The Hoover Institution's National Security, Technology and Law Working Group, along with Hoover's Washington, DC office, held a discussion with author of The Drone Memos, Jameel Jaffer. Hoover working group member and senior fellow, Jack Goldsmith interviewed Jaffer, who led the ACLU legal team that secured the release of many of the documents and evaluated the "drone memos" in light of domestic and international law. In an introductory essay, Jaffer provides an overview of the drone campaign and an analysis of some of the legal arguments underlying it. He also offers a first-hand account of lawsuits in which the ACLU and others challenged the targeted killing policies and the secrecy that surrounded them. He argues that Americans invested power in the presidency because they trusted President Obama, and that as a result President Trump will inherit sweeping authority that is not meaningfully constrained by law.

Security by the Book is a series of interviews of key national security authors conducted in partnership with Lawfare. Visit Security by the Book's website for past podcasts.