Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It

by Elie Honig

Overview

A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB 'MUST-READ'

#1 ON COSMOPOLITAN'S 11 BEST NEW NON-FICTION BOOKS TO ADD TO YOUR TBR PILE IN 2023

CNN senior legal analyst and nationally bestselling author Elie Honig explores America’s two-tier justice system, explaining how the rich, the famous, and the powerful— including, most notoriously, Donald Trump—manipulate the legal system to escape justice and get away with vast misdeeds.

How does he get away with it? That question, more than any other, vexes observers of and participants in the American criminal justice process. How do powerful people weaponize their wealth, political power, and fame to beat the system? And how can prosecutors fight back?

In Untouchable, Elie Honig exposes how the rich and powerful use the system to their own benefit, revealing how notorious figures like Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby successfully eluded justice for decades. He demonstrates how the Trump children dodged a fraud indictment. He makes clear how countless CEOs and titans of Wall Street have been let off the hook, receiving financial penalties without suffering criminal consequences. This doesn’t happen by accident.

Over the four years of his administration, Donald Trump’s corruption seemed plain for all to see. The former president obstructed justice, flouted his responsibility to the Constitution, lied to the American people, and set the United States on a dark path to disunity and violence. Yet he has never been held accountable for any of his misdeeds. Why not?

Untouchable holds the answer. Honig shows how Trump and others use seemingly fair institutions and practices to build empires of corruption and get away with misdeeds for which ordinary people would be sentenced to years behind bars. It’s not just that money talks, Honig makes clear, but how it can corrupt otherwise reliable institutions and blind people to the real power dynamics behind the scenes.

In this vital, incisive book, Honig explains how the system allows the powerful to become untouchable, takes us inside their heads, and offers solutions for making the system more honest and fairer, ensuring true justice for all—holding everyone, no matter their status, accountable for their criminal misdeeds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063241503
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	68,577
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Elie Honig worked as a federal and state prosecutor for 14 years. He prosecuted and tried cases involving violent crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and organized crime, including successful prosecutions of over 100 members and associates of the mafia. Honig now is a CNN Legal Analyst, hosts podcasts and writes for Cafe, is a Rutgers University scholar, and is Special Counsel to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler.  

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 "Do What You Have to Do" 1

Chapter 2 The Southern District of New York and "Individual-1": Behind the Scenes in the Department of Justice's Internal Struggle over Trump 14

Boss Tactics: How Criminal Kingpins Play the System 43

Chapter 3 Control the Lawyers, Control the Game 45

Chapter 4 Defense, at a Cost 58

Chapter 5 Insulation: The Hierarchical Pyramid 71

Chapter 6 Say It without Saying It 85

Chapter 7 It Takes a Criminal to Catch a Criminal 96

Chapter 8 Fear in the Jury Box 107

Chapter 9 Omertà: Enforcing Silence 116

Chapter 10 "Without Fear or Favor": The Truth about How Prosecutors Treat the Powerful 128

Chapter 11 Prey on the Vulnerable 136

Chapter 12 Biases, Individual and Systemic 151

One Man, Above the Law: When the Boss is the President 161

Chapter 13 Indictment-Proof: He Who Shall Not Be Charged 163

Chapter 14 "We're Fighting All the Subpoenas": Executive Privilege Gone Wild 176

Chapter 15 Pardons for the Silent 184

Chapter 16 "Tawdry," "Distasteful"-but Perfectly Legal 191

Pursuing Donald Trump 199

Chapter 17 United States v. Donald John Trump 201

Chapter 18 The Southern District of New York and "Individual-1": Post-Presidency but Still No Charge 235

Chapter 19 Georgia: The Looming Showdown 243

Chapter 20 Waiting for Garland 253

Acknowledgments 279

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2022

CNN legal analyst Honig (Hatchet Man) delivers a disturbing analysis of how the U.S. justice system makes it so difficult to hold the wealthy and well-connected to account for their crimes. Though Honig’s case studies include Mafia bosses, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein, his particular focus is on Donald Trump. Among factors that help to insulate elites from legal action, Honig identifies the use of lower-level actors to carry out crimes; the hiring of top lawyers who have the connections and knowledge to game the system; and prosecutors’ reluctance to bring cases against powerful criminals without an overabundance of evidence. Zeroing in on Trump, Honig details how he was protected by the Justice Department’s long-standing policy that a sitting president can’t be indicted, and argues that the copious evidence of Trump’s alleged crimes—including obstruction of justice, campaign finance violations, and incitement of sedition—should have resulted in an indictment soon after he left office. Honig is particularly harsh on Merrick Garland, arguing that the attorney general “took far too long to set his sights squarely on Trump—and even then, he behaved more like a tepid bureaucrat than a determined prosecutor.” Though Honig underplays the politics involved in charging Trump, his fluid prose and sharp analysis amount to a slam-dunk case that American justice is far from blind. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"He is a fluid writer and careful researcher, and even as someone who has taken a professional interest in criminal justice for decades, I was surprised to learn a lot of fascinating tidbits. . . . especially valuable when Honig provides original reporting and analysis." — Scott Turow, The Washington Post, on Untouchable

