For decades, the Department of Justice has appointed Special Counsels to resolve our most difficult, high-stakes cases involving our most powerful politicians. But do these independent legal investigators, who operate at the intersection of politics and the law, lead to more just results? Federal prosecutors at the United States Department of Justice are fond of saying they treat all criminal cases, and all subjects, "without fear or favor." But the DOJ''s most explosive, highest-profile criminal investigations and prosecutions have been conducted differently. When the stakes are the highest, DOJ literally operates by a different set of rules: the Special Counsel regulations. In this hard-hitting analysis, CNN Senior Legal Analyst and bestselling author Elie Honig chronicles the history of outside prosecutors and the Justice Department''s most consequential political casesHonig offers new insights into the machinations of American government with original reporting, including over 25 on-record interviews with historic figures who worked directly on our most important cases, including prosecutors, defense lawyers, and targets and subjects ofinvestigations by outside prosecutors Going back to Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal, through Ken Starr''s investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Honig reveals how the Special Counsel system developed, and why the number of investigations has rapidly risen in recent years. He looks closely into cases involving Robert Mueller, John Durham, Jack Smith, Robert Hur, and others, covering each of the major Special Counsel investigations in modern history, considering them not merely as freestanding prosecutions, but as part of an ongoing historical development. While each major Special Counsel case rests on its own merits, these investigations collectively test the Justice Department''s foundational policies and principles. In its most dramatic, politically consequential cases, DOJ changes its own practices in ways that are at once both necessary and problematic. The question is: What would happen if we got rid of the Special Counsel, and can the system evolve to better serve the call for justice in a constantly-changing political environment? ...

Autorentext

Elie Honig is the author of Hatchet Man and Untouchable. He worked as a federal and state prosecutor for fourteen years. He prosecuted and tried cases involving violent crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and organized crime, and successfully prosecuted over 100 members and associates of the mafia. Honig is CNN’s Emmy-nominated Senior Legal Analyst, writes a weekly column for New York Magazine and Cafe.com, hosts podcasts on the law and true crime for Vox Media, is a Rutgers University scholar, and is special counsel to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler. He lives in New Jersey.

Klappentext

"[A] deeply researched, keenly analytical, and frequently provocative chronicle of this singular judicial entity. . . . A senior legal analyst for CNN and former assistant U.S. attorney, Honig is well-suited to the task of providing a historical overview of the special counsel's function with the ever-evolving context of politics, partisanship and political skepticism." —Booklist (STARRED review)

"A fascinating, fast-paced insider’s account....[a] riveting, deeply reported book.” —Anderson Cooper

“Every page hums with gripping anecdotes and breaking news journalism." —Douglas Brinkley

Imagine you’ve been put in charge of investigating your own boss—who also happens to be the most powerful person on the planet.

You might unearth information that will be politically, professionally, and personally devastating to your subject, and you alone hold the power to indict and potentially imprison him. At the same time, the boss can fire you and end the case—and might even turn the tables and launch an inquiry aimed at you. As the lone-wolf assassin Omar put it in The Wire: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

That’s the crucible for any Special Counsel. For decades, the Department of Justice has appointed outside prosecutors to handle our highest-stakes cases. But do these independent investigations lead to just results?

In When You Come at the King, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig delivers a fast-paced, insider’s account of the most important Justice Department investigations of the past fifty years, based on dozens of on-record interviews with firsthand participants. A Watergate prosecutor reveals she hid copies of key documents at home to guard against potential destruction of evidence by the president’s allies. A member of the Iran–Contra prosecution team explains why they made a shocking election-eve revelation. A defense lawyer for Donald Trump details his private meeting with Jack Smith just days before Trump was indicted.

From Ken Starr’s investigation of Bill Clinton to modern cases involving Patrick Fitzgerald, Robert Mueller, Jack Smith, and more, Honig charts how the Special Counsel system developed and evolved over time. We know the maxim that a nation can be measured by how it treats its weakest members. This book explores an inverse corollary: A nation reveals much about itself by how it holds accountable its most powerful leaders when they’ve done wrong.

Now, with the future of Special Counsels in doubt, When You Come at the King addresses the most important question of all: Can the system evolve to better serve the call for justice?