At Issue: The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice. New York Times DOJ Reporter Devlin Barrett discusses his new book in conversation with New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker

No part of life in the United States has been untouched by Donald Trump’s relentless weaponization of the Justice Department. This is a cautionary tale about how, once a president amasses such power, future presidents may never relinquish it.Whose votes get counted and whose get tossed out? Who gets prosecuted and who gets protected, like Jeffrey Epstein’s friends? Who gets to run our colleges and schools? How do citizens protest without getting killed? For generations, the Justice Department has sought to enforce the law fairly, without fear or favor. But Trump came into his second term with one obsession above all. “I was the hunted,” he said. “And now I’m the hunter.”In this shocking exposé, the three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Devlin Barrett reveals the systematic way the president’s men and women have dismantled the department as it once existed and retooled it to hunt Trump’s enemies.

Devlin Barrett has covered federal law enforcement for more than twenty-five years. He writes about the Justice Department and FBI for The New York Times, and previously worked for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and the New York Post. In the past decade, he has been part of three Pulitzer Prize–winning reporting teams—for Public Service, for National Reporting, and for Breaking News—and was a cofinalist for Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting and Feature Writing. He is also the author of October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election, an account of the FBI’s role in the 2016 presidential election.

Peter Baker covers the president and his administration, which results in stories on a wide variety of domestic, economic, political, national security and foreign policy issues.  Baker has covered the White House for a long time, and often focuses on analytical pieces attempting to place what is happening in a larger context and historical framework. Baker joined The Times in 2008 after 20 years at The Washington Post and has covered the White House over the course of the past six presidencies, starting in 1996 with Bill Clinton and continuing through George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and now Mr. Trump again. He is also a political analyst for MSNBC.

Books will be available for sale. A book signing will follow the discussion.