Craig Unger Presents His New Book: American Kompromat

Globus Books is honored to present Craig Unger is in conversation with authors and journalists Zarina Zabrisky and Greg Olear and his new New York Times bestseller AMERICAN KOMPROMAT: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery (Dutton).

AMERICAN KOMPROMAT is based on extended and exclusive interviews with high-level sources in the KGB, CIA and FBI, as well as lawyers at white-shoe Washington firms, associates of Jeffrey Epstein, and thousands of pages of FBI reports, police investigations, and news articles in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. A narrative offering jaw-dropping context, and set in Upper East Side mansions and private Caribbean islands, gigantic yachts and private jets, AMERICAN KOMPROMAT shows that from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, Russian kompromat operations documented the darkest secrets of the most powerful people in the world and transformed those secrets into potent weapons.

Among its many revelations, AMERICAN KOMPROMAT addresses what may be the single most important unanswered question of the entire Trump era – and one that Unger argues is even more important now that Trump is out of office: Is Donald Trump a Russian asset? In his critically-acclaimed expose, House of Trump, House of Putin (called “illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier” by the Washington Post), Craig Unger followed the money to show how operatives tied to the Russian Mafia successfully used Trump real estate to launder untold millions. In AMERICAN KOMPROMAT, Unger goes further, unraveling the Russian-influenced operations that amassed the dirty little secrets of the richest and most powerful men on earth, with new revelations about Donald J. Trump, William Barr, Jeffrey Epstein, and more. It’s a story that transcends the end of the Trump administration, illuminating a major underreported aspect of Trump’s corruption that has profoundly damaged American democracy.

Craig Unger is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestsellers House of Bush, House of Saud, and House of Trump, House of Putin. For fifteen years he was a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, where he covered national security, the Middle East, and other political issues. A frequent analyst on MSNBC and other broadcast outlets, he was a longtime staffer at New York Magazine, has served as editor-in-chief of Boston magazine, and has contributed to Esquire, The New Yorker, and many other publications. He also appears frequently as an analyst on MSNBC, CNN, and other broadcast outlets. Unger has written about the Trump-Russia scandal for The New Republic, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post. He is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Greg Olear (@gregolear) is the author of the novels TOTALLY KILLER and FATHERMUCKER and the Trump/Russia primer DIRTY RUBLES, published in 2018. His column appears Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at his Substack, PREVAIL.

Zarina Zabrisky, the author of five fiction books. Zabrisky's research of Trump--Putin ties was quoted by leading journalists and think tanks. She is a contributor to The Byline Times (UK), Indivisible and other publications. Her Medium blog featured in the top category in Politics in 2016—2017. Zabrisky runs literary and cultural programs at Globus Books.

The Q&A panel: Alexandra Chalupa, political analyst; Yuri Felshtinsky, historian, journalist; LB (Lincoln's Bible), screenwriter.

Globus Books is an independent bookstore serving San Francisco since 1971. It offers a wide-ranging stock of books on all things Russia. Globus is actively working with the libraries across the states on completing their holdings for Russian publications, both contemporary and out-of-print. The Globus Books team is well-known for its expertise in first editions of Russian literature, books on the Russian avant-garde, early imprints, and travel and voyage books. Under the new management, Globus strives to serve the Bay Area, bridging gaps, continuing cultural traditions, and giving voice to unrepresented communities in Russia and the US. Globus Books features several series of literary and cultural events on its YouTube Channel (   / globusbookssf  , including Literary Translation Round Table, History/Anthropology, Playtime and Storytime for children, and more.

This program is produced and hosted by Zarina Zabrisky.

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