True Crimes and Misdemeanors

The Investigation of Donald Trump

By: Jeffrey Toobin

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From CNN chief legal analyst and best-selling author Jeffrey Toobin, a real-life legal thriller about the prosecutors and congressional investigators pursuing the truth about Donald Trump's complicity in several crimes - and why they failed.

Donald Trump's campaign chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and his national security advisor pled guilty to others. Several Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by the president's actions that they alerted senior government officials and ignited the impeachment process. 

Yet despite all this, a years-long inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the third impeachment of a president in American history, Donald Trump survived to run for re-election. Why?

Jeffrey Toobin's highly entertaining definitive account of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment of the president takes listeners behind the scenes of the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for his misdeeds. With his superb storytelling and analytic skills Toobin recounts all the mind-boggling twists and turns in the case - Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising Kremlin support! Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an affair! Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created conspiracy theories! Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear evidence of the impeachment hearings.

Based on dozens of interviews with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team, Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes and Misdemeanors is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. 

Filled with never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue president guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it.

©2020 Jeffery Toobin (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Authoritative... A smart recap of the past four years, punctuated by insider details about the investigations and Toobin’s judgments on the lawyering skills and ethics of various players. The author has no patience for James Comey’s sanctimony and 'faux humility.' ...Rosenstein is 'disoriented and out of his depth,' committing legal and political 'malpractice' by letting Trump use him to justify Comey’s firing. And Barr is “sycophantic,” a 'toady' who evolved from 'principled conservative to Trump apologist.'" (Washington Post)

"At some point in the future, it is entirely possible that the full details of Donald Trump's business affairs, personal imbroglios and political maneuverings will be laid bare to the public. Should that happen, it is easy to imagine much of the world wondering how the man got away with so much for so long. In that hour, readers may well turn to True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump....This work is more than a journalist emptying his notebook of all his interviews and insights. It is more than a legal expert analyzing how the best work of talented and committed lawyers could be frustrated by governmental rules and rivalries within the executive and legislative powers in our federal system. Perhaps its highest function is as a condensation of the best evidence against the presidency and character of Donald Trump, a summation offered up much as a prosecutor would do in seeking to sway a jury." (Ron Elving, NPR.org)

More than just a bit misleading.

In general, this is a retelling in frustratingly broad generalities of the main players in the Mueller and House of Representatives investigations of President Trump`s crimes during his campaign for the Presidency and later in his attempts to cover up his efforts to use Russian influence to bolster his chances of winning. Mr. Toobin then attempts to explain the Ukraine scandal and the impending Impeachment in the House and the Senate trial of President Trump.

One of my biggest gripes with the sections on the Mueller Report is that on several occasions Toobin proclaims unequivocally that Trump did not collude with Russia to affect the election. But as a person who read the Mueller Report, I cannot reach the same conclusion of there being no conspiracy. Mueller claimed in no uncertain terms that he was unable to prove a conspiracy because many of the witnesses (including Trump himself) lied to his investigators, withheld pertinent information, and destroyed evidence, that those efforts closed avenues of the investigation. The malfeasance of those investigated (aside from Matt Gates) prevented Mueller from being able to conclude that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russian agents.
To me, this does not mean that Trump was not guilty of conspiracy, but rather that Mueller was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Trumps' guilt.

My biggest gripe with the Impeachment section had to do with a supposed tension between Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Nadler. On more than two occasions Mr. Toobin claims that Speaker Pelosi smacked down Nadler by giving the lead on the investigation to the Intelligence Committee of Rep Schiff, and then did so again when she appointed Schiff as the lead Prosecutor for the House. I had just finished reading Norman Isen`s book prior to picking this title and nowhere does Mr. Isen even allude to Speaker Pelosi somehow lacking confidence in Chairman Nadler. The respective committees each had a job to do, and a specific role to play.I cannot fathom why Mr. Toobin would want to play up a supposed slight to Chairman Nadler when that just did not happen. I will trust the Lead Counsel to the Judiciary Committee on this matter.

All in all, it was an ok read, but I am not sure I would give it the distinction of being the definitive source on the scandals and prosecutions of Trump or his minions and sycophants.

Best of many!

I have read all the books covering Trump and this period in history. This book is scholarly and thorough and exceptionally clear. There is a lot of new personal color that came from interviews with many of the main players and lots of inside information on the Mueller inquiry as well as the impeachment. For the majority of the book, I thought the account was straight reporting without bias. Toward the denouement, the author’s bias becomes more apparent. Since I totally share his bias, I thought the book was a terrific recounting of recent history, well researched, and highly readable.

Best book on the subject so far

I've read/listened to every book out on this subject. This book is the best, most accessible, easiest to understand. If you only want to read/listen to one book on the crimes of the trump administration.
Thank you Mr. Toobin.
And excellent presentation by Mr. Shapiro.

Incredible!!!!

This book should be the high school and college textbook for the political history of this horrid era. The election is 60 days away - if Trump refuses to concede he should be impeached again to give the cowardly Republican senators one final chance to redeem themselves before the bar of history. Let his removal then be immediate.

Excellent and Worth the Time- maybe twice

Excellent writing, although we may know many parts of the story, this book adds and fills in context and background information that might not be know. Toobin’s style weaves in biographical info and context into the subject at hand without losing the reader. Very informative.

Well explained

Jeffrey Toobin does an excellent job of putting the whole sequence of events together. I enjoyed the scattered extraneous details, and the bios of the invoked people. Excellent narration.

There is no better legal writer than Jeffrey Toobin

As a lawyer of 30 years myself, there is no skill I admire more than that of the author who can take complex legal concepts, multiple timelines and diverse characters and weave them all into a rich, fair and honest tapestry of truth. Jeff Toobin is the very best at this challenging high wire act. This book takes all of the daily headlines we read and puts them in their proper current and historical context. Everyone who cares about America should read this book.

Four years of news retold with the missing details

Toobin has done a masterful job of collecting, amplifying, and analyzing the sordid history of Trump's corruption, mendacity, and self-dealing. He has filled in, through his own extensive research, the details that we did not hear as these events were taking place. The pace is slow enough to be thorough, yet fast enough to hold the attention. The delivery, like the substance of the book, was professional and very listenable.

Because we have lived through the story, parts of which seem to be only weeks in the past, I did not find it as riveting as political books that have brought whole new bodies of information, say the one by Trump's niece, or the best of Woodward's books. Nonetheless, Toobin has provided us with a competent and detailed reference to the unfortunate history of the Trump years.

I wish everyone would read this book

This puts the enormity of Trump's misuse of his power in clear focus. Please read!

Insights were a revelation

The details and individual profiles of key persons provided deep insight into the decisions and influences on these highly publicized events.
Narration was a perfect cadence too.