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BENJAMIN WITTES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LAWFARE

Policy Positions and Areas of Focus Core Communities Takes an independent view of national From decades of reporting and writing on law security and legal issues, often noting both and national security, has developed close government responsibilities to protect relationships with many national security citizens and legal limits to action lawyers and reporters

Investigations of the Trump Presidential Current and Former Government Campaign and Administration – Highly critical Officials – Known for his association with of the Administration’s behavior various prominent legal figures from • Through regular commentary in , Republican and Democratic administrations, and on Lawfare, Wittes has exhaustively including: documented the investigation of the Trump • , former director of the FBI in Administration beginning with the 2016 the Obama Administration and Deputy election Attorney General in the Bush • In the ongoing podcast “The Report,” Wittes Administration, friends with Wittes and his Lawfare colleagues lay out the • , Founding Editor of specifics of the in detail, Lawfare, Assistant Attorney General in the providing the Mueller’s case for potential Bush Administration, friends with Wittes obstruction of justice • In an April 2019 Atlantic article reviewing the Lawfare – Works most closely with his Mueller report, Wittes argued that President colleagues at Lawfare Trump likely committed crimes related to • Robert Chesney, Founding Editor, foreign interference and obstruction of Professor of Law at the University of Texas justice School of Law • Susan Hennessey, Executive Editor, Senior Coverage of Counterterrorism, Surveillance, Fellow in National Security Law at the and Civil Liberties – Wittes has historically Brookings Institution maintained centrist views of executive power • Quinta Jurecic, Managing Editor on issues related to national security and civil liberties Policy Researchers – Connected with legal • In a 2013 article with terrorism expert Daniel and foreign policy researchers at the Byman, Wittes explained the legal rationale Brookings Institution and national security necessity for the • Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow targeted killing of al Qaeda propagandist • Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow in the Center and American citizen Anwar Awlaki for Middle East Policy • Writing in 2014, Wittes acknowledged valid • Jonathan Rauch, Senior Fellow in concerns about privacy raised in information Governance Studies releases by Edward Snowden but strongly • Shane Harris, national security writer at the criticized Snowden’s defection to Russia Washington Post and host of the Rational • In a March 2006 piece, Wittes discussed the Security podcast competing concerns and difficulties related to prosecuting suspected terrorists on American soil

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PEOPLE RESEARCH SERVICE 2

BENJAMIN WITTES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LAWFARE

Selected Publications Media Appearances Publications focus on intersection of law and A prolific writer and commentator, uses a national security wide variety of mediums including blogs, podcasts, TV, and written commentary to Books – Wittes’ books usually explore legal communicate his take on national security components of national security issues including terrorism and surveillance Online Commentary – In addition to Lawfare, • Unmaking the Presidency: ’s has also published in Slate, The New War on the World’s Most Powerful Office Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly (2020) Standard, Policy Review, and First Things • The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting A New TV – Regularly appears as a contributor on Age of Threat (2015) legal issues for NBC and MSNBC • Speaking the Law: The Obama Administration’s Speeches on National Podcasts – Uses these venues to innovate Security Law (2013) the delivery of legal and national security • Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor analysis to the public after Guantánamo (2010) • Co-hosts the Lawfare Podcast and “The • Law and the Long War: The Future of Report,” focusing on the Special Counsel Justice in the Age of Terror (2008) report on Russian interference in the 2016 • Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent election Courts in Angry Times (2006) • Starr: A Reassessment (2002) Speaking Engagements and Articles – Tends to feature more topical Testimony subjects such as investigations into the Occasionally appears at think tank events, president or the confirmation of Brett primarily with Brookings, and in front of Kavanaugh Congress to discuss law and national • “Collusion After the Fact,” Lawfare, 2019 security • “Five Things I Learned From the Mueller • Discussion on the Russia Investigation, Report,” The Atlantic, 2019 Brookings Institution, May 2019 • “I Know , but I Wouldn’t • Discussion on Bill Barr and the Mueller Confirm Him,” The Atlantic, 2018 Report, Brookings Institution, March 2019 • “Reforming the NSA: How to Spy After • Discussion on the Future of FISA, Hoover Snowden,” Brookings Institution, 2014 Institution, June 2017 • “Tools and Tradeoffs: Confronting U.S. Citizen Terrorist Suspects Abroad,” Testimony Brookings Institution, 2013 • “Outside Perspectives on the President’s AUMF Against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” House Armed Services Financial Donations Committee, February 2015 Wittes has no publicly listed contributions to • “Legislative Changes to the Foreign any political parties or individuals. • Intelligence Surveillance Act,” Senate Select • His wife, Tamara Cofman Wittes, has a Committee on Intelligence, September 2013 history of contributing to Democratic politicians, including 2018 national security candidates for Congress—Elissa Slotkin, Tom Malinowski, and Andy Kim, and for the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign

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BENJAMIN WITTES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LAWFARE

Criticisms and Controversies Info From Formative Years Has been criticized for his connection to Wittes’ time in college and in his early career public officials and sympathy for government encouraged him to be an independent thinker power • While initially critical of the U.S. Intelligence Community in his early work, Wittes became As an editorial writer with the Washington more sympathetic to the government Post and at Lawfare, Wittes attracted liberal throughout his career criticism for his perceived support for • Despite early criticism of the FISA court expansive use of presidential authority while working for the Legal Times, Wittes • In 2012, Guardian journalist Glenn has explained growing more sympathetic of Greenwald criticized Wittes and Lawfare for government officials after becoming more “serving and justifying the acts of those in familiar with their work power” • Wittes points to college as the start of his centrist and contrarian approach to policy During the Trump Administration, Wittes has • In several interviews, Wittes notes that he been criticized for his closeness to law developed his centrist nature while at enforcement figures and other Republican Oberlin College, where he chose to avoid legal professionals both liberal and conservative student • Following the firing of FBI director James movements on campus Comey, Wittes revealed that he was friends with Comey and had been given information Family Background related to his firing Wittes is married to Tamara Cofman Wittes,

also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Profiles Others Have Written Institution Profiles focus on Wittes’ unique style and • Cofman Wittes is a Senior Fellow in the connections to officials like Comey Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, where Benjamin Wittes Ben Smith, “To Understand James Comey, Talk also works. Tamara Cofman Wittes served To Benjamin Wittes,” Buzzfeed, 2017 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for • Focuses on Wittes’ closeness to the Near Eastern Affairs from 2009-2012 and emerging Russia scandal earned a PhD from Georgetown University Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “The Man Who Made in 2000 Liberals Newly Enamored of the Deep State,” New York Magazine, 2017 • Details Wittes’ criticism of the Trump Administration

Hobbies • Wittes is a longtime practitioner of martial arts, including taekwondo and aikido • In recent years, Wittes has announced the release of significant law-related news by posting videos on Twitter of him firing a miniature cannon at various household objects

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