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We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis on the day they publish their new book, Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department, which looks at how the DOJ during the Biden administration was overly cautious in pursuing cases against Trump and his allies over 2020 election interference, the January 6 riot and more. Attorney General Merrick Garland felt it was important to “turn the page from Donald Trump” and not look too closely at abuses of power, says Leonnig, who also stresses many “stubbornly brave people … tried to do the right thing and could not succeed in this institution.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

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We spend the rest of the hour with two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters who have a blockbuster new book out today. It’s called Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department. Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis join us now in our New York studio. Carol is a longtime investigative reporter who worked at The Washington Post from 2000 to, well, just recently, this year, a quarter of a century, five-time Pulitzer Prize winner. Aaron Davis is an investigative reporter with The Washington Post, who’s twice won the Pulitzer Prize.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! You write in the introduction, quote, “the Department of Justice collided violently with Donald Trump in his rise to power, and for the first time in history, our nation’s rule of law was brought to the precipice of collapse,” unquote. If you can talk about how the Department of Justice’s core mission unraveled under Trump? I mean, the title of your book is Injustice.

CAROL LEONNIG: You know, Amy, thanks for having us, first off.

It is amazing to both Aaron and me, as we went through this process of reporting, how much more damaging Donald Trump’s first presidency was to the core of the Justice Department. People there were individually targeted by a president, something that had never happened before. They were humiliated. Their careers were tarnished. Some of their careers were ruined. They were put under investigation by Republicans at Donald Trump’s behest. The targeting left scars that weakened the resolve. His brand of bare knuckles kind of attacks changed the trajectory of what the Justice Department would do when Joe Biden ultimately took office.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: One of the stories, the amazing stories that you tell, are about this reporting into Trump’s relationship with the Egyptian government early on and $10 million that was supposedly being funneled, or attempted to be funneled, by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Trump. Could you talk about that and how the Justice Department tried to investigate that?

CAROL LEONNIG: You know, I’d like Aaron to do it. He would be great for this.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Aaron, as you do it, why don’t we go back just a few weeks ago to the signing of the so-called ceasefire in Sharm el-Sheikh? There was President Trump. There was the Egyptian President el-Sisi. And this is what Trump said.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There was a reason we chose Egypt: because you were very helpful and very, very helpful. Everybody wanted to have this, but we really thought it was appropriate. And you are a great leader. You have very little crime. You have problems that other countries don’t have. And, of course, nothing is perfect, but the job you do is amazing, and I want to thank you. Another one, he’s been my friend right from the beginning, during the campaign against crooked Hillary Clinton. Have you heard of her?

AMY GOODMAN: So, he ends with “crooked Hillary.” Why is he bringing her up as they’re signing this so-called ceasefire in Sharm el-Sheikh? Talk about what you exposed.

AARON DAVIS: Well, I did see some people take note of that comment just a few weeks ago. To Carol’s point, where we started here a minute ago, you know, we did look at the Department of Justice and, like, why did the investigations into Trump........

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