism and the fight against ISIS. Some commentators who’ve defended his…
Why Trump’s Disclosure to Russia (and Urging Comey to Drop the Flynn Investigation, and Various Other Actions) Could Be Unlawful
President Trump’s disclosure of highly classified information about the Islamic State to Russian officials has been widely decried as “terrifying,” “reckless,” and “deeply…
Assessing the Damage of the President’s Intelligence Sharing with Russia
Following the Washington Post’s revelations Monday night, the legality of President Donald Trump’s decision to share sensitive information related to the ISIS bomb threat to…
Don’t Be So Quick to Call Those Disclosures “Legal”
Following multiple reports that President Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russian officials at a private meeting, various legal experts have asserted that Trump…
The Flagrant Foul in Trump’s Disclosure of Classified Info to Russia: The Missing Interagency Process
It was a far more effective strategy for the White House not to deny the facts of the Washington Post report that the president had disclosed information to Russia, but instead…
Five Takeaways from Gen. H.R. McMaster Press Briefing
Here are five key points made by Gen. H.R. McMaster in the press briefing held on Tuesday morning. 1. McMaster said that what President Donald Trump did was “wholly appropriate”…