The Secrets of the FBI (2011)

Kessler has written The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Times, and Politico opinion pieces, including "Surveillance: An American Success Story" on Politico, "Reform the Secret Service" in The Washington Post, and "The Real Joe McCarthy," which attacked efforts by some conservative writers to vindicate the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, and in The Wall Street Journal.[35][36][37] Kessler's op-ed "Time to Rename the J. Edgar Hoover Building" detailed Hoover's "massive abuses and violations of Americans' rights" as FBI director for nearly 50 years.[38]

In a Time magazine opinion piece, Kessler wrote "The Secret Service Thinks We Are Fools" after the White House intrusion based on his book The First Family Detail.[39]

On January 4, 2010, Kessler wrote a Newsmax article revealing that the Secret Service allowed a third uninvited guest to attend President Obama's state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh besides party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi on November 24, 2009. The Washington Post said, "Kessler reported that the agency discovered the third crasher after examining surveillance video of arriving guests and found one tuxedoed man who did not match any name on the guest list."[40]

In an article for Newsmax, on March 16, 2008, Kessler incorrectly reported that Senator Barack Obama attended a service at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ on July 22, 2007, during which Jeremiah Wright gave a sermon that blamed world suffering on "white arrogance". The Obama campaign denied that Obama had attended the church on the day that sermon was delivered and other reporters discovered that Obama was in fact in transit to Miami, Florida on that day.[41] Shortly after the controversy broke, Kessler confirmed to Talking Points Memo that he attempted to remove information documenting it from his English Wikipedia biography.[42]

In "A Roadmap to Trump's Washington," Kessler described the carrot-and-stick approach Trump used to get his Mar-a-Lago estate approved as a club by Palm Beach Town Council members and predicted he would operate in the same manner as president to win over support for his agenda.[43] In "The Anatomy of a Trump Decision," Kessler depicted how Trump makes decisions by focusing on his decision to turn his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach into a private club.[44]
Criticism

Kessler's writings have been criticized in publications such as The Washington Post and The Week for overt partisanship and a lack of journalistic rigor.

Every book ever written has mistakes. But experts are supposed to get the main things right, and reporters generally follow through when someone tells them something. Too often, Kessler seems to have listened to his sources, written their words down, and then simply printed as fact their allegations or observations without checking on them.
— Marc Ambinder, The Week, August 6, 2014

In a note to The Week, Kessler disputed charges of inaccuracy, including uncertainty over whether then-Vice President Joe Biden had spent a million dollars of taxpayer funds to take personal trips on Air Force Two back and forth between Washington and his home in Wilmington. The publication agreed to update Ambinder's article, saying that "... author Ronald Kessler provided The Week with documentation from the Air Force about Vice President Biden's travel" and linked to the Air Force's letter responding to Kessler's Freedom of Information Act request with the official record of Biden's flights back and forth between Washington and Wilmington with their cost as listed in Kessler's book The First Family Detail.[45]

Noting Kessler's extraordinary access to the then Secret Service Director, Mark Sullivan, during the writing of In The President's Secret Service, James Bamford wrote in a review in The Washington Post that:[46]

... in light of an odd decision by the current director, Mark Sullivan, the motto should be changed to "Have You Heard This One?" During the Bush administration, hoping for some good, ego-enhancing publicity, Sullivan broke with his agency's long-standing policy of absolute silence and allowed Ronald Kessler to get an earful. The chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, which bills itself as "the #1 conservative news agency online," Kessler had written very positive books about CIA Director George Tenet, first lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush, and Sullivan was probably hoping for the same treatment. Hearing that Sullivan had given Kessler his blessing, scores of current and former agents -- Kessler claims more than 100 -- agreed to talk to him. But rather than use that wealth of information to write a serious book examining the inner workings of the long-veiled agency or the new challenges of protecting the first black president, the author simply milked the agents for the juiciest gossip he could get and mixed it with a rambling list of their complaints.
— James Bamford, The Washington Post, August 23, 2009

A September 30, 2014 Politico piece by Kessler on Secret Service blunders, including allowing a knife-wielding intruder to race into the White House and failing to detect gun shots at the White House until four days later,[47] was criticized by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo for allegedly implying that because he had not taken steps to correct the problems within the agency by replacing the director, President Obama would be at fault if the Secret Service's security breakdowns led to his own assassination.[48] A subsequent editor's note called that a misinterpretation. The reference in question said, "Agents tell me that it's a miracle an assassination has not already occurred. Sadly, given Obama's colossal lack of management judgment, that calamity may be the only catalyst that will reform the Secret Service."

