The Lawfare Podcast · The Lawfare Institute

Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, March 20

March 23, 2026·1 hr 32 min·5 clips

A federal judge orders DOJ leaders to testify under oath about who is secretly running the U.S. Attorney's office.

The episode opens with Kate Klonick analyzing the government's response to Anthropic's lawsuits in both the Northern District of California and the D.C. Circuit over the cancellation of a DOD contract. The government argues it acted lawfully under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act and Executive Order 3252, but Lawfare analysis suggests these statutes were designed for anti-espionage purposes and cannot be repurposed for what appears to be a politically motivated contract dispute. The First Amendment dimensions are discussed at length: the retaliation claim is complicated because Anthropic's refusal to comply was arguably conduct rather than speech, though this opens the unresolved legal question of whether code constitutes speech under Bernstein and related precedent. The panel expects Judge Lynn to resolve the preliminary injunction on narrower procurement grounds rather than reaching constitutional questions. Molly Roberts reports on the expanding grand jury investigation in the Southern District of Florida, where over 130 subpoenas have been issued. James Comey received a subpoena related to the 2017 intelligence community assessment, though questions remain about whether the investigation has expanded to cover Crossfire Hurricane or even the Mar-a-Lago classified documents search. The panel questions the practical purpose of subpoenaing individuals for classified documents they should not possess nine years after the events in question, suggesting the subpoenas serve primarily as a mechanism of personal retaliation requiring each target to retain counsel. Roger Parloff covers two developments: a new lawsuit by two pseudonymous FBI agents fired by Kash Patel for their work on the Arctic Frost investigation that led to Trump's January 6th indictment, and a volatile hearing in New Jersey where Judge Qureshi ejected a senior DOJ attorney from his courtroom. The New Jersey case involves multiple compounding issues: a child pornography plea agreement made before the investigation was complete that missed 116 additional victims, the unresolved legal status of DOJ office leadership after the Habba appointment was struck down, and Alina Habba's reported presence in the district office despite unclear authority. Qureshi ordered the three office leaders to testify under oath and sequestered about who is actually running the office. Eric Columbus covers the flag-burning case of Jan Carey, who burned a flag in Lafayette Park the same day Trump signed an executive order targeting flag burning. Judge Boasberg found enough evidence of potential prosecutorial vindictiveness to order discovery, at which point DOJ dropped the case rather than provide the requested materials. The episode also discusses Boasberg's new procedural rule requiring notification to the duty magistrate when grand juries decline to indict in original investigations, prompted by cases like the no-true-bill outcome in the attempted indictment of Senator Kelly. The panel notes that previously there was no mechanism for anyone to learn about these outcomes, raising questions about how the press has been finding out about them.

As heard by us

A live legal panel follows the filings, the hearings, and the office politics behind them.

Lawfare Live uses its March 20 hour to track the Trump administration's legal fights, starting with the government responses in the Anthropic litigation and then shifting to a courtroom dispute over who speaks for an office.

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Why you'd press play

If you track the Anthropic litigation, this live episode keeps the docket moving and the questions sharp.

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