Hatchet Man

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In Hatchet Man, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig reveals the unprecedented abuse of power by Attorney General Barr and the lasting damage inflicted on the Justice Department. Drawing from his own experiences, Honig illustrates how Barr, as the nation’s top law enforcement official, repeatedly violated both written rules and essential unwritten norms that define the "prosecutor's code." From the outset, Barr's actions were corrupt; his first act was to misrepresent Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings, leading to public rebukes from Mueller and a federal judge. He attempted to manipulate the law to suppress a whistleblower's complaint regarding Trump's Ukraine dealings, which ultimately resulted in Trump's first impeachment. Barr also intervened inappropriately to undermine DOJ prosecutors in the cases of Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, both of whom were political allies of the President. He dismissed the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York under false pretenses and propagated unfounded claims of widespread mail-in ballot fraud, exacerbating the turmoil surrounding the 2020 election and contributing to the January 6 insurrection that led to Trump's second impeachment. Honig demonstrates how Barr compromised the core virtues of the Justice Department—credibility and independence—serving instead his extremist legal and personal beliefs, and outlines necessary steps to prevent such corruption in the future.