Where Law Ends

Inside the Mueller Investigation

By: Andrew Weissmann

Narrated by: George Newbern, Andrew Weissmann

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the first and only inside account of the Mueller investigation, one of the special counsel’s most trusted prosecutors breaks his silence on the team’s history-making search for the truth, their painstaking deliberations and costly mistakes, and Trump’s unprecedented efforts to stifle their report.

“Weissmann delivers the kind of forceful, ringing indictment that Mueller’s report did not.”—The New York Times

In May 2017, Robert Mueller was tapped to lead an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination by foreign agents with Donald Trump’s campaign, and obstruction of justice by the president. Mueller assembled a “dream team” of top prosecutors, and for the next twenty-two months, the investigation was a black box and the subject of endless anticipation and speculation—until April 2019, when the special counsel’s report was released.

In Where Law Ends, legendary prosecutor Andrew Weissmann—a key player in the Special Counsel’s Office—finally pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly what went on inside the investigation, including the heated debates, painful deliberations, and mistakes of the team—not to mention the external efforts by the president and Attorney General William Barr to manipulate the investigation to their political ends. 

Weissmann puts the reader in the room as Mueller’s team made their most consequential decisions, such as whether to subpoena the president, whether to conduct a full financial investigation of Trump, and whether to explicitly recommend obstruction charges against him. Weissmann also details for the first time the debilitating effects that President Trump himself had on the investigation, through his dangling of pardons and his constant threats to shut down the inquiry and fire Mueller, which left the team racing against the clock and essentially fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.  

In Where Law Ends, Weissmann conjures the camaraderie and esprit de corps of the investigative units led by the enigmatic Mueller, a distinguished public servant who is revealed here, in a way we have never seen him before, as a manager, a colleague, and a very human presence. Weissmann is as candid about the team’s mistakes as he is about its successes, and is committed to accurately documenting the historic investigation for future generations to assess and learn from. Ultimately, Where Law Ends is a story about a team of public servants, dedicated to the rule of law, tasked with investigating a president who did everything he could to stand in their way.

Critic reviews

“Where Law Ends burns like an old-fashioned 150-watt bulb, delivering light and heat in equal measure. . . . Where Law Ends is a gift—a clarifying piece of history, wrapped up in our era’s boundless anger and suspicion.”—Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post

“Unlike the other Trump books that get hyped as ‘explosive,’ this one lays out its case so patiently that its conclusions arrive not with a bang but with a snap—the click of an indictment falling into place. . . . Weissmann’s book is a fascinating document—a candid mea culpa, a riveting true-crime story, that’s nonetheless presented in the measured prose of someone who remains a stalwart institutionalist.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“A damning indictment of a ‘lawless’ president.”—George Packer, The Atlantic

“A lucid and engrossing insider's look at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election . . . an essential record of what the Mueller investigation proved and why it failed to bring Trump down.”—Publishers Weekly

I knew I was scared...now I really am

Thank you Mr. Weissmann for having the courage of your convictions and for loving our country, our democracy enough to put what happened behind closed doors for all of us to read. Thank you for exposing those characters who will go down in history as the ones who tried to destroy what our forefathers fought so hard for.

Extremely Interesting

Found this book to be very interesting about how Trump
multiple times obstructed justice in the Mueller Investigation. Truly tragic how he micro-managed the team of investigators * threatened to fire them all if they dared to look behind the curtain, much like the wizard of oz, if they dared to look at anything regarding Trump's personal crimes & connections to illegal activities or being bought by a foreign government. Namely Russia!!!!

Thank you for all the hard work!

This is a very well told behind the curtain look at the investigation that will be in Chapter 1 of the full on investigation that should take place after January 21st, 2021.

A Clear, Honest, Fact Based Account

If you read only one book about the Muller Investigation this is it. Andrew Weissmann’s account is extraordinarily well written for any reader, backed by facts, & provides arguments & understanding on both sides. The Epilogue should be required in all law schools to provide a fair minded road map to fixing oversight & the special counsel rules. Great book!

America beware, are we near the end?

First off, the narrator is great!

This book should be required reading in schools, colleges, and by the average citizen.
Mr. Weissmann has provided a view into the very heart of the end of the democracy I joined the military to defend.
Take this book to heart. It is not about politics or personal opinion. It is about facts.
Be aware and beware.
We have in our hands a narrative of the corrosion of the rule of law.
May it scare you into caring as it has me.