Lawyer

In practice, presidents have typically tended to think of themselves not just as stewards for their party, but also of the presidency itself - preserving the full scope of its constitutional power for their successors is part of their job.

Students come away with a clear message about how admissions works: If you have money, connections or 'insider' knowledge, you have a leg up. It's hardly surprising that many students of modest or lower means decide it's not even worth playing.

I was a pretty unsavvy applicant, and I am grateful that the dean of admissions at Princeton chose to take a chance on a girl from an average public high school in southern Virginia.

My experience investigating foreign propaganda operations predated the proliferation of social media platforms.

I know firsthand from my experience working counterintelligence investigations for the FBI that kicking a diplomat out of the country is no small thing.

The Russian cloud over the Trump administration never seems to disappear.

Consistent positive interactions increase levels of trust in the relationship, so that when conflict arises, there are enough 'reserves' in place to make a withdrawal, but still leave the relationship in a net-positive place.

Russia has taken advantage of its exalted status among right-wing extremists to expand its influence throughout Europe.

But history shows that when courts intervene because a president is trying to shield his own conduct, the deck is stacked against him.

When it comes to the Russia investigation, President Trump would be wise to review Scandal 101: Plausible deniability is your friend.

Counterintelligence is, in effect, chasing ghosts, which is why the tools used to investigate foreign intelligence activity are secret, like human sources or electronic surveillance.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that he is innocent of colluding with Russia and had no idea about his campaign staff's Russia contacts. So he should be glad to know that the FBI appears to have been trying to thwart a hostile country's efforts to infiltrate his campaign.

It's no surprise that whether by blocking visas or building walls, there are parts of the country desperate to hang on to a vision of the United States that is rapidly disappearing from their TV screens as well as their neighborhoods.

In the end, granting mercy comes down to just two people. For the recipient, the pardon is freedom. For the politician, the pardon can mean - not surprisingly - political gain.

When I did counterintelligence investigations, they rarely saw the inside of a courtroom. That wasn't the goal of them.

My parents came under a provision where the government was specially looking for doctors, because the Vietnam war was happening and many doctors were overseas.

In a typical whistleblower scenario where the inspector general determines a complaint to be credible and urgent, there would be no colorable legal basis for the complaint to not reach Congress.

Reflexive control is a 'uniquely Russian' technique of psychological manipulation through disinformation. The idea is to feed your adversary a set of assumptions that will produce a predictable response: That response, in turn, furthers a goal that advances your interests.

But I have to say, in my 12 years as the dean of admissions at Yale Law School, there was a lot of legal behaviour that I saw that worried me and that clearly was allowing wealthier and privileged students to tilt the balance in their favour.

Under the dual sovereignty principle, the Fifth Amendment's prohibition on double jeopardy - which prevents the government from trying someone twice for the same crime - doesn't apply if the second trial is by a different 'sovereign' - in this case, the state.