"CNN legal analyst Honig (Hatchet Man) delivers a disturbing analysis of how the U.S. justice system makes it so difficult to hold the wealthy and well-connected to account for their crimes…[Honig’s] fluid prose and sharp analysis amount to a slam-dunk case that American justice is far from blind." — Publisher's Weekly on Untouchable

"Cogent analysis of how privileged individuals skirt criminal prosecution... A distressing account of how power often trumps justice within the American criminal justice system." — Kirkus Reviews on Untouchable

“Written with all the color and pacing of a legal thriller.” — Variety on Hatchet Man

“[A] damning, convincing account….A resounding excoriation of an unquestionably corrupt operator.”   — Kirkus Reviews on Hatchet Man

“A sharp-edged account…this is a comprehensive indictment of one of the most controversial figures of the Trump administration.”  — Publishers Weekly on Hatchet Man

“With a mixture of humor, analysis, and expert storytelling, Elie has written much more than a compelling takedown of an unfit attorney general; he also offers a blueprint for how impartial and apolitical justice should be administered in America.”  — Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and author of the New York Times bestseller Doing Justice, on Hatchet Man

“Elie Honig, like all the best prosecutors, is a master storyteller… This is an essential analysis for anyone committed to understanding the abuses of the Trump administration so we can ensure they never happen again.”  — Joyce White Vance, Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama and NBC and MSNBC legal analyst

“With surgical precision, Elie Honig’s Hatchet Man masterfully, lucidly, accurately, and brutally fillets the record of former attorney general William Barr by dissecting the myriad ways Barr corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice. Honig ably draws on his own experiences as a prosecutor to illustrate the ideals of prosecutorial independence and the apolitical administration of justice, and to demonstrate how Barr repeatedly despoiled them. Honig’s book provides essential reading for all who cherish the rule of law in America.” — George Conway, attorney and contributing columnist for the Washington Post, on Hatchet Man

“Timely and engrossing, Hatchet Man uses Bill Barr as an example of how privilege and partisanship become corrupting influences at the highest level of power in America. With his trademark excellence and candor, Elie Honig lays out a startling and disturbing case, including the implications within the Department of Justice. I couldn’t put it down.” — Sunny Hostin, Emmy Award–winning journalist, author, and cohost of ABC’s The View, on Hatchet Man

From the Publisher

01/01/2023

In his second book, CNN legal analyst Honig (Hatchet Man) sets out to highlight how powerful people are rarely prosecuted and convicted for criminal activity. The author considers various criminal charges, cases, and convictions of the Gambino family, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and others prosecuted by the Southern District U.S. Attorney's NY (SDNY) office in comparison with allegations and court actions against Donald Trump. The author compares Trump to mafia bosses and convicted criminals who often control the actions of subordinates without saying a word. Despite Trump being the focus of the book, there are some interesting stories about cases tried by SDNY prosecutors. Chapter 16 comes the closest to really examining what the title promises, as it looks at politicians who were convicted and then let off. There are also many tidbits toward the end of the book that say some judges and prosecutors are part of the problem. It would have been nice to have more chapters like these two sections to balance the focus. VERDICT This type of book is geared for public libraries more than academic ones.—James Rhoades

Library Journal

2022-11-22
Cogent analysis of how privileged individuals skirt criminal prosecution.

After a frustrating attempt to bring a crime-syndicate kingpin to justice, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Honig began to delve into the too-common phenomenon of wealthy, influential people avoiding punishment. Some of this material he covered in his previous book, Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department. Here, the author assesses the ways that privilege and power are used to game the legal system, exploring the tactics used by savvy, ruthless individuals to exploit flaws in the prosecutorial and judicial processes. In clear, concisely written sections, Honig digs into the evasive tactics employed by the well connected, how jury service can be intimidating, and how human and institutional biases affect how the rules and procedures of a lawsuit are followed (or ignored). Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, is just one of many high-profile villains Honig spotlights. Examining cases involving Steven Bannon, Roger Stone, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and, of course, Trump himself, the author notes the difficulties facing prosecuting attorneys in exacting justice amid a mountain of red tape, legal acrobatics, walls of financial blocks—and often despite smoking-gun evidence. Though Honig devotes attention to the executive privilege of a variety of nefarious billionaires and politicians, he focuses mostly on the bewildering acquittal record of Trump, a “lawless Houdini.” Despite multiple impeachments, damning congressional findings, and hush-money payments, miraculously, Trump has never been formally charged with a crime. He remains “unburdened by ethics, shame, or even a logical sense of self-preservation.” Outside of urging prosecutors to think more like their clients, using “creativity and aggression,” Honig doesn’t offer any solid solutions, but he does provide clarity about how the institutional justice system is “stacked in favor of powerful, wealthy, famous people,” most of whom avoid accountability for their crimes.

A distressing account of how power often trumps justice within the American criminal justice system.

Kirkus Reviews