Quotes from Jeffrey Toobin

From the day he declared his candidacy, through the Russia scandal and his endless solicitude toward Vladimir Putin, and on into his cruel manipulation of the struggling democracy in Ukraine, Trump didn't give a shit about anyone or anything but himself.

Trump received his first four deferments from the Vietnam-era draft because he was a college student. In 1968, after he graduated from Penn and thus became ineligible for more educational deferments, he received a fifth—a medical deferment because of bone spurs.

In the early 1990s, Trump made a disastrous foray into the gambling business in Atlantic City, and his empire nearly collapsed in multiple bankruptcies.

The Trump of The Apprentice—steely, decisive, well versed in the ways of business and of the world—was a creation of the producers of the program.

But Trump responded to the coronavirus with the same belligerent dishonesty that characterized his treatment of Mueller and impeachment. In the critical early days of the pandemic, when it might have been contained, he behaved with characteristic self-obsession, preferring to hound his enemies on Twitter rather than to learn the facts about the virus and protect the American people.

This was especially true in the months leading up to the 2016 election, when the FBI conducted two politically explosive investigations: the first, about Hillary Clinton's email practices at the State Department, became widely known, while the second, about possible Russian infiltration of the Trump campaign, never became public before Election Day.

But Comey and company came to realize—as others would soon learn in the crucible of Donald Trump's presidency—that they had no idea of the magnitude of his flaws, of his narcissism, sociopathy, and ignorance. Trump's only concern was his feral self-interest, his only belief was that those around him existed to serve him.

On June 18, 2013, just after Trump announced that the Miss Universe pageant would take place in Russia, he tweeted, with a kind of desperate giddiness, "Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow—if so, will he become my new best friend?

As a presidential candidate, Trump continued working on a plan to build in Russia.

By 2018, the world had become largely inured to Trump's tweets—even with their racism and misogyny, their mindless belligerence, norm-shattering impropriety, and constant lies.

Certainly, Mueller found abundant evidence that Trump and his campaign wanted to collude and conspire with Russia, but they hadn't been able to close the deal.

Mueller had uncovered extensive evidence that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice—repeatedly.

It wasn't that Mueller was unable to reach a conclusion about whether Trump committed a crime but that under the circumstances he chose not to do so. In other words, Quarles said, Mueller could reach a determination, but he would not.

this is a girl who did drugs, who fucked her high school teacher, who chose Berkeley over Stanford. Maybe she really could be one of us.

He denounced self-pity and pitied himself.

The president and first lady arrived a few minutes later, and Trump immediately walked up to Hutson, ogled her up and down, and said to Giuliani, "Great job, Rudy!" (Melania Trump, disgusted by her husband's leering, walked off and refused to pose for photographs.)

The press attention grew so frantic that Spicer for a brief time hid from reporters in the shrubs by the West Wing.

In a press briefing on May 10, Sarah Sanders, who was then the deputy press secretary, said that Rosenstein had decided "on his own" to review Comey's performance and then chose "on his own" to tell the president his views. (Both statements were lies.)

In a press briefing on May 10, Sarah Sanders, who was then the deputy press secretary, said that Rosenstein had decided "on his own" to review Comey's performance and then chose "on his own" to tell the president his views. (Both statements were lies.) In addition, Sanders said, "We've heard from countless members of the FBI" supporting the president's decision. (Sanders later admitted this, too, was a lie.)

By later in 2016, the IRA completed its transformation. The company was no longer sowing random chaos but rather focused on achieving a specific goal—winning the presidency for Donald Trump.

The man with the machine gun was Joe Remiro, and the student was Lance Ito, who later became the judge in the criminal trial of O. J. Simpson.

Foster wanted his students to fit into and excel in the mainstream—not to vindicate themselves to disapproving whites, but to claim a birthright.

According to the telephone poll, a full 40 percent of black women felt that the use of physical force was appropriate in a marriage. And black women especially could not abide Marcia Clark.

When will I go home?" Patricia asked. "What, do you want to go home for your birthday?" Cinque sneered. Patricia would turn twenty on February 20. This was, perhaps, the most unnerving thing that Cinque had said to her. He knew her birthday. It underlined that this was no random attack. They had been researching her life, which was chilling. —