True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump

True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump by longtime CNN legal analyst and contributor to The New Yorker Jeffrey Toobin analyzes Trump's survival in the face of two major investigations during his first years in the presidency and analyzes whether the character traits of Trump, which were often successful in deflecting and avoiding the crises his presidency faced will be effective for him to survive the coronavirus pandemic. IF you are a fan of Toobin's other books, or his opinions as an analyst, then you will appreciate this book. It offers interesting insight and analysis, and Toobin's voice is apparent throughout.

If you are interested into delving into the Trump term, look no further.

When historians begin the long process of assessing the full scope of the damage done by Donald Trump, his Administration, and his Congressional enablers to the United States and the world they will turn to a handful of the books produced during the darkest moments of the debacle. One of the most valuable of those resources is Jeffrey Toobin's meticulous and scathing account. As with Toobin's other accounts of events in the Clinton and Obama Adminsitrations, True Crimes And Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump is thoroughly researched, well written, and above all brutally honest.

Toobin's book deals with most of the Trump Administration's years in power, with special emphasis on the Mueller Investigation, the revelations of Trump's efforts to trade US assistance to Ukraine for damaging information on Joe Biden, and the subsequent investigation that led to impeachment and the Senate trial. It's a bleak and often repulsive story, and Toobin emphasizes that by letting Trump and his enablers speak for themselves, quoting tweets, letters, and interviews (being sure to clearly delineate the lies). The book often made me as a patriotic American cringe, but that's a good part of its value: revealing the full incompetence, venality, and pure viciousness of Trump and his accomplices. And as a patriot I found much to be proud of as well: the courage and innate nobility of such men and women as Robert Mueller, Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, Adam Schiff, and many others.

I found the final chapter, the end of which is devoted to quoting much of Trump's ranting speech at the National Prayer Breakfast shortly after his Senate acquittal, and the epilogue which recounts Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, especially powerful. The last few years have been dark ones in the United States, and accounts like Toobin's are essential for helping us understand what happened, and (it is to be hoped,) prevent anything similar from happening in the future.

Jeffrey Toobin has a talent for making current events into compelling (and informative) reading. In his latest book, Toobin tackles two of the most important events in recent American political history: the Mueller Investigation, and the impeachment of Pres Trump. Toobin gives the reader a fascinating and detailed behind the scenes perspective on the personalities, as well as the complex legal and political issues, involving Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's extensive efforts (and possible Trump campaign cooperation) to support Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Toobin reveals some details about Russia's use of social media platforms which I have not seen before. But the basic question for Toobin is why Mueller's investigations and findings did not result in serious consequences for Trump. The mystery revolves around why Mueller did not try harder to question Trump in person under oath, and also why he failed to "follow the money". In addition, Mueller seemed reluctant to pursue what appeared to be a strong case of obstruction of justice against Trump. Consequently, with the help of Attorney General Barr, Trump declared himself "exonerated," and then launched his aggressive extortion (my word) campaign against Ukraine to seek help with his reelection. Toobin's reporting presents a devastating portrait of Trump as obsessed with pursuing his narrow self interest, with little or no concern for the country and its people. In the latter part of his book, Toobin gives a concise, useful narrative of the impeachment hearings in the House, and the subsequent Senate trial. I found this book to be a real life horror story about an American President who goes rogue, in part due to the failure of others in government, especially Republican Senators, to stop him. Overall, this well-written and incisive book makes clear what the stakes are in the upcoming election.

Fans of Jeffrey Toobin, and in particular his now twenty-year-old book on the Clinton impeachment "A Vast Conspiracy," will not be disappointed by this book. Whereas Toobin found Clinton to be morally ambiguous, he finds Trump to be demonic. I was grateful every time Toobin pulled down the rotten scaffolding propping up the arguments made by Trump, his lawyers, and his supporters. If Amazon guidelines permitted, I would provide lengthy extended quotes from the book.

The only part of it that should be even slightly controversial is Toobin's attack on Bob Mueller, for that is what it comes down to. Toobin seems to think that the Mueller investigation should have been ongoing while Trump was actually being impeached, instead of winding up in the spring of 2019. This could have been accomplished by subpoenaing the President and fighting Mueller's right to do so all the way up to the Supreme Court. Mueller, Toobin feels, is too much like those journalists who argue they have to be fair to both sides even when one side is fascism.

Toobin never mentions the name of Mueller's ethics advisor, but I guarantee you Mueller knew Sam Dash, who was Ken Starr's and resigned when Starr called for the impeachment of President Clinton. The fact Mueller never called for Trump's impeachment proves to me that he isn't a partisan hack. Toobin would argue that Mueller cared more about following the rules than about results, but isn't that true of all the most decent people?

By contrast, Toobin doesn't think House Democratic leadership did anything wrong. Here I strongly sympathized with Jamie Raskin, the former Constitutional law professor now representing Maryland in Congress and informal leader of a faction that called for impeachment just as soon as the Mueller Report came out. The House should have been willing to take longer and to sweep it all up during the impeachment inquiry. The House voted on two articles of impeachment after 3 months of investigation -- and failed to remove Trump. By contrast, the process that led to Nixon's resignation took about six months in the House and gave moderate Republicans more time to be convinced by the facts and move into the Democratic camp. Eventually a majority of Republican Senators were willing to vote to remove Nixon. When he knew that, he resigned. To you, what does this reflect? Please comment.

I know there will be a lot of additional books about the impeachment but the one I really want to read is Jonathan Turley's. Turley was the constitutional expert called by Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to argue that what Trump unambiguously did was not impeachable. That is not exactly what he argued, nor does Toobin examine Turley's views at any length. Keep an eye out for Turley's examination of Trump's legacy. This book gets four stars.

I just want to rate the book, not write a review.

A memorialization of President Trump's most serious mistakes. This is a book written for historians. It is a valiant effort at objective recordation of what happened. The detail and backgrounds of various participants was a valuable contribution to history. Most of this book is review if one has been following the news.
Mr. Toobin's conclusion that President Trump did not conspire with the Russians in the 2016 election is representative of what bothers me when I see him on CNN. HIs attempts to be objective or impartial cloud his judgment. The truth is the evidence which has, as of yet, been adduced does not support a conclusion of a conspiracy. To conclude there was no conspiracy is simply an effort by a well meaning journalist to sound impartial. The author's criticisms of Robert Mueller are sound but likewise do not go far enough for a truly objective view of how the investigation should be judged. He likewise makes the same error in concluding the Ukraine affair was not criminal behavior by the President. Jurisprudence must not belie common sense.
Why Mr. Toobin chose to land on these conclusions is baffling other than an attempt to buy some credibility from the Trump supportiing public/historians.
Mr. Toobin is intelligent, articulate, precise and honest. He is a shining example of what journalists should be. I am grateful for his writing this tome for and on behalf of history, but alas, as us all, he is a human and therefore imperfect.

Toobin has written some fine and exciting books like ‘The Nine’, and ‘The Run of His Life’. This book about Donald Trump seems a little premature considering that Trump is still serving his first term of office as President of the United States. The book is mainly about the Mueller investigation, which is now stale news, but Toobin has a style of writing that makes even the mundane exciting.

The book has fascinating insight into all the people who have worked for Trump. It describes their personalities and show how they operate, exposing the flaws and also strengths (in some of them). Toobin describes how Mueller went about selecting his team, and how the team worked together.

This book examines the process of impeaching a President of the United States. It discusses the success and shortcomings of the Mueller investigation, leaving one to wonder, first, had Mueller done enough? And second, whether the law will catch up with Trump once he leaves office.