Archon Fung and Stephen Richer speak with Alex Whiting, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and an expert on criminal prosecution.
Last week, President Trump signed a memorandum targeting “domestic terrorism and organized political violence.” It directs federal agencies — from the Department of Justice to the IRS — to investigate and prosecute groups and individuals accused of fostering political violence. While Antifa is named explicitly, the memo is widely viewed as focusing on what the administration calls “left-wing terrorism.”
On Saturday, the President ordered troops into Portland, Oregon, to “protect war-ravaged Portland and any ICE facilities under siege from Antifa and other domestic terrorists.”
In another display of political muscle, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on two charges after the Trump administration pressed the Justice Department to pursue the case.
To unpack these developments and their implications for democracy, this week on Terms of Engagement, Archon Fung and Stephen Richer speak with Alex Whiting, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and an expert on criminal prosecution.
Alex Whiting is a Professor at Harvard Law School, where he teaches, writes and consults on domestic and international criminal prosecution issues. He has worked extensively both as an international and U.S. federal prosecutor. Most recently, he served in the Special Counsel’s Office at the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant Special Counsel. Previously, he was at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, serving successively as the Head of Investigations, Deputy Specialist Prosecutor, and Acting Specialist Prosecutor.
Before assuming this role, he was a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School. From 2010 until 2013, he was in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where he served first as the Investigations Coordinator, and then as Prosecutions Coordinator, overseeing all the office’s ongoing investigations and prosecutions. Before going to the ICC, Whiting taught for more than three years as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, again with a focus on prosecution subjects.