Jack Goldsmith On Growing Up Around Mobsters, RFK's Abuses of Power, & Trump's Impeachment

Jack Goldsmith is the author of "In Hoffa's Shadow: A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth." It's the story of his step-father, Chuckie O'Brien, and the man he spent much of his life working for, Jimmy Hoffa.

Goldsmith weaves his own personal story into a dramatic and compelling tale of how Robert F. Kennedy abused government power to go after Hoffa, and set bad precedents for government surveillance and targeting of individuals. These themes intersected with Goldsmith's own career when he found himself at the center of a massive fight inside the White House in 2004 over whether there was legal justification for torture and secret spying on American soil.

Goldsmith is a law professor at Harvard University and co-founder of the Lawfare website. He was director of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2003 to 2004. He wrote a book about his time there, called "The Terror Presidency."

Outro song: "King of You" by Wilco

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