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with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

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You are here: Home / Politics / Mueller Report / The Mueller Report Book Club – Starting Out

The Mueller Report Book Club – Starting Out

by | 71 Comments

This post is in: 

Robert Mueller has told us all to read his report. So I propose to summarize parts of it, highlight what seems to me to be important, and add in some background. Then look for your comments.

I will take it in relatively small sections, starting at the beginning and going through to the end. I am looking forward to comments, particularly from the Balloon Juice Legal Service, since I am not a lawyer and may miss things. I may miss other things too, which I am sure will be brought up.

I’ll try to do two posts a week or more – 400 pages will be a lot to get through.

I’m looking for the big picture rather than details of who was at which meeting on which day, but those details will sometimes reveal parts of the big picture, so there will be some of both. It’s also important to understand what Mueller says about how he and his team see their work.

Let’s start with recommendations for versions of the report. There are a great many out there. I downloaded the Department of Justice’s version. The site takes some time to load, so it’s easier to have it on my computer.

Which version are you using? URLs, please, if you can, so that others can access it.

Let’s also stay on topic as much as we can. I know that’s asking a lot, but there are usually open threads around.

 

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    I see that the DOJ version has been updated to include OCR (searchable text). That’s important.

    Thanks for doing this. I hope I’m able to contribute something meaningful to the discussion.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    sukabi

    Is there a way to compare the multiple versions out there to see if there are discrepancies?

    I’d like to see a Mueller supplied version to compare with “Barr’s official DoJ version”

  6. 6.

    Patricia Kayden

    This is a great idea. I’ve glanced through the report. It will be good to go through it with a fine tooth comb. Trump is counting on most Americans being too busy to really digest it.

  8. 8.

    Joy in FL

    This sounds great Cheryl. I have no applicable professional expertise, but I am literate and interested.
    I have the Washington Post’s printed copy and digital version and the free Audible version. Listening to the audio book, I’m at page 138 in volume 1 in the paper copy.
    The details can definitely be overwhelming, but the overall picture is clear and utterly persuasive regarding how lawless and ruthless 45 and his people are.

  10. 10.

    Doug R

    I bought a copy of the Washington Post version at a Costco in Calgary, Alberta.

  12. 12.

    Catfishncod

    There is a version out there released after a Buzzfeed FOIA that lists the exact reasons for each redaction.

  14. 14.

    Philbert

    I would be quite happy to get a printer slightly-larger print version, so I can write all over it etc. Any suggestions?

  16. 16.

    Hilfy

    Good idea, this will make it easier to read the whole thing. I bought the Washington Post version from Amazon. The version with an Introduction by Alan Dershowitz must be contaminated.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    Damn, I just got it (Washington Post version, ordered from Amazon), but I’m going away June 8-15 and won’t be here.

  18. 18.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Catfishncod: I’m not sure whether any of the versions go beyond this, but most, including the DOJ version, include one of three reasons for redactions: “Personal Privacy” (referring to those not charged), “Harm to Ongoing Matter,” and “Investigative Technique”, otherwise known as “sources and methods.”

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    But how will I catch up?

    Now I think I should take it on my trip so that at least I’ll have read as far as you guys when I get back.

  26. 26.

    patrick II

    Digby at Hullabaloo had a post called “–Getting the facts out isn’t as hard as they think — which is an excellent summary of the Mueller report. The best I have seen actually. It includes a video of Adam Schiff’s reaction to being attacked by restating the facts of Vol 1. Then there is another video of former prosecutors stating Trump should be prosecuted, and then leaves it to Republican Congressman Justin Amash, first with a video of his town hall, and then, and most importantly and eloquently, putting Amash’s tweets into narrative form — and it is the best short readable narrative of the crimes outlined in the Mueller report that I have read.
    I find it a shame the democratic party has not met or exceeded that bar.
    If you are not going to read the Mueller report or want a thoughtful outline before you do, I strongly recommend Digby’s post.

  27. 27.

    TriassicSands

    Nice timing. I’m getting a blood transfusion right now and took the opportunity to begin reading the Mueller Report. I decided to take a break and upon checking BJ found this post of Cheryl’s.

