Where Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War on Democracy

How Donald Trump used threats, co-option, and conspiracy theories to bend DOJ and FBI officials to his will to a greater extent than publicly known—and how Merrick Garland, other prosecutors, and judges failed to hold him accountable before the 2024 election. Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump intimidated, silenced, and bent to his will Justice Department and FBI officials, 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, despite an unprecedented array of criminal indictments, easily won the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election. In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Rohde investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country's two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into... How Donald Trump subverted the law and Merrick Garland misjudged the need to hold him accountable before the 2024 election. 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 defensea role they are ill-suited to play. In Where Tyranny Begins , Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist David Rohde investigates the historic struggle to prevent President Trump from turning the countrys 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.