Dave Davies

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

If you watched the televised hearings of the select congressional committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S.

Capitol, you probably remember the dramatic testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Officials of the U.S.

Department of Justice who were investigating Donald Trump's alleged interference in the 2020 election were watching, too.

But at the time, they had no idea who Cassidy Hutchinson was.

That's one of many striking revelations you'll find in the new book by our guests, veteran investigative reporters Carol Lindig and Aaron Davis.

Lindig and Davis write about Donald Trump's powerful impact on the Justice Department, including his efforts to protect friends and punish those he considers enemies.

But much of the book focuses on the Biden years, when Trump wasn't in charge and the Justice Department pursued investigations into the violence on January 6th,

and eventually into Trump's alleged interference in the 2020 election and his retention of thousands of government documents.

Their account is a bracingly clear explanation of why those efforts failed to get either case against Trump in front of a jury before his re-election rendered them moot.

It's largely a story of officials acting in good faith, trying to adhere to standards of fairness and non-partisanship, perhaps too rigorously at times.

The authors say Trump's targeting of prosecutors and FBI agents in his first term in office likely played a role in the department's caution.

Carol Lennig worked for 25 years at The Washington Post.

She's won or shared in five Pulitzer Prizes and has written two books about Donald Trump and another about the U.S.

Secret Service.

Lennig left The Post earlier this year and is now a senior investigative correspondent for MSNBC.

Aaron Davis is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post.

He's won two Pulitzer Prizes and reported from 14 countries.