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The National Security Law Podcast

Episode 77: Pardon Me?

The National Security Law Podcast

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck

Courses, Politics, News, Education, Government

4.8646 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2018

⏱️ 77 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hello friends, and welcome back to the latest episode!  Last week was a bit quiet, but things are heating up.  This week we review and debate: War Powers:  This week saw the release of the Office of Legal Counsel's memorandum on the U.S. airstrikes on Syrian military targets in April 2018.  We explain what issue it addressed, situate it in context with earlier war power debates, and wrestle over the questions it raises (including, especially, what role if any UN Charter issues should or do play in relation to this constitutional question). Doe v. Mattis (of course): A surprising incident involving the accidental monitoring of a phone call between Doe and his lawyers in New York came to light last week.  Is it an example of a well-functioning system dealing with a good-faith accident, or a sign of trouble? Military Commissions: We have a quick note on an attempt by al Baluchi to get the D.C. Circuit to intervene on an issue relating to evidence preservation (now that the CMCR has turned up inquorate), and we have a CMCR-related Dalmazzi update accounting for a curious government filing before SCOTUS in response to Steve's letter pointing out that one of the CMCR judges has retired from the military yet apparently still serves on the CMCR in a distinct, civilian capacity. The ECHR and CIA Black Sites: A fresh pair of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights condemning member states for allowing the CIA to operate black sites in their territory.  Don't expect any ECHR member state to cooperate on that front, or anything akin to it, in the future... The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has denied Chelsea Manning's appeal challenging convictions on CFAA, Espionage Act, and other charges. The District Court in DC has dismissed all claims by Kaspersky arising out of the DHS binding operational directive and the NDAA provision, both banning Kaspersky from government systems.  Fun to have an occasion to discuss...Bills of Attainder???  We've got a series of DOJ counterterrorism successes to note (all of them--gasp!!!--involving spies I mean confidential informants) Trumplandia: another hot week in Trumplandia, as Team Trump leaks advocacy letters insisting that POTUS cannot obstruct justice, that one (of two) obstruction states does not apply as to the FBI, and that POTUS can pardon himself.  Paul Manafort jumps in with some supremely ill-advised witness tampering, just for kicks. As for frivolity: instead of Weird Al, we bring you a review of...Paul Simon???

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello from Austin and welcome to episode 77 of the National Security Law podcast, brought to you by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.

0:17.4

It's Tuesday morning, June 5th. I'm Bobby Chesney. I'm Steve Vladick, and Bobby, I went to a concert last night. Rock out. It's Tuesday morning. June 5th. I'm Bobby Chesney. I'm Steve Vladek and Bobby, I went to a concert

0:23.3

last night. Rock out, Steve. Who'd you go see? I went to see Paul Simon. Karen and I, Karen for his

0:28.9

belated birthday present, Paul Simon was playing here as part of his homeward bound farewell tour.

0:34.4

And I think we were among the younger people in the audience. But that's a great show to

0:40.1

go see. So do you want to give a quick rundown now or do you want to save that to? That sounds

0:45.2

like some frivolity. That does sound like some frivolity. And, you know, if only we could go right

0:49.3

to frivolity, but I feel like there's been some stuff. You know, the other day, our last episode, we had kind of a slow week, and I think the show

0:59.2

reflected that.

1:00.2

We were trying hard to fill the time.

1:03.1

And then President Trump called his legal scholars.

1:06.3

He's got all of them.

1:08.0

All right.

1:08.3

So what have we got today?

1:09.2

All of them?

1:09.7

I mean, so all of them, all of the legal scholars who think the president can pardon himself,

1:14.4

who think that Mueller's investigation is unconstitutional and who think that the D.C.

1:17.6

Circuit's 1997 decision in in-ray-sealed case proves that Trump can resist a grand jury subpoena.

1:23.3

Those legal scholars?

1:24.4

Those legal scholars.

1:25.5

Okay.

1:25.8

Well, pardon me, Steve.

...

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