Compiled by Athena Smith.
Articles
Comey Tries to 86 the Seashells Case: Part I
Anna Bower, Eric Columbus, and Molly Roberts analyzed former FBI Director James Comey’s motions to dismiss the indictment against him for a post on his Instagram page of seashells arranged to spell out “86 47.” The authors broke down Comey’s motion to dismiss the charges because they lacked a true threat—therefore protecting the speech under the First Amendment—as well as his motion to dismiss based on selective or vindictive prosecution.
The Comey prosecution appears to be—to put it mildly—utterly lacking in merit. It is difficult to imagine that it will lead to a conviction. Whether Comey can end it before a jury is sworn in, however, is far from certain.
There’s an old saying in the law: The process is the punishment. Trump would almost certainly delight in seeing Comey behind bars. But forcing Comey to sit in court while a prosecutor presents a felony case to a jury—as weak a presentation as it’s likely to be—might be enough to make the president’s day.
Comey Tries to 86 the Seashells Case: Part II
Bower, Columbus, and Roberts** examined two pretrial motions Comey has filed challenging evidence the government intends to present at trial. The trio explained that in addition to two motions seeking dismissal, Comey is seeking to suppress evidence and an evidentiary hearing under Franks v. Delaware, under which a defendant may be able to challenge the validity of a search warrant based on misrepresentations in the affidavit.
Neither motion would end the seashells case outright. But one could put the government’s own case agent under oath, while the other could provide a rare glimpse into the grand jury proceedings that led to the indictment. If granted, either motion could bring new facts to light that support Comey’s motions to dismiss the indictment—and force the government to defend its conduct well before trial.
OpenAI’s Kazoo-Grade Spying Incident
In the latest edition of the *Seriously Risky Business *cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren wrote about an OpenAI employee’s arrest for allegedly bugging a conference room in the company’s San Francisco office; the security firm NorForge’s report detailing how threat actors are using the Cairn agent in cybercrime; and more.
To us the significant thing here is that threat actors have found a target set where they can automate the entire process, from hacking a site to transferring a victim’s cryptocurrency to an attacker-controlled wallet. Old-school cybercriminals should be worried. AI is coming for their jobs!
Israel’s Destruction of Gaza and the Moral Decline of Zionism
Dov Waxman reviewed Omer Bartov’s book, “Israel: What Went Wrong?” and noted that Bartov’s book is a powerful and timely guide to the war Israel has waged in Gaza and the evolution of Zionism. However, Waxman also argued that Bartov does not thoroughly address Palestinians as political actors, how the events of October 7th traumatized Israelis, and does not fully explain how an Israeli constitution could have provided greater rights to Palestinians.
This century-long conflict, however, barely features in Bartov’s book. He largely ignores the Palestinians as political actors and attributes sole responsibility for the perpetuation of the conflict to Israel because Israel is much more powerful than the Palestinians. But this power imbalance does not erase Palestinian agency. Palestinians are not entirely passive and blameless. Zionism has evolved in interaction with Palestinian nationalism, and what Palestinians do influences Israeli politics and Israeli-Jewish public opinion.
Podcasts
Lawfare Daily: What We’re Worried About for the Elections:Natalie Orpett sat down with Roberts, Loren Voss, Renée DiResta, Julia Curlee to discuss potential threats to election security and integrity ahead of the midterms. They spoke about how they are identifying and evaluating the threats, what impact these threats might have, and what, if anything, can be done about them.
Videos and Webinars
Lawfare Live** : The Trials of the Trump Administration, October 23:** On Friday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. ET,
*Support *Lawfare
*Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Become a material supporter on Patreon. Sign up to receive *Lawfare
