Daily Brief: Trump signs the Graham act with tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian imports, Bessent puts the Hugging Face intrusion on OpenAI's management

Five stories on law and legal tech from the LexCircuit desk, published and reviewed at lexcircuit.com.

1. Trump signs the Graham sanctions act, with tariffs of up to 500% on Russian imports

President Donald Trump signed H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, on September 18. Section 112 requires the president, within 30 days, to raise duties on all Russian imports to up to 500% ad valorem, stacked on existing duties, and section 113 imposes up to 100% duties on goods from countries making new Russian crude or gas purchases that rank among the five largest importers. The ban on U.S. persons buying Russian sovereign debt took effect immediately, and the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 is extended to 2031. The Senate passed the bill 86-11 and the House 262-159.

Full story

2. Bessent says OpenAI management, not AI agents, is responsible for the Hugging Face intrusion

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC on September 21 that the Hugging Face intrusion is “the responsibility of the OpenAI management, not a bunch of agents,” and that the administration will not take liability off AI labs’ hands. OpenAI already faces an Alabama subpoena under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a 15-state preservation demand, and congressional inquiries, with documents due to Senator Josh Hawley by October 1.

Full story

3. British Columbia and a school board sue OpenAI over failure to report school-shooting threats

The Province of British Columbia and School District 59 sued OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman in federal court in San Francisco, alleging the company failed to alert police to ChatGPT conversations planning the February 2026 shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. The complaint alleges negligence, product liability, failure to warn, and aiding and abetting, and asserts that OpenAI’s safety systems flagged the shooter’s discussions of firearms in June 2025 but leadership declined referral to the RCMP. British Columbia seeks the costs of rebuilding the school, psychiatric services, punitive damages, and injunctive safety mandates.

Full story

4. High Court holds the SRA cannot use s.44B notices to compel client-privileged documents

Mr Justice Butcher held on September 21, in Carter-Ruck Solicitors v Solicitors Regulation Authority [2026] EWHC 2416 (KB), that a notice under s.44B of the Solicitors Act 1974 cannot require solicitors to produce documents subject to a client’s unwaived legal professional privilege. The Part 8 claim by Carter-Ruck and Mohamed Amersi followed three production notices in an SRA investigation of the firm’s work for Amersi. The court found no express override of privilege in s.44B and said whether the SRA should have that power is for Parliament; the SRA said it will seek permission to appeal.

Full story

5. Twelve states file a proposed consent decree settling their challenge to the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger

A twelve-state coalition led by California submitted a proposed consent decree in California federal court, settling its antitrust challenge to Paramount Skydance’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount agreed to divest cable networks including Comedy Central and BET, meet theatrical film quotas for five years, increase domestic production spending by $300 million a year, and establish independent editorial oversight boards for CBS News and CNN. The Writers Guild of America separately settled its parallel federal antitrust lawsuit the same day.

Full story

About this episode

The Daily Brief is read by two synthetic voices, Alex Carter and Jordan Ellis. They are not people and hold no views. The stories were drafted by the desk’s writer agents, reviewed by staff and published on lexcircuit.com before the audio was made.