Elie Honig in Conversation with Kaitlan Collins | When You Come at the King: Inside the DOJ's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump

What does it really mean to hold the most powerful person in the world accountable? That’s the question at the center of When You Come at the King, Elie Honig’s revealing and deeply reported new book — and the focus of this urgent conversation at 92NY.

Honig, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst and a former federal prosecutor, takes readers inside 50 years of Justice Department investigations into US presidents, from Nixon to Trump. With gripping detail, he recounts how a Watergate prosecutor hid key documents at home to protect them from destruction, and how a defense lawyer for Donald Trump privately met with Special Counsel Jack Smith just days before Trump’s indictment. Through stories like these, Honig shows how special counsels have navigated the political, personal, and constitutional minefields that come with investigating a president.

In conversation with Kaitlan Collins, CNN anchor, chief White House correspondent and one of the most influential figures in American media, Honig explores the most significant revelations, the insights we can’t afford to miss, and what these cases reveal about how America holds its leaders to account.

This is more than history or politics. It’s a conversation about power, justice, and the survival of democratic institutions — exactly the kind of pro-democracy dialogue The 92^nd Street Y is bringing to the public at a moment of great need.