Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump intimidated, silenced, and bent to his will Justice Department and FBI officials, from Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr to career public servants. He sowed public doubt in both agencies so successfully that when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he paid little political cost and, despite an unprecedented array of criminal indictments, easily won the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country's two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons. Rohde also reveals how, during the Biden years, Justice Department non-partisan 1970s norms that Attorney General Merrick Garland reinforced inadvertently helped Trump, and could fail to deliver a trial and legal accountability by Election Day 2024.

Where Tyranny Begins exposes how ill-suited both the DOJ and FBI are to serve as checks on abuses of presidential power. The rise of hyper-partisanship and the Trump and Biden presidencies have uncovered core flaws in American constitutional democracy that Trump would exploit in a second term. A round of historic reforms equivalent to the post-Watergate reforms that stabilized American democracy in the 1970s are immediately needed. A five-word warning coined by the English philosopher John Locke in 1689 captures the stakes in 2024: Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins.

In 1996, at the height of the Bosnian wars, a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor named David Rohde uncovered a horrifying story that became an enduring symbol of the genocidal nature of that conflict, earning him his first Pulitzer Prize. Endgame is the full-length narrative of the nightmare he stumbled upon in the town of Srebrenica, where a massacre of historic proportions has been allowed to happen due to the negligence of the United States, NATO, and the United Nations. Told through the eyes of the soldiers, peacekeepers, and civilians who were there, this is a vital, unforgettable work of history about an atrocity that could have been prevented.

Donald Trump blamed his 2020 defeat on Democrats and the deep state--a supposed secret cabal of Washington insiders that relentlessly encroaches on the individual rights of Americans--for stealing the election and undermining his presidency. Most Americans who supported him agreed. Americans on the left increasingly fear the military-industrial complex, a faction of generals and defense contractors who they believe routinely push the country into endless wars. But does the American deep state really exist?

This question is fundamental to preserving the legitimacy of American democracy, as frustration with and distrust for the government continue to grow. In Deep seeks to dispel these pernicious myths through an examination of the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department scandals of the past fifty years from the Church Committee's exposure of Cold War abuses to the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories online and on air. It exposes the misconduct of Attorney General William Barr; how distrust of the deep state undermined the US government response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and the growing discord sowed by the explosion of false information online. It investigates Trump's quest to discredit government experts, the legislative and judicial branches, and the results of the 2020 election and assume authoritarian power for himself. The idea of the deep state, Rohde writes, is inextricably linked to a particular view of presidential power (Dina Temple-Raston, Washington Post).

Based on dozens of interviews with career CIA operatives and FBI agents, In Deep is a wholly satisfying read and a necessary one for anyone wanting to understand the forces at play in our government today (Andrea Bernstein, Peabody Award-winning cohost of the Trump, Inc. podcast and author of American Oligarchs).

In November 2008, David Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times, was kidnapped by the Taliban and held captive for seven months in the tribal areas of Pakistan. In the process, Rohde became the first American to witness how Pakistan's powerful military turns a blind eye toward a Taliban ministate thriving inside its borders. In New York, David's wife Kristen Mulvihill, together with his family, kept the kidnapping secret for David's safety and struggled to navigate a labyrinth of conflicting agendas, misinformation, and lies. Part memoir, part work of journalism, A Rope and a Prayer is a story of duplicity, faith, resilience, and love.

Three-quarters of Americans believe that a group of unelected government and military officials secretly manipulate or direct national policy in the United States. President Trump blames the deep state for his impeachment. But what is the American deep state and does it really exist?

To conservatives, the deep state is an ever-growing government bureaucracy, an administrative state that relentlessly encroaches on the individual rights of Americans. Liberals fear the military-industrial complex--a cabal of generals and defense contractors who they believe routinely push the country into endless wars. Every modern American president--from Carter to Trump--has engaged in power struggles with Congress, the CIA, and the FBI. Every CIA and FBI director has suspected White House aides of members of Congress of leaking secrets for political gain. Frustrated Americans increasingly distrust the politicians, unelected officials, and journalists who they believe unilaterally set the country's political agenda. American democracy faces its biggest crisis of legitimacy in a half century.

This sweeping exploration examines the CIA and FBI scandals of the past fifty years--from the Church Committee's exposure of Cold War abuses, to Abscam, to false intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, to NSA mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden. It then investigates the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era, and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories online and on-air. While Trump says he is the victim of the deep state, Democrats accuse the president and his allies of running a de facto deep state of their own that operates outside official government channels and smears rivals, both real and perceived.

The feverish debate over the deep state raises core questions about the future of American democracy. Is it possible for career government officials to be politically neutral? Was Congress's impeachment of Donald Trump conducted properly? How vast should the power of a president be? Based on dozens of interviews with career CIA operatives and FBI agents, In Deep answers whether the FBI, CIA, or politicians are protecting or abusing the public's trust.

Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump intimidated, silenced, and bent to his will Justice Department and FBI officials, from Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr to career public servants. He sowed public doubt in both agencies so successfully that when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he paid little political cost and, despite an unprecedented array of criminal indictments, easily won the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country's two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons. Rohde also reveals how, during the Biden years, Justice Department non-partisan 1970s norms that Attorney General Merrick Garland reinforced inadvertently helped Trump, and could fail to deliver a trial and legal accountability by Election Day 2024.

Where Tyranny Begins exposes how ill-suited both the DOJ and FBI are to serve as checks on abuses of presidential power. The rise of hyper-partisanship and the Trump and Biden presidencies have uncovered core flaws in American constitutional democracy that Trump would exploit in a second term. A round of historic reforms equivalent to the post-Watergate reforms that stabilized American democracy in the 1970s are immediately needed. A five-word warning coined by the English philosopher John Locke in 1689 captures the stakes in 2024: Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins.