Michael S. Schmidt

If you had any doubt that Donald Trump obstructed justice, you only need read this meticulously reported chronology by Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times Washington correspondent Michael Schmidt.

Primarily focussing on the experiences of two former officials in the Trump administration, former White House counsel Don McGah and former FBI Director James Comey, Schmidt takes us through a day-by-day account of how Trump reacted to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between the Trump team and Russia prior to the 2016 election.

Close followers of the mainstream media will not be surprised by Schmidt’s findings. As the history professor Jeremi Suri wrote in a review of this book for the Washington Post: “When President Trump cries out for ‘law and order,’ as he often does, he is describing neither his behavior nor his aspirations. Just the opposite.”

Although Schmidt frequently alludes to Trump’s financial ties with Russia, he doesn’t have much to reveal, other than the fact that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who hired Mueller, prohibited Mueller from any investigation in that direction.

What Schmidt can report about are the many times Trump asked his subordinates to lie for him, especially regarding obstruction, and his consistent efforts to bend the activities of the Justice Department to his will, particularly in the matter of punishing his political enemies.

As Professor Suri concludes:

“Much of Schmidt’s story is already in the public record because he reported on it so well. His book ties the threads together, and it offers a powerful accounting of the lawlessness and chaos that is President Trump. The evidence is so ubiquitous that we sometimes treat it as background noise, but it is the most dangerous sound of our time. Trump’s behavior is a consistent, growing and flagrant threat to the very law and order he dishonestly proclaims.”

Evaluation: While the information in this book is certain to become outdated by later reporting when more about Trump is revealed, it is still an eye-opening look at a frightening era in American history marked by the very survival of democracy and rule of law hanging in the balance. Schmidt does a good job of keeping the reader’s interest, even when many of the facts are already known.… (mer)