Andrew Weissmann Thinks Donald Trump Can Be Held to Account

The Washington Roundtable’s Jane Mayer interviews Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor for the Department of Justice who served as a lead member of the Mueller investigation, about what meaningful legal accountability in the Trump Administration looks like. He points to a fix that would raise the bar for federal grand-jury indictments, and explains why he believes that Donald Trump’s disputed I.R.S. settlement may not survive legal scrutiny. He also makes the case, drawn from his new book, “Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America (amazon.com/dp/0316601306),” for treating political lying itself as a problem that the law can address. “We have to be thinking about big, bold ideas,” Weissmann says.

This week’s reading:

• “The Future, Made in China (newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/10/the-future-m…),” by Evan Osnos

• “How Roy Cohn Taught Donald Trump Everything (newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/10/roy-cohn-pro…),” by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark

• “Why Donald Trump Talks So Much About Foreign Election Interference (newyorker.com/news/the-lede/why-donald-trump-t…),” by David D. Kirkpatrick

• “The Electability of Abdul El-Sayed (newyorker.com/news/election-2026/the-electabil…),” by Jason Zengerle

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