Where tyranny begins The Justice Department, the FBI, and the war on democracy

In this robust account, Rohde (In Deep), NBC News' national security editor, details Donald Trump's outmaneuvering of the rule of law during and after his presidency. Rohde contends that "Trump successfully used online denigration, the rampant spread of conspiracy theories, and threats of violence to discredit, divide, and intimidate FBI and DOJ officials." His argument is buttressed by interviews with government insiders, many of whom requested anonymity out of fear of retribution. Throughout, Rohde makes plain that those investigating Trump, including special counsel Robert Mueller, underestimated him by assuming he would be constrained by post-Watergate norms. Instead, Trump undermined public confidence in the Justice Department's ability to do its job impartially, enabled by Fox News and his attorney general Bill Barr, who undercut the Mueller probe by presenting a misleading exculpatory summary of its findings. Even after Biden appointee Merrick Garland was at the helm of the Justice Department, his staff made errors that stymied the inquiry into Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection. Much of Rohde's material is familiar, though he peppers his account with new findings, such as background on the FBI's decision not to subpoena records that could have identified plotters behind January 6: "Five years of Trump's attacks had reduced the bureau's appetite for risk." Readers will be troubled. (Aug.)

A meticulous chronicle of the excruciating details of the battles between the Trump presidency and the Department of Justice. In a hard-hitting book characterized by careful research and documentation, two-time Pulitzer winner Rohde, author of In Deep and Endgame, delineates how the Trump White House violated well-established post-Watergate norms about judicial conduct, upending and devaluing the work of the DOJ. The trajectory of the successful attempts to sway judicial philosophy started in the first week of Trump's presidency, as he instituted the Muslim travel ban, an executive decision that went straight to the courts. Subsequently, the new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, a Trump loyalist--caught lying about meeting a Russian ambassador when he was running Trump's campaign--recused himself from running the investigation into Russian interference, a monumental decision that would lead to Trump turning against him. After Trump fired FBI director James Comey, deputy AG Rod Rosenstein felt compelled to choose the highly revered former FBI director Robert Mueller to run the special counsel on Russia. However, Trump's repeated attacks on the department and its officials weakened the ability of the special counsel team to make its case to the public. Moreover, the new AG, William Barr, publicly misrepresented Mueller's conclusion two years later as proving there was "no collusion" with the Russians, when Mueller's report was actually more damning. The new scandals over the phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, along with the investigation into Hunter Biden and the commuting of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn's sentences, all resulted in "myriad Justice Department and post-Watergate norms…shredded by Trump and Barr with seemingly little political consequence." The resulting situation, Rohde argues convincingly, cannot be rectified by the cautious proceedings of Biden's AG, Merrick Garland. A cautionary, relevant study of systematic executive bullying that has cast deep skepticism on law enforcement in America. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.