Kevin Sullivan - Trump on Trial: The Investigation, Impeachment, Acquittal and Aftermath

Previous Washington Post Books Published by Scribner

Trump Revealed

The Mueller Report

The Mueller Report Illustrated: The Obstruction Investigation

Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth

Previous Books by Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan

Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

The Prison Angel

Previous Books by Mary Jordan

The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump

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For journalists everywhere

The reporting and research for this book came from the combined efforts of more than 50 Washington Post journalists. As a starting point, we relied on their published stories, which were informed by hundreds of interviews conducted as the Trump impeachment and trial unfolded. In a few instances, we chose to incorporate parts of those stories into the narrative, as we found them to be the best account of the events described.

We and other Washington Post journalists also did extensive original reporting, including dozens of interviews with central figures in the impeachment proceedings, as well as with staff members, colleagues and friends of those involved, in the United States and in Ukraine. Most of the interviews were on the record. But some sources requested anonymity to speak more freely and candidly about such divisive events. In those cases, we confirmed their accounts with others with knowledge of the same events.

We also mined the extensive public record of witness interviews, depositions, testimony and floor speeches from the House of Representatives and the Senate. The archive of C-SPAN deserves a special mention. Not only does C-SPAN have video of every House and Senate session, it has recordings and transcriptions of countless press conferences and events outside the Capitol, allowing us to watch them again and again, as if we were present.

Seeking to write a comprehensive and deep account of the third impeachment and trial in American history (President Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974 before he could be impeached), we wanted to understand the participants feelings and motivations as they made their choices.

Our ambition for this book was to provide a narrative account of not only what happened, but how and why. To that end: When we report or describe someones thoughts or feelings, or say that someone knows something, we are drawing on interviews with that person, with someone directly familiar with that persons thinking and knowledge, or from that individuals testimony in the impeachment inquiry. If the information comes from testimony, we have provided the details (date, page number) in the notes section at the end of the book. In some cases, we benefited from notes taken during meetings or discussion and shared with us.

We sought an interview with President Trump, but our request did not yield one. As he has said, his thoughts and views can be found in the voluminous public record that he creates dailyincluding his tweets, his television interviews and his encounters with the media during the year of events covered by this book.

Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan

March 6, 2019, Washington, DC, and Kyiv, Ukraine

Nancy Pelosi strode into her majestic office suite in the U.S. Capitol, her forehead marked with a prominent black smudge. It was Ash Wednesday, and the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives had received her ashes that morning from Father Patrick Conroy, the House chaplain.

Father just came at me with a vengeance, she joked to her waiting guest, Washington Post reporter Joe Heim, with a big laugh. People have gotten their ashes off of my forehead today because it was just, like, dripping.

It was a cold and gusty morning in Washington, which Heim could see through the speakers windows, with their stunning view of the National Mall. In her private office, the yellow walls covered with historic and family photographs gave the space a feel both commanding and comfortable. Four upholstered yellow wingback chairs flanked a fireplace. Her desk had no computer. The highest-ranking elected woman in American history still preferred face-to-face talks and phone calls to email. On display was a favorite giftpink boxing gloves, monogrammed for the five-foot-two-inch fighter.

Heim was there to interview Pelosi for a Q&A to be published in The Washington Post Magazine. He didnt cover Congress. He had never met Pelosi. But he had immersed himself in her biography, a mixture of privilege, promise and prowess: Her political lineage a mini-dynasty, her father winning five terms in the U.S. House, her father and brother each serving as Baltimores mayor. Her familys towering influence on that city, wielding its power from a red-brick house in Little Italy with portraits of FDR and Harry Truman on the wall. Her early real-life lessons as the youngest of six children, and the only girl. Her formal education at an all-girls Catholic school and then at all-women Trinity, a small Catholic college in Washington, just three miles north of the Capitol, where she watched President John F. Kennedy, the countrys first Catholic president, give his inaugural address on that frigid January day in 1961.

Then, coming into her own: Her move to San Francisco, where she raised five children. Her immersion in community issues while her husband built the familys wealth through real estate and other investments. Her volunteer work for local Democrats, gradually establishing her own political base. Her 17 terms in Congress and her rise to the top of her partys ranks. Her election as speaker of the House in 2007, the first woman ever in the powerful post. Her strategic finesse in beating back a challenge to her leadership after the Democrats recaptured the House in the 2018 midterm elections. Her second stint in the job, a resurrection of sorts. Her current difficulties in controlling her rowdy and diverse caucus.