"Written with all the color and pacing of a legal thriller... Honig’s book paints a powerful portrait of the unprecedented damage that Barr inflicted on the Justice Department."
With surgical precision, Elie Honig’s Hatchet Man masterfully, lucidly, accurately, and brutally fillets the record of former attorney general William Barr by dissecting the myriad ways Barr corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice. Honig ably draws on his own experiences as a prosecutor to illustrate the ideals of prosecutorial independence and the apolitical administration of justice, and to demonstrate how Barr repeatedly despoiled them. Honig’s book provides essential reading for all who cherish the rule of law in America.
Elie Honig delivers a devastating indictment of Bill Barr’s tenure as attorney general combined with fascinating vignettes from his own career as a prosecutor. Hatchet Man shows how Barr, with his lies and abuses of power, repeatedly violated the ‘prosecutor’s code.’ Anyone reading this book will be convinced that the former attorney general is guilty as charged."
Timely and engrossing, Hatchet Man uses Bill Barr as an example of how privilege and partisanship become corrupting influences at the highest level of power in America. With his trademark excellence and candor, Elie Honig lays out a startling and disturbing case, including the implications within the Department of Justice. I couldn’t put it down.
Many will recall the various incidents described in Hatchet Man, but the way former prosecutor Elie Honig dissects William Barr’s words and choices results in a fresh, devastating, yet easily understandable case against the former attorney general.
Elie Honig has written a speaking indictment of a book—laying out the detailed case against Donald Trump’s ‘hatchet man,’ former attorney general Bill Barr. Endlessly readable and entertaining, this compendium of cautionary tales minces no words. With a mixture of humor, analysis, and expert storytelling, Elie has written much more than a compelling takedown of an unfit attorney general; he also offers a blueprint for how impartial and apolitical justice should be administered in America.
With surgical precision, Elie Honig’s Hatchet Man masterfully, lucidly, accurately, and brutally fillets the record of former attorney general William Barr by dissecting the myriad ways Barr corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice. Honig ably draws on his own experiences as a prosecutor to illustrate the ideals of prosecutorial independence and the apolitical administration of justice, and to demonstrate how Barr repeatedly despoiled them. Honig’s book provides essential reading for all who cherish the rule of law in America.” — George Conway, attorney and contributing columnist for the Washington Post
"Written with all the color and pacing of a legal thriller... Honig’s book paints a powerful portrait of the unprecedented damage that Barr inflicted on the Justice Department." — Variety
“Elie Honig has written a speaking indictment of a book—laying out the detailed case against Donald Trump’s ‘hatchet man,’ former attorney general Bill Barr. Endlessly readable and entertaining, this compendium of cautionary tales minces no words. With a mixture of humor, analysis, and expert storytelling, Elie has written much more than a compelling takedown of an unfit attorney general; he also offers a blueprint for how impartial and apolitical justice should be administered in America.” — Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and author of the New York Times bestseller Doing Justice
“Many will recall the various incidents described in Hatchet Man, but the way former prosecutor Elie Honig dissects William Barr’s words and choices results in a fresh, devastating, yet easily understandable case against the former attorney general.” — Dan Abrams, New York Times bestselling author of Kennedy’s Avenger
“Timely and engrossing, Hatchet Man uses Bill Barr as an example of how privilege and partisanship become corrupting influences at the highest level of power in America. With his trademark excellence and candor, Elie Honig lays out a startling and disturbing case, including the implications within the Department of Justice. I couldn’t put it down.” — Sunny Hostin, Emmy Award–winning journalist, author, and cohost of ABC’s The View
“Elie Honig, like all the best prosecutors, is a master storyteller. In Hatchet Man, he helps us understand the tragedy of what former attorney general Bill Barr did to diminish the Department of Justice at the time when America needed her the most. This is an essential analysis for anyone committed to understanding the abuses of the Trump administration so we can ensure they never happen again.” — Joyce White Vance, Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama and NBC and MSNBC legal analyst
“Elie Honig delivers a devastating indictment of Bill Barr’s tenure as attorney general combined with fascinating vignettes from his own career as a prosecutor. Hatchet Man shows how Barr, with his lies and abuses of power, repeatedly violated the ‘prosecutor’s code.’ Anyone reading this book will be convinced that the former attorney general is guilty as charged." — Max Boot, Washington Post columnist, CNN global affairs analyst, and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
“A sharp-edged account…this is a comprehensive indictment of one of the most controversial figures of the Trump administration.” — Publishers Weekly
“[A] damning, convincing account….A resounding excoriation of an unquestionably corrupt operator.” — Kirkus Reviews
04/19/2021
CNN legal analyst Honig debuts with a sharp-edged account of how former attorney general William Barr violated Justice Department norms to benefit President Trump, wage war against the “evils of secularism,” and “implement extreme view of executive authority.” Expressing regret for his initial positive comments about Barr’s appointment in 2019, Honig accuses Barr of deliberately distorting the conclusions of the Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, and intervening on behalf of Trump loyalists Michael Flynn and Roger Stone to overrule charging and sentencing decisions authorized by Justice Department lawyers. Honig also delves into Barr’s controversial ouster of the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, whose office was reportedly investigating Rudy Giuliani’s “business interests in Ukraine and other shady financial dealings.” Throughout, Honig draws on his own career as a federal and state prosecutor to make clear the extent of Barr’s violations, and he offers a list of useful reforms, including explicit limits on communications between the Justice Department and the White House. Though Honig doesn’t break much new ground, this is a comprehensive indictment of one of the most controversial figures of the Trump administration. (July)
02/01/2021
A former federal and state prosecutor now serving as a CNN legal analyst, Honig argues that the two key qualities of a good prosecutor are credibility and independence—qualities that William Barr did not exhibit as an attorney general. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
2021-04-28
A full-throated condemnation of the recently departed attorney general.
If former Southern District of New York prosecutor Honig, now a CNN analyst, has any use for William Barr, you wouldn’t know it from these barbed pages. For one thing, Barr has “never, never tried a single case, in the trenches, as a prosecutor.” In that, he was like many in the Trump administration, lacking the credentials required to do the job. But Barr had numerous things in his favor, insofar as securing the gig was concerned. For example, “as a private citizen,” he wrote his famous “audition memo,” in which he questioned the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation and advocated executive powers so extensive that the president was on the verge of becoming a dictator. This ties in with Barr’s virulent, theologically based fundamentalism, which, among other planks, militated against rights for gay people and other marginalized minorities. Barr politicized the Justice Department to become an instrument of power for Trump, even after his electoral loss in 2020. “As Trump cast about for some basis on which to contest the outcome,” writes Honig, “Barr instructed prosecutors that they were now free to pursue election fraud cases even while certification of election results was still pending.” The author prefaces his damning, convincing account by enumerating characteristics “that infected Barr’s approach to his position as the nation’s top prosecutor.” He is “a liar” and “an eager political partisan” who “used the attorney general position to impose his own legal and philosophical views on how civil society ought to function.” As for his surprise resignation just before Trump left office? Self-serving self-preservation, writes Honig, perhaps with a smattering of concern for legacy behind it. Even so, Barr went out the door having accelerated the schedule for the execution of federal prisoners, one more sign of his “thirst for power, fueled by a religious certainty in his duty and right to impose order on the world.”
A resounding excoriation of an unquestionably corrupt operator.
