A forthcoming book by Andrew Weissmann, one of special counsel Robert Mueller’s top prosecutors, will provide an insider’s view into the Russia investigation.
Random House formally announced on Monday that the book, Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation, will be published on Sept. 29, less than two months before the 2020 election. It also came two days after Mueller wrote an op-ed defending the Russia investigation that has come under constant attack by President Trump and his allies.
“I felt it was necessary to record this episode in our history, as seen and experienced by an insider,” Weissmann said in a statement. “This is the story of our investigation into how our democracy was attacked by Russia and how those who condoned and ignored that assault undermined our ability to uncover the truth. My obligation as a prosecutor was to follow the facts where they led, using all available tools and undeterred by the onslaught of the president’s unique powers to undermine our work.”
He added: “I am deeply proud of the work we did and of the unprecedented number of people we indicted and convicted — and in record speed. But the hard truth is that we made mistakes. We could have done more. Where Law Ends documents the choices we made, good and bad, for all to see and judge and learn from.”
Weissmann, a former Justice Department official who was known as Mueller’s “pit bull” during the Russia investigation, played an instrumental role in winning convictions against former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
Mueller’s team wrapped up their two-year investigation in the spring of 2019, concluding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion,” but they “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign. Mueller also laid out 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice, which Democrats saw as a road map for impeachment. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded Trump hadn’t obstructed justice.
Trump and his allies have long called the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt” and have been particularly critical of Weissmann. In turn, Weissmann has repeatedly voiced criticism of Trump and his administration as an NBC News legal analyst and formally rejoined Jenner & Block as its investigations co-chairman earlier this month.
[READ MORE: Bob Woodward: ‘I found people who Mueller didn’t interview’]
Weissmann, who also served as a federal prosecutor in New York and later general counsel for the FBI, was scheduled to participate in a fundraiser with former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign last month, but the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s team canceled it after the Trump campaign argued that the event was further evidence that the investigation was politically motivated.
After Trump committed the prison sentence of Roger Stone, who was a target of Mueller’s investigation, Weissmann tweeted that the longtime Trump associate should be put “in the grand jury to find out what he knows about Trump but would not tell. Commutation can’t stop that.” Mueller’s opinion piece in the Washington Post stressed that Stone “remains a convicted felon, and rightfully so.”
Weissmann said in April that he believed the Justice Department is trying to “soften the blow” of a presidential pardon for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. He also argued Trump has “no business” pardoning his former adviser and took another shot at the outside prosecutor whom Barr ordered to review the government’s case against Flynn.
Weissmann attended a 2016 election night party in New York for Hillary Clinton and wrote “I am so proud” in the subject line of an email to Sally Yates the night she was fired as acting attorney general for instructing DOJ lawyers not to defend Trump’s initial travel ban.
