Escalation
Lawfare & Goat Rodeo
The War in Ukraine has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and left entire cities in ruins. It’s a human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. But beyond the death toll and destruction, the conflict represents something even larger: a flashpoint in the ongoing battle between democracy and authoritarianism, sovereignty and imperialism. Escalation is a gripping narrative podcast that delves deep into the complex and often fraught history of the relationship between the United States and Ukraine. Co-produced by Goat Rodeo and Lawfare, this eight-episode series unravels the decades of diplomacy, political scandals, and high-stakes decision-making that shaped this alliance, now tested by the largest land war in Europe since World War II. This is the feed for Lawfare Presents. A home for limited run series and specials from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo.
Produced by Goat Rodeo.
www.goatrodeodc.com
Lawfare
www.lawfaremedia.org/
This series is made possible by the generous support of DeleteMe. To learn more about DeleteMe, visit www.joindeleteme.com
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Top 10 Escalation Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Escalation episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Escalation for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Escalation episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
03/17/25 • 39 min
A dirty presidential campaign in Ukraine culminates in an attempted assassination and ‘The Orange Revolution,’ where Ukrainians stop The Kremlin’s attempts to rig the election. Years later at a NATO summit in 2008, The United States and European allies concoct a high-risk plan to protect Ukraine going forward.
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Trailer: The Aftermath
Escalation
12/20/21 • 3 min
On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Their goal was to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and they intended to do it by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes. President-elect Joe Biden's victory would not be official until that count was complete.
The Capitol was breached and lawmakers and staff were evacuated, while rioters assaulted law enforcement officers, vandalized property and occupied the complex. Five people died because of the events of that day. 138 police officers were injured. It was the most severe assault on the Capitol building in more than two centuries and the most forceful attack on the peaceful transition of power in the history of the American presidency.
The Capitol attack created fraught legal and political challenges that have played out over the year since. How do we combat an attempted insurrection against our nation’s institutions? Who is responsible, and how do we hold them accountable? What reforms do we need to prevent this from happening again? Can we even tell the whole story?
From Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, this is The Aftermath, a new series to explore the government’s response to January 6th and the search for accountability.
What exactly has our legal system been doing the last year? Are we actually equipped to deal with a growing call for political violence? How does one prosecute a riot? Can Congress pass reforms and tell the story? And where do we go from here? This series isn’t about the events leading up to the attack, or about the attack itself, it's about what happened next—about the efforts to confront and counter an insurrection.
Coming on January 6, 2022...
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05/02/24 • 79 min
The fate of Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 prisoners are intertwined. The prisoners' biggest hope for freedom is if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, takes office and makes the federal cases go away. But the people who stormed the Capitol committed straightforward crimes that were easier to investigate, easier to indict, easier to prove. Three years after Jan. 6, the story of how they have been held criminally accountable is mostly over.
But for Trump and other Jan. 6 plotters, that story is just beginning.
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01/23/24 • 58 min
In December 2020, The President and his advisors are still fighting to overturn the results of November’s presidential election. Then, in the middle of the month, a lawyer in Wisconsin sends a memo to the president’s legal team. This memo marks the beginning of a scheme that works its way through state legislatures and the halls of Congress, then to Trump himself. It is a scheme that ends with the Vice President of the United States in mortal danger. The main architect and proponent of this scheme is a little-known law professor from California, John Eastman.
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03/01/24 • 45 min
It’s December 2020. Donald Trump continues to deny that he has lost the election. He and his inner circle are working feverishly to try to overturn it while Trump is getting more and more irate. Then, on Dec. 21, he meets a man named Jeffrey Clark. Suddenly, the full might of the Justice Department is within reach. And he plans to use it.
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Escalation Ep 1: Chicken Kyiv
Escalation
02/24/25 • 37 min
The world watches The Cold War end and The Soviet Union break apart. And after centuries of Russian rule, Ukrainians may soon have their independence back. But in Washington, there’s fear that that independence could actually make the world more dangerous.
About Escalation:
In this new narrative series from Lawfare and Goat Rodeo, Escalation lays bare the stakes of the Ukraine-Russia War through powerful storytelling and compelling voices. It reveals forgotten promises and fragile alliances that have shaped the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and how the decisions of policymakers in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow have global consequences.
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the Impeachment: Day 10
Escalation
02/01/20 • 72 min
It’s January 31, 2020. It’s the 10th day of the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. I’m Margaret Taylor, Senior Editor at Lawfare. Today, Senators listened to the arguments of the parties, and then voted 49-51 not to call new witnesses or subpoena new documents. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney voted with Democrats, but the vote was nonetheless unsuccessful.
Senate leadership then offered a new procedural resolution to govern how the trial would conclude over the coming days. Closing statements from the parties will occur at 11am on Monday, and a final vote on the articles of impeachment will occur at 4pm on Wednesday.
Democrats offered 4 amendments to the resolution. The first was an amendment to subpoena acting white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Michael Duffey, and David Blair, as well as documents from the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State. The second was to subpoena just John Bolton. The third was to subpoena Bolton and allow for one day for a deposition and one day for live testimony. The fourth and final amendment was to require the Chief Justice to rule on motions to subpoena witnesses and documents, and to rule on any assertions of privilege. On all four amendments, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to table--or defeat--them, and all were defeated. Thereater, the resolution setting out the path for resolution of the trial passed on a 53-47 party line vote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell then asked for unanimous consent to include statements of Senators explaining their votes in the Congressional record next week, along with a full record of the Senate’s proceedings and handling of the impeachment proceedings. The Senate then agreed, by unanimous consent, to allow Senators to speak for up to 10 minutes each on Monday.
This is The Impeachment, Episode 10. The Senate votes not to subpoena witnesses or documents, and charts a path forward to end the impeachment trial.
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The Aftermath S2E3 - #StormtheCapitol
Escalation
02/07/24 • 63 min
Social media was key to Jan. 6. End to end. It was key to gathering the crowd that stormed the Capitol. It was key to generating the sentiment that led people to drop their lives to come to Washington willing to commit crimes. It was key to sending them home when the deed was done. Of course, we’re all on social media. But how does social media propel people to action, even inspire them to move from online to on the ground—and to the grounds of the Capitol? It’s impossible to track. But we know that some accounts wielded enormous influence, and none more so than Donald Trump’s. The thing is, Trump wasn’t the only one behind his social media face. He had one trusted aide who ran the accounts with him.
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BONUS: Conversation with Mary Sarotte
Escalation
03/22/25 • 25 min
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The Report Part XIV: The Fixer Flips
Escalation
11/01/19 • 61 min
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FAQ
How many episodes does Escalation have?
Escalation currently has 70 episodes available.
What topics does Escalation cover?
The podcast is about News, Trump, Podcasts and Politics.
What is the most popular episode on Escalation?
The episode title 'The Aftermath- Episode 5: Who Tells Your Story?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Escalation?
The average episode length on Escalation is 52 minutes.
How often are episodes of Escalation released?
Episodes of Escalation are typically released every 6 days, 8 hours.
When was the first episode of Escalation?
The first episode of Escalation was released on Jul 12, 2019.
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