Firewall is the story of the most dangerous breach of presidential authority since Watergate.
Far more than the madcap operations of Oliver North, the Iran-Contra conspiracy gave rise to a constitutional confrontation that pitted the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government against one another. The conflict, which desecrated the rule of law, reached into the White House itself, as two presidents deeply involved in illegal clandestine activities attempted to thwart investigations by Congress and the courts. The story begins in 1984, as President Ronald Reagan's first term in office was ending, and continues through 1993, through a quagmire of outright falsehoods by high-ranking officials, secret Swiss bank accounts, unreliable intermediaries, and shredded documents. An experienced and steely prosecutor, Judge Lawrence E. Walsh built up a powerful team of lawyers that pursued the truth, through a painstaking review of the secret transactions that brought forth the dramatic revelations from some of the key players. Only his vivid account exposes the full extent of the cover-up and the explicit roles of the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the attorney general, and the director of the CIA, among others.