Plaintiff in Chief

“Like a careful lawyer who knows how to enthrall a jury, Jim Zirin delivers a vivid page-turner that spans the angry, vituperative, mean-spirited, litigious life of Donald Trump.”—Ken Auletta, author and columnist, The New Yorker

“Donald Trump’s perverted manipulation of the law to serve his twisted ends is laid out as never before in Jim Zirin’s splendid new book. It’s an essential read for anyone who wants to really understand Trump.”—Bob Herbert, author and filmmaker, former op-ed columnist, The New York Times

“James Zirin has had an essential insight: if you want to understand the 45th President of the United States, you should start with the 3,500 lawsuits he's been enmeshed in. Donald Trump thrives on litigation: he gets sustenance from it, he gets pleasure. And his life's story can be told through arranging and recreating them. This is a brilliant book that could only have been written by someone like Zirin—a man with a long history as a lawyer, a prosecutor, a journalist, and a New Yorker. It's an absolutely marvelous read.”—Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief, Wired

“This book is a first: a presidential biography gleaned through hundreds of law suits, settlements and disregard for the courts. Here it all is, the crucial guide to an American kleptocrat’s anti-legal obstructions of justice, money laundering enterprises, alliances with mob bosses and bully boy tactics, taught by his mentor Roy Cohn. Jim Zirin has written a meticulously researched true crime thriller.”—Marie Brenner, writer-at-large, Vanity Fair

“Plaintiff in Chief captures the enigmatic qualities of a president who has, at turns, sought to bludgeon his enemies through the courts, even while disparaging the rule of law tenets on which our democracy stands. A compelling and insightful must-read.”—Anthony W. Crowell, Dean and President, New York Law School

“Zirin advances the proposition that you can learn everything you need to know about Trump from the way he conducted himself in court—and that in fact he became the Trump we know today through his participation in some 4,000 lawsuits . . . Zirin has proven his case beyond a reasonable doubt.”—Max Boot, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington Post columnist, CNN commentator

“President Trump regards the law as a weapon to be used for his own gain, not an ideal to be respected. In his great book, Plaintiff in Chief, James Zirin traces the origin of Trump's view through a multitude of lawsuits. It is a definitive history of what led us to a lawless presidency.”—Corey Brettschneider, professor, Brown University

“Since becoming president, Donald Trump has shown a disturbing, but so far unrealized, inclination to use the justice system for political revenge. Plaintiff in Chief documents the honing of that instinct during Trump’s decades-long obsession with litigation as a weapon of financial and reputational war.”—Heather MacDonald, author of The Diversity Delusion

"A unique approach to the continuing deconstruction of the Trumpian edifice. Former federal prosecutor Zirin pieces together a highly damning portrait of Donald Trump as a serial abuser of the law. The book is so incriminating not only because of the author's credentials, but also because the details are grounded in lawsuits filed by Trump, against Trump, or, in some instances, cross-filed by the opposing parties."—Kirkus Reviews