Welcome to Talking Feds
About me
I’m Harry Litman. I spent many years as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice, where I was an Assistant United States Attorney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and United States Attorney.
Before going to law school, I had short stints in film production and sportswriting. After law school, I had the ridiculous privilege of serving as a clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall and, thereafter, Justice Anthony Kennedy. And since leaving government, I’ve done a lot of teaching and writing, and I still have a legal practice representing whistleblower clients in cases involving fraud against the government.
About Talking Feds
I started the Talking Feds podcast in the early Trump years—nearly 500 episodes ago!—to respond to peoples’ interest in the workings of the Department of Justice, the federal criminal justice system, and the courts. It’s now expanded to include weekly roundtables and 1-on-1s, daily YouTube videos, a Talking San Diego lecture series, and of course, this Substack. Last year, it was the only news and politics podcast to win awards from all three major award organizations.
We take a lot of pride in our guests—the most prominent commentators and political officials in the country—and the conversations, which are lively, incisive, and at times pretty fun.
Along with the podcast, this Substack has become the cornerstone of Talking Feds’ commentary on the baleful events of the day. It’s where I now do all my writing–I resigned from my long-time column at the Los Angeles Times in 2024 in protest of the paper’s currying favor with the Trump Administration. If my pieces have added to your understanding (and even occasional enjoyment) of the tumultuous times, it’s here that you’ll find them all going forward.
This Substack is also our destination for several weekly live discussions with me, including our “Is It Legal?” feature, which has in-depth dissections of critical legal topics in the news; Substack Lives for both breaking news and 1-on-1 freeform discussion with other of your favorite commentators, and hour-long “Ask Me Anything” Q&A’s, which are exactly as they sound. The last one spanned the spectrum from the Comey dismissals to my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. (answer: gravy).
Above all, it’s a growing community of people who want cogent, unflinching analysis of the historic challenges to democratic rule—which sometimes come in hard-to-understand legal wrapping—and a place to band together in like-minded opposition. It’s a challenge both to stay on top of the torrent of events and to remain clear-eyed but optimistic—as I am—that the good guys will ultimately prevail. I hope that this Substack plays a real part in meeting that challenge.
Why Subscribe to Talking Feds
In an era when legacy media has failed to uphold its traditional functions, starting with truthful reporting and straight-up analysis, Talking Feds Substack is one of the main law-and-politics Substacks filling the gap. It is 100% reader-funded, entirely free from the influence of corporate owners or advertisers. That’s by design so that subscribers can have complete faith in our independence and pluck.
It’s your subscription that makes all that work possible, including supporting the many happy warriors who work at Talking Feds day in and day out. And our growth powers stronger coverage, including making the most interesting guests in the news eager to have discussions with me. At the end of the day, it’s the community of Fed-heads that constitutes the strength and credibility of the Substack.
Why Upgrade to a Paid Subscription?
We don’t have any advertisers or corporate funders. And you may have noticed that relative to other Substacks, we’re pretty sparing on the exhortations to become a paid subscriber, which changes the feel of a Substack in a way we try to minimize. Our main pitch is the indispensable shot in the arm you provide to the Substack and everyone who works on it. But there are also features available only to our paid subscribers.
Paid members get exclusive access to: a weekly live Q&A where you can ask me anything about the news, recordings of my weekly segment “Is it Legal,” and access to an ad‑free feed of the Talking Feds twice-weekly podcast. And coming soon: even more offerings as we revamp our membership offerings.
We know that a lot of people already have multiple Substack subscriptions, not to mention so many other budgetary constraints that the Administration has exacerbated. If a paid subscription isn’t in the cards right now, we hope you’ll still join us for free—and, if you can, help us grow by sharing our work with your family, friends, or online community.
