Proof of Corruption: Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump

by Seth Abramson

Overview

In the third volume of his Proof series, New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson takes readers on a deep dive into the Ukraine scandal, revealing it to be more sinister, complex, and transnational than previously thought. Abramson’s research on Trump administration corruption positions the Ukraine scandal as the foreseeable culmination of years of clandestine machinations involving scores of players, from Beijing to Budapest, Ankara to Caracas, Warsaw to Jerusalem, Kyiv to Riyadh, and Moscow to D.C.

While many know about the July 2019 telephone call that ignited the Ukraine scandal, most don’t know about the concurrent attempts by members of Trump’s inner circle to take over Ukraine’s national gas company and bolster dangerous pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarchs—moves that would have benefited Putin and destabilized Ukraine’s government and economy.

In Beijing, Trump’s dealings with the Chinese government not only enriched him and his family, but also culminated in him successfully seeking 2020 election interference from Xi Jinping in the form of closely held information about Joe Biden. In Venezuela, many of the actors involved in the Ukraine scandal engaged in similarly secretive, Kremlin-friendly negotiations that undermined U.S. policy. In Syria and Iraq, Trump’s personal indebtedness to autocrats in Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE cost untold lives. And Abramson brings the story back to an increasingly fractured and depleted United States, where the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the staggering domestic consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign machinations.

In Proof of Corruption, Seth Abramson lays bare Trump’s decades-long pattern of corruption. This globe-spanning narrative is an urgent warning about the unprecedented threat posed by a corrupt president and his administration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250272997
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	665,410
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

SETH ABRAMSON is a former criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator who teaches journalism and legal advocacy at the University of New Hampshire. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is a political columnist at Newsweek and the author of over fifteen books, including Proof of Conspiracy and Proof of Collusion. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two rescue hounds, Quinn and Scout.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Rule of Law
Chapter 1: Manafort
Chapter 2: Euromaidan and Crimea
Chapter 3: Parnas and Fruman
Chapter 4: Shokin
Chapter 5: Kilimnik
Chapter 6: The Black Ledger and the Javelins
Chapter 7: DiGenova and Toensing
Chapter 8: Stone
Chapter 9: Giuliani
Chapter 10: Naftogaz
Chapter 11: Firtash
Chapter 12: Trump-Venezuela
Chapter 13: Vogel and Stern
Chapter 14: Orban and Soros
Chapter 15: Leshchenko
Chapter 16: CrowdStrike, Onyshchenko, and Kolomoisky
Chapter 17: Nunes and the BLT Prime Team
Chapter 18: Solomon
Chapter 19: Poroshenko and Artemenko
Chapter 20: Yovanovitch
Chapter 21: Parnas
Chapter 22: Hyde
Chapter 23: The First Trump-Zelensky Call
Chapter 24: Zelensky and Lutsenko
Chapter 25: Taylor
Chapter 26: ABC News and the Hold
Chapter 27: Sondland and Pompeo
Chapter 28: The Second Trump-Zelensky Call
Chapter 29: Sondland and Giuliani
Chapter 30: Trump-China
Chapter 31: Vindman
Chapter 32: The Whistleblower
Chapter 33: Pence
Chapter 34: September
Chapter 35: Barr, Durham, and Horowitz
Chapter 36: Trump-Turkey
Chapter 37: Trump and Zelensky
Chapter 38: Trump-Iran
Chapter 39: The Impeachment
Chapter 40: The Trial
Chapter 41: The Aftermath
Chapter 42: COVID-19
Epilogue: The Election

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Seth Abramson’s Proof Trilogy

"Careful and exhaustive ... Abramson’s catalog makes a strong case for Trump’s outsized, boundless corruption." —Kirkus Reviews on Proof of Corruption

“Detailed . . . there’s much to ponder here, and many will want to do just that.” —Booklist on Proof of Conspiracy

“A richly documented indictment of power and corruption that bears urgent discussion in the coming electoral cycle.” —Kirkus Reviews on Proof of Conspiracy

“Chilling . . . a useful guidebook to the still-unfolding crisis. Abramson . . . methodically assembles the most important pieces of the puzzle to present a comprehensive picture of what [he] calls the most significant criminal investigation of our lives.” —Gothamist on Proof of Collusion

“A detailed, labyrinthine chronicle of contacts between Trump and his associates on the one hand and Russian officials, oligarchs, and fixers on the other. . . . Abramson's exhaustive amassing of published evidence is useful.” —Publishers Weekly on Proof of Collusion

From the Publisher

2020-07-22
The third volume in a trilogy devoted to recording Donald Trump’s countless misdeeds, civil and criminal.

As an exercise in what Abramson calls “curatorial journalism,” the narrative is often difficult to stomach due to the author’s careful and exhaustive evidence for his contention that the Trump administration exhibits a “perniciously systemic penchant for four types of activity” that are key to the definition of corruption. Three of these are impeachable, and the fourth comprises “nonimpeachable conduct that indicates a president is unfit to serve as a matter of ethics, conformity to democratic norms, and commitment to the rule of law.” A critical question is whether Trump has been so thoroughly compromised as a result of foreign entanglements that he constitutes a security risk—that is, he “cannot be trusted to…put the safety and security of the United States ahead of personal avarice or ambition.” Abramson, of course, answers that question in the affirmative. At the center of his investigation is the multifaceted matter of Trump’s seeking the assistance of foreign governments in order to provide negative material about his political opponents: Russia, Ukraine, even China. Trump’s machinations, carried out by means of various lieutenants such as Paul Manafort and supported by legal enablers such as William Barr, make for maddening reading. So do his many missteps, including the curious choice to open negotiations with Taiwan in December 2016 for a Trump-branded airport project, the first direct negotiation with the nation on the part of an American president since 1979. Even so, Trump pressed the government of mainland China for information on Joe Biden and his son, which, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blithely explained, “is what we do.” That China did not jump to oblige Trump helps explain his labeling of Covid-19—his handling of which, by Abramson’s account, has been both corrupt and inept—the “China plague.”

Treasonous? Perhaps not—but Abramson’s catalog makes a strong case for Trump’s outsized, boundless corruption.

Kirkus Reviews