Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America

The US presidential election in 2020 had a clear winner – and yet the loser of that election has persistently denied the results. The Constitution’s First Amendment seems to allow nearly unlimited free speech – and has even protected false speech. So does that mean that nothing can be done about election denialism?

In this provocative new book, Andrew Weissmann ’80 shows how free speech principles have never extended to some categories of false speech that harms others. Former head of the US Department of Justice’s Fraud Division, the unit that has routinely prosecuted CEOs for material lies about their companies that harm investors, Weissmann argues that we can limit election lies the same way that we limit corporate lies – this time, in defense of democracy.

Liar’s Kingdom topped The New York Times Bestseller list the minute it appeared, and it is being widely read and discussed as we search for ways to shore up confidence in US elections.

Andrew Weissmann is a professor of law at NYU Law School, co-host of the podcast Main Justice and a legal analyst for MSNow. A proud graduate of Princeton’s history department where he concentrated in European history, he has been known to frequently display his Princeton-acquired curiosity about international affairs, including in this book, where he uses international examples to show how democracy thrives even with (and perhaps even better with) some limits to free speech.