Legal corruption: Book deals. By Robert Malone.
For prominent political figures, multimillion-dollar book contracts are not particularly unusual. …
Imagine receiving a $4 million advance for two books that have not yet been published, with the understanding that you will not write, edit, or promote them while holding public office for many years to come. Now imagine that the publisher paying you those millions is owned by a close political associate, who also operates political organizations that support you by and your political career by raising money from wealthy donors and corporations. …
The mechanism involves advance book purchases by political campaigns, Super PACs, nonprofit organizations, and other politically connected institutions. These organizations can purchase thousands of copies of an influential person’s book before publication, creating a substantial pool of guaranteed revenue for the publisher. Publishers can then factor these advance purchases into their financial projections, providing the financial backing for unusually large advances to politicians, former officeholders, NGO leaders, and other politically influential individuals.
Money originating from political donors and affiliated organizations can thus flow through the publishing industry and emerge as personal income for the author, under the perfectly respectable designation of a book advance. It is a form of legalized money laundering. …
Publishing agreements are private. Advance amounts are often confidential. Institutional purchases may be routed through wholesalers and distributors. …
Not at all like regular publishing deals:
The difference between political publishing and ordinary publishing is staggering.
In conventional publishing, an advance is money paid to an author against royalties the publisher hopes the book will eventually earn. Many authors receive only a few thousand dollars. Many receive no advance whatsoever. … Increasingly, authors also encounter publishing arrangements in which they must contribute money toward production, marketing, or distribution themselves. …
Against that backdrop, a $2 million advance for a single book represents an extraordinary commitment. ..
On a hardcover selling for $20, an author might receive just $2 per copy, depending on the royalty agreement. At those rates, a $4 million book advance would require sales of approximately 1.3 million to 2 million copies, representing $40 million in retail book sales, merely for the publisher to earn back the advance. …
Maybe the Clintons? (Surprised?)
Hillary Clinton’s 2014 memoir, Hard Choices, reportedly carried an advance of approximately $14 million, although Simon & Schuster never publicly confirmed the amount. Bill Clinton received a reported $10 million to $12 million advance for his 2004 memoir, My Life. Meanwhile, the Clinton Foundation has accumulated substantial financial resources, reporting approximately $305 million in net assets in its latest available nonprofit financial data.
These are separate financial arrangements, and there is no established evidence that foundation funds financed the Clintons’ book advances.
Maybe a Trump supporter paid RFK Jr to quit the presidential race in 2024 and join MAHA onto MAGA?
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … received $4 million in book advances, $2 million each for Unsettled Science and A Defense for Israel. These were not royalties earned from books already purchased by readers. They were advances against anticipated future sales, paid by a relatively small independent publisher whose owner is also a longtime Kennedy political ally.
Skyhorse is not Penguin Random House. Its business model has historically emphasized modest advances, frequently under $10,000, with many authors receiving nothing upfront. Against that background, two $2 million advances represent an extraordinary financial commitment. …
The sequence is remarkable.
- July 13–15, 2024: Kennedy and Trump discussed Kennedy’s political future, including a possible role in a Trump administration and Kennedy’s withdrawal from the presidential race.
- August 1, 2024: Seventeen days after their July 15 meeting, Kennedy’s multimillion-dollar publishing agreement with Skyhorse commenced.
- August 23, 2024: Just 22 days after the Skyhorse agreement began, Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.
- 2025–2026: Kennedy joined the Trump administration as HHS Secretary and received the full $4 million in book advances from a publisher owned by one of his closest political allies.
Was the publishing arrangement connected to Kennedy’s decision to leave the race and endorse Trump? Was it, in whole or in part, a political payoff? Or was this all merely coincidence? And the $4 million advance had nothing to do with Kennedy dropping out of the race? …
Kennedy’s case brings these concerns together in one extraordinary sequence: a $4 million publishing agreement commencing 22 days before he left the presidential race and endorsed Trump, a publisher deeply involved in his political network, substantial additional financial relationships involving his household, payments received while serving as HHS Secretary, and an ethics agreement restricting his work on the books. None of those facts alone establishes an illegal payoff. …
Oh dear, MAHA not effective:
On October 8, 2026, former Kennedy campaign adviser Tiffany Cianci released the MAHA Movement Scorecard, examining 42 commitments involving food, farming, pesticides, toxic chemicals, regulatory capture, and related health policies. The scorecard’s authors classified 37 commitments as broken and five as partially fulfilled, with none fully met.
hat-tip Scott of the Pacific