Diversion Books will crash a book compiling Michael Cohen's congressional testimony along with a number of other legal documents relating to the former personal attorney for President Trump.
The book, Michael Cohen's House Testimony: The Complete Transcripts and Case Documents, will be released on March 5—just five days after the testimony aired. In addition to the full transcript from, and images of exhibits used during, Cohen's hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the book will include special counsel Robert Mueller's charges against Cohen as detailed in the legal case United States of America v. Michael Cohen, as well as Cohen's plea agreement and the sentencing in said case. Jacket copy for the book describes its contents as including all "the hard-hitting prepared statements, the damning evidence, the salacious charges, the belligerent questioning, and the stunning revelations."
"For us, it seemed like an important historic moment, no matter what you think about him and his testimony and his reputability," said Diversion CEO and publisher Scott Waxman. "It’s reminiscent of a John Dean appearance, and it was a moment we wanted to document. We thought it was important and possibly overlooked, while other publishers were looking at the Mueller Report.” He added: “The combination of the historic significance with the riveting drama convinced us this was something we had to jump on.”
The compilation of the book is unusual. While filings from United States of America v. Michael Cohen are publically accessible in text form online, Cohen's testimony before Congress currently only exists in audio and closed caption form, and likely won't be available as a text document until the end of March. That's kept Diversion's editors hard at work, Waxman said, using digital tools to transcribe the audio testimony, cleaning up those transcriptions, and cross-referencing the newly-transcribed text with closed captions provided by C-SPAN. Diversion Books executive editor Keith Wallman and nonfiction editor Melanie Madden have been working to reconcile the audio with the closed captions, Waxman said.
Diversion has commissioned Pauline Neuwirth and Associates, a book design, production, and manufacturing firm, to lay out the book and prepare it for production. Diversion will publish Michael Cohen's House Testimony in both e-book and print-on-demand paperback, via Lightning Source, and is currently determining the size of future print runs—for which the publisher anticipates significant demand. Two Rivers will distribute the books.
“We believe this is a really interesting opportunity and a really interesting test," Waxman said. "We think there’s a lot of value in what we’re doing for the reader, in categorizing and compiling material, but we’re not sure how it will go.”
This article has been updated for clarity.
