Donald Trump used public firings and slanders, private co-option and threats, and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories to bend Justice Department and FBI officials to his will, from Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr to career public servants. He sowed public doubt in both agencies so successfully that when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he paid little political cost. And to a greater extent than previously known, DOJ and FBI officials feared investigating Trump.
The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland are now among the last lines of defense-a role they are ill-suited to play. In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde investigates the historic struggle to prevent President Trump from turning the country's two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons. And, after he left office, to prevent him from successfully delaying and discrediting DOJ and FBI criminal investigations of his conduct.