According to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on CIA torture and the report itself as reported in The New York Times, Kessler's book, The CIA at War, "included inaccurate claims about the effectiveness of CIA interrogations" provided by the CIA to Kessler and New York Times reporter Douglas Jehl, such as the claim that the arrests of terrorist suspects were based on information from interrogations of other terrorists under torture. The report said this rationale was used to justify the use of torture.[49][50] In a comment to The New York Times, Kessler said he corroborated what he was told with the FBI, and he called the Senate report discredited because it was written only by Democratic lawmakers and did not include interviews with many of the main players.[50][51] Subsequently, John Brennan, President Obama's appointee as CIA director, said that while no one knows whether the information could have been obtained otherwise, "[o]ur review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom EITs [enhanced interrogation techniques] were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives."[52]
Personal life

Kessler is married and has two children.[2][53] He met Donald Trump while writing his book about Palm Beach and has since said he considers him a personal friend, leading others to call him Trumps "No. 1 Cheerleader".[54]
Books
Title Year ISBN Publisher Subject matter Interviews, presentations, and reviews Comments
The Life Insurance Game: How the Industry Has Amassed Over $600 Billion at the Expense of the American Public 1985 ISBN 9780030705076 Henry Holt & Co. Life insurance
The Richest Man in the World: The Story of Adnan Khashoggi 1986 ISBN 9780446513395 Warner Books Adnan Khashoggi
Spy vs. Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America 1988 ISBN 9780684189451 Charles Scribner's Sons Soviet espionage in the United States
Moscow Station: How the KGB Penetrated the American Embassy 1989 ISBN 9780684189819 Charles Scribner's Sons Embassy of the United States, Moscow Interview with Kessler on Moscow Station, February 23, 1989, C-SPAN
The Spy in the Russian Club: How Glenn Souther Stole America's Nuclear War Plans and Escaped to Moscow 1990 ISBN 9780684191164 Charles Scribner's Sons Glenn Souther
Escape from the CIA: How the CIA Won and Lost the Most Important Spy Ever to Defect to the U.S. 1991 ISBN 9780671726645 Pocket Books Vitaly Yurchenko
Inside the CIA: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Spy Agency 1992 ISBN 9780671734572 Pocket Books Central Intelligence Agency
The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency 1993 ISBN 9780671786571 Pocket Books Federal Bureau of Investigation Booknotes interview with Kessler on Inside the FBI, September 12, 1993, C-SPAN
Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Institution 1995 ISBN 9780671879204 Pocket Books United States Secret Service
The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded 1996 ISBN 9780446518840 Warner Books Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Kennedy family
Inside Congress: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill 1997 ISBN 9780671003852 Pocket Books United States Congress Washington Journal interview with Kessler on Inside Congress, May 26, 1997, C-SPAN
The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society 1999 ISBN 9780060193911 HarperCollins Palm Beach, Florida Presentation by Kessler on The Season: Inside Palm Beach, October 10, 1999, C-SPAN
The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI 2002 ISBN 9780312304027 St. Martin's Press Federal Bureau of Investigation Presentation by Kessler on The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, June 5, 2002, C-SPAN
The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror 2003 ISBN 9780312319328 St. Martin's Press Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet
A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush 2004 ISBN 9781595230003 Sentinel George W. Bush, Presidency of George W. Bush Presentation by Kessler on A Matter of Character, August 11, 2004, C-SPAN
Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady 2006 ISBN 9780385516211 Doubleday Laura Bush Presentation by Kessler on Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady, April 19, 2006, C-SPAN
The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack 2007 ISBN 9780307382139 Crown Publishing War on Terror Presentation by Kessler on The Terrorist Watch, November 19, 2007, C-SPAN
The Daily Show interview with Kessler on The Terrorist Watch, March 12, 2008
In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect 2009 ISBN 9780307461353 Crown Publishing United States Secret Service The Daily Show interview with Kessler on In the President's Secret Service, August 2, 2009
Washington Journal interview with Kessler on In the President's Secret Service, August 22, 2009, C-SPAN
The Secrets of the FBI 2011 ISBN 9780307719690 Crown Publishing Federal Bureau of Investigation
The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents 2014 ISBN 9780804139212 Crown Publishing United States Secret Service Presentation by Kessler on The First Family Detail, October 8, 2014, C-SPAN
The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game 2018 ISBN 9780525575719 Crown Publishing Presidency of Donald Trump Washington Journal interview with Kessler on The Trump White House, April 10, 2018, C-SPAN
After Words interview with Kessler on The Trump White House, April 27, 2018, C-SPAN
Presentation by Kessler on The Trump White House, April 6, 2019, C-SPAN
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