Review by Booklist Review
A senior writer for the Wall Street Journal tells, in exhaustive journalistic fashion, the tales of a half-dozen spectacular white-collar crime cases prosecuted by federal attorneys during this decade: the McDonnell-Douglas foreign bribery case, the Hitachi sting, the Newman-Antoniu insider trading caper, the CBS murders, the Bank of Nova Scotia tax fraud, and the special investigation of eventual attorney general Edwin Meese. Stewart focuses on the actual prosecuting foot soldiers, trying to give the flavor of their personalities and legal styles. Along the way, he unearths their sometimes barely hidden resentments of such headline-grabbing bosses as New York Southern District (i.e., Manhattan) U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who seems to be roundly despised by his assistants for wowing impressionable reporters at his staff's expense. Absorbing for fans of sheer prosecutorial mechanics, Stewart's accounts lack the kind of sociopolitical commentary that would grab more reflective readers. His writing has the virtues and defects of good newspaper work: long on detail, short on analysis. No index. RO. 345.73'01 Public prosecutors U.S. / Criminal justice, Administration of U.S. [OCLC] 87-13056
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Stewart, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, concentrates on white-collar crime in this fine survey. Included are cases involving the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company charged with bribing Pakistani officials; Japan's Hitachi Company and allegations of industrial espionage; Morgan Stanley and insider trading; the Bank of Nova Scotia in connection with tax-shelter fraud; and the investigation of Edwin Meese on his nomination as attorney general. Readers are made aware of the clout large corporations wield, the power of prosecutors and the instructive fact that they spend little actual time in the courtroom. There are also portraits of several prosecutors, the most memorable of them Rudolph Giuliani of New York. Author tour. (September 28) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The Prosecutors is another exciting and fascinating book by the author of The Partners. Most trial stories depict the prosecutor as a cold, unemotional agent of the government. But Stewart uses six actual casesfrom inception to final resolutionto depict the lives of federal prosecutors. We soon see that very little that a prosecutor does is in the actual courtroom. Most of his work is behind the scenes, in investigation, grand jury proceedings, and out-of-courtroom clashes with criminal defense attorneys. The cases that Stewart describes involve famous people and corporations, such as Attorney General Edwin Meese, Hitachi, McDonnell-Douglas, etc. Some of the prosecutors are fairly well known (e.g., Rudolph Guiliani), others not known at all. In every case, however, Stewart manages to grab our interest. Highly recommended. Sandra K . Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From the author of The Partners (inside major law firms), a thoughtful and thought-provoking account of six cases prosecuted and/or investigated by Department of Justice lawyers. The cases covered here--McDonnell-Douglas (bribery); Hitachi (theft of trade secrets); Newman (insider trading); CBS murders (crime cover-up); Bank of Nova Scotia (tax fraud) and the investigation of Edwin Meese--are rife with fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation, not all of it committed by the defendants. The prosecutors' immense power and the far-reaching effects of the use--and misuse--of that power are reflected in all the cases, but nowhere more clearly than in the prosecution of McDonnell-Douglas, begun in the Carter Administration when the Justice Department investigated the corporation's sales of aircraft to foreign countries for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Despite formidable opposition from highly skilled, highly paid defense lawyers, the Department obtained indictments against the corporation and--far more important and precedent-setting--against named corporate officers. Then, Carter was out and Reagan--who had strongly criticized the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act--was in. The scene and the cast of characters changed. Shunting aside the attorneys prosecuting McDonnell-Douglas, Reagan's team took over the case, settled it out of court, accepted the corporation's guilty plea (plus a fine) and dropped the indictments against all individual defendants except one. The Meese investigation--before his appointment as Attorney General--is particularly enlightening in view of subsequent events underlining the appointment's foreseeable and disastrous consequences. Hard-hitting and fact-packed, this book gives riveting reconstructions of the cases and of the internecine warfare in a Department where jockeying for position is everybody's sport--and currying favor is (almost) everybody's dish. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
