On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, held a press conference at his headquarters in Geneva, intending to focus on systematic violations of human rights taking place in Venezuela. This is what the lead UN official for human rights does – calls out governments for serious violations of fundamental rights, conducts high-level fact finding, and encourages countries to meet their international obligations.…   continue »

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FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Trump’s foreign policy was tested this week in response to a chemical attack on civilians in Syria and a missile launch from North Korea.…   continue »

WHITE HOUSE

It was yet another turbulent week in Washington, following revelations that two White House officials played a role in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ “secret” visit to the White House complex, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner agreed  to testify before Congress as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.…   continue »

By almost any measure, this was a disastrous week for President Donald Trump.

What went wrong for the president? On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI is investigating whether individuals associated with the Trump campaign “coordinated” with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.…   continue »

WHITE HOUSE

It was a tough week for the Trump administration, as the FBI Director confirmed an ongoing investigation into both Russian election inference and the possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russian intelligence. The ability of Congress to independently tackle the investigation, however, is now under question.…   continue »

What questions might be answered at Monday’s hearing with FBI Director James Comey before the House Intelligence Committee? There is no expectation that the hearing will address all of the items in the checklist below, but it may help fill in some of the blanks.…   continue »

WHITE HOUSE

The White House can’t seem to make up its mind about Trump’s wiretapping claims: first, Trump wasn’t meant to be taken literally, by Wednesday, the White House was expressing confidence in the evidence, and on Thursday, Trump was again standing by the claims.…   continue »

Just Security and the Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law were delighted to host an event today for our friends from Lawfare, Ben Wittes and Quinta Jurecic, for a discussion of their essay, “What Happens When We Don’t Believe the President’s Oath?” I served as the discussant, and thought to write up some of the questions that I raised.…   continue »

On Friday, the White House barred specific news organizations from attending a press briefing by spokesman Sean Spicer. Among the organizations excluded from the question and answer session were news outlets that President Donald Trump has singled out for criticism—including Buzzfeed, CNN, the New York Times, and Politico.…   continue »

FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY

This week, CNN reported that the White House directly asked the FBI to deny reports of contacts between the Trump team and Russia during the campaign, and without much thought or careful policy consideration, Trump upset relations with one of America’s steadfast allies: Sweden.…   continue »