Overview
- Excerpts from Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis report that senior Justice Department and FBI leaders delayed key steps in both the Mar-a-Lago documents and 2020 election investigations.
- The book says it took until January 2022 to convene a grand jury on the fake electors effort, and the FBI then waited roughly 10 more weeks to formally open the probe while naming the Trump campaign but not the president as a subject.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a pre‑midterms freeze in fall 2022 under a conservative reading of DOJ election‑period guidance, which the authors say paused subpoenas and witness interviews.
- Leonnig and Davis describe Special Counsel Jack Smith’s choice to file the documents case in Florida as a strategic error that increased the chance of drawing Judge Aileen Cannon, who later dismissed the case.
- They note external constraints that compounded delays, including a 2024 Supreme Court immunity ruling that forced a narrower election indictment and Smith’s subsequent dismissal of that case after the president’s reelection under DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president.