Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent former federal officials

and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important legal topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. We've had one of the most tumultuous weeks since the advent of the virus.

On the virus front itself, it felt as if a distinct sense of growing impatience to ease

restrictions on daily life took hold around the country. In some instances prompting angry

protests and a series of lawsuits. Over half the states moved to substantially lift their orders,

notwithstanding that many of them still haven't satisfied the scientifically accepted benchmarks

for doing so. President Trump and the White House redoubled their erratic and divisive ways.

The president announced the disbanding of the corona task force only to reverse field the next day.

He maintained that the country must open up and soon, all the while abandoning his support for aid

to state and local governments in the next stimulus package and abdicating any leadership role in

the reopening process, insisting that decisions be left to the states. And then the week began with

the explosive revelation that there have been over 30 whistleblower complaints alleging a legal conduct

within the executive branch, including one by the chief vaccine officer of the government,

documenting the pattern of decisions governed by cronyism not science.

And the week ended with a megaton bomb announcement that the Department of Justice was simply

dropping charges against Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty twice to lying about contacts with

the Russian ambassador in 2017, and whom Trump notwithstanding having himself fired Flynn for lying,

had painted in tweet storms as a victim of the deep state.

So another fairly breathless week, but draw a deep breath now because we have loads to talk about

and an amazing set of guests to talk with. They are first, and Milgram, a professor of practice and

a distinguished scholar at NYU School of Law. She is the former attorney general of New Jersey,

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