Book Summary and Reviews of Where Law Ends by Andrew Weissmann

Where Law Ends by Andrew Weissmann

Where Law Ends

Inside the Mueller Investigation

by Andrew Weissmann

  • Published:
  • Sep 2020, 432 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In the first and only inside account of the Mueller investigation, one of the special counsel's most trusted prosecutors breaks his silence on the team's history-making search for the truth, their painstaking deliberations and costly mistakes, and Trump's unprecedented efforts to stifle their report.

In May 2017, Robert Mueller was tapped to lead an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination by foreign agents with Donald Trump's campaign, and obstruction of justice by the president. Mueller assembled a "dream team" of top prosecutors, and for the next twenty-two months, the investigation was a black box and the subject of endless anticipation and speculation—until April 2019, when the special counsel's report was released.

In Where Law Ends, legendary prosecutor Andrew Weissmann—a key player in the Special Counsel's Office—finally pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly what went on inside the investigation, including the heated debates, painful deliberations, and mistakes of the team—not to mention the external efforts by the president and Attorney General William Barr to manipulate the investigation to their political ends. 

Weissmann puts the reader in the room as Mueller's team made their most consequential decisions, such as whether to subpoena the president, whether to conduct a full financial investigation of Trump, and whether to explicitly recommend obstruction charges against him. Weissmann also details for the first time the debilitating effects that President Trump himself had on the investigation, through his dangling of pardons and his constant threats to shut down the inquiry and fire Mueller, which left the team racing against the clock and essentially fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.  

In Where Law Ends, Weissmann conjures the camaraderie and esprit de corps of the investigative units led by the enigmatic Mueller, a distinguished public servant who is revealed here, in a way we have never seen him before, as a manager, a colleague, and a very human presence. Weissmann is as candid about the team's mistakes as he is about its successes, and is committed to accurately documenting the historic investigation for future generations to assess and learn from. Ultimately, Where Law Ends is a story about a team of public servants, dedicated to the rule of law, tasked with investigating a president who did everything he could to stand in their way.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A lucid and engrossing insider's look at Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election ... an essential record of what the Mueller investigation proved and why it failed to bring Trump down." —Publishers Weekly

"Where Law Ends burns like an old-fashioned 150-watt bulb, delivering light and heat in equal measure... . Where Law Ends is a gift--a clarifying piece of history, wrapped up in our era's boundless anger and suspicion." —The Washington Post

"A damning indictment of a 'lawless' president." —The Atlantic

This information about Where Law Ends was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Andrew Weissmann

Andrew Weissmann teaches criminal and national security law at New York University School of Law and is a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block. Previously, he served as a lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller's Special Counsel's Office and as chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice. Weissmann served as the general counsel for the FBI under Director Mueller. He also directed the Enron Task Force, where he supervised prosecutions in connection with the company's collapse. As a federal prosecutor for fifteen years in the Eastern District of New York, Weissmann prosecuted members of the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese crime families, and police officers for misconduct arising from the Abner Louima attack. He holds degrees from Columbia Law School and Princeton University.

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