BOOK CLUB: A shakedown in Minnesota?
Journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis on how the Justice Department became legal muscle for the president
The Ink Book Club meets today, Wednesday, January 28, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, for a conversation with journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, the authors of Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department. Watch on your desktop at The Ink or join from your phone or tablet using the Substack app.
It was no accident that we chose Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department as our January pick. Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis have done remarkable reporting on a variety of important subjects for the Washington Post, but their coverage of January 6 and events that followed provided essential news, context, and insight into the unfolding and repercussions of that day. As we marked the fifth anniversary of January 6, it felt necessary to cut through the revisionist history — the gaslighting — around the insurrection at the Capitol with these expert journalists.
Their book also chronicles the destruction — and possible demise — of the Department of Justice, and more broadly, Trump’s multi-pronged assault on the rule of law, not least that he’s installed Attorney General Pam Bondi, who pledged, Leonnig and Davis write, that “the DOJ now worked at the directive of the president.” But we couldn’t have anticipated all the ways this key institution of our democracy would be challenged. That, after the killings in Minneapolis, the official denials of reality, and the ongoing threat to Minnesota’s residents, Bondi would pressure Minnesota governor Tim Walz to turn over the state’s voter rolls in the midst of the state’s fight to call off immigration enforcement. Bondi dispatched a letter to the governor offering “simple steps” to “bring back law and order,” a move some have described as extortion.
On the last page of Injustice, the authors quote from an interview Trump sat for with Time’s Eric Cortellessa, as the president neared the one-hundred-day mark of his second term. Cortellessa noted that Trump had chosen to display new portraits, including one of President John Adams:
“You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we’re a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that?”
Trump seemed taken aback. “John Adams said that?” he asked. “We’re a government ruled by laws, not by men?”
“Well, I think we’re a government ruled by law, but you know, somebody has to administer the law,” Trump said. So “I wouldn’t agree with it one hundred percent. We’re a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you’re going to have honest men like me.”
With some of the concessions the Trump administration seems to be reluctantly agreeing to regarding Minneapolis, it’s tempting to believe the tide is turning. But in light of all we know courtesy of Injustice and other reporting, is that glimmer of hope utterly naive? Or will the guardrails hold?
Join us today, Wednesday, January 28, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll pose those questions and more to Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis. Please join us for an Ink Book Club discussion around their essential reportage, and about how vital journalism is in this moment.
Below, for our Book Club members, you’ll find some questions to get you thinking in advance of the conversation. And don’t forget to leave your own questions for Leonnig and Davis in the comments below.
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