    I just finished reading “How Democracies Die” (Levitsky and Ziblatt) and it is clear that anyone who voted for Trump should read it — and none will. I think the Mueller Report will be similar in that its content should greatly alarm any (semi-intelligent) American who even pretends to value democracy.

    From the Report:

    “Second, while the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.”

    “Third, the investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office, and to Congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference.”

    Those two brief excerpts (from the Executive Summary) ought to deeply concern every American citizen and at the very least raise suspicions that Trump was not “exonerated” by the Report.

  28. 28.

    Joy in FL

    @Eunicecycle: That was my original idea when I saw the free audio version– to read and listen at the same time. I already had the digital copy. But what has happened so far is that when I’m driving, I listen to the Report. I’ve gone back and looked at some of the print version, but not as much as I would like to.
    I’ve found that when I do go to the print text, what I’ve already listened to makes more sense to me, names are a bit more familiar, and I can hold the bigger picture in my mind better.

  31. 31.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    So I just got suspended from Twitter cause I was ragging Twitler for keeping D Day Vets waiting for him while he got his knob polished by Laura Ingraham on Fox today. Luckily I was able to get my account back. DH thinks it is hilarious.

  32. 32.

    Damned_at_Random

    I’ve been picking my way through but I really need some discipline. I lay it aside for a few days, forget where I left off and end up rereading the same stuff. This will serve to focus me, even if I don’t have much to contribute. Thanks for taking this on, Cheryl

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    @TriassicSands: Just getting a blood transfusion? I like the way you casually mention it, as if it were a common, everyday occurrence. Just leaving to walk the dog, just need to get started on supper…

    Whatever it is, wishing you minimal side effects and a good outcome.

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I suppose we have to be grateful Trump didn’t dismiss the Allied soldiers who fell on the beaches of Normandy as “losers and suckers” as is his wont.

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, Evan Hurst at Wonkette:

    House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff talked with Rachel Maddow last night about a series of hearings he has planned on Volume One of the popular melodrama “The Redacted Mueller Report.” Schiff said next Wednesday — livebloggy alert! — they’ll begin with a hearing on Mueller’s counter-intel findings, which remain a mystery, as they did not show up in the report. Those are the things that could tell us, for instance, if Donald Trump is truly compromised by Russia, as he seems to be, or if people near him are compromised. (Perhaps people with improperly procured security clearances, HMMMMM?) It also has to do with Russian incursions into our voting systems in 2016, attacks that we still don’t know that much about. (Recently we started to learn a lot more about how deep the Russians got into Florida voting systems, and now there is news out about certain problems in North Carolina election servers that might could have Russian dressing all over them. It’s like they’re following the map of the states Trump won on election night in chronological order!)

    In the Mueller Report, it says there were FBI agents embedded in Mueller’s team, taking the counter-intel stuff they found and transferring it to the appropriate places in the FBI. And as far as the report is concerned, that’s where it ends. And we’ve been wondering where the fuck it went ever since!

    The Justice Department and FBI, as Schiff has said many times since the Mueller Report came out, have been specifically holding these counter-intel details back from the Intelligence committee. Recently, Schiff pressed pause on a contempt vote against Bill Barr, after the DOJ cried uncle and said “OK OK OK, we will give you some documents, just PUH-LEEZE do not hold Bill Barr in contempt. He doesn’t like being held in contempt!” And Schiff told Maddow last night that they’ve gotten some stuff so far, but not all the stuff. Particularly not the counter-intel stuff.

    […]

    Drip, drip, drip. Tick, tock.

    Next week might be very interesting indeed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    At least Pelosi was classy, refusing to respond while on foreign soil. If only Twitler were so.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    That’s a different cover from the one I have, but mine was also 99¢ on Amazon. Am only about 15 pages in; Cheryl’s dedicated threads will prompt me to read it regularly, carefully, and systematically.

    @Cheryl, this is a really good idea! Thank you for taking the lead.

  44. 44.

    zhena gogolia

    Wow, I just started reading it, and it’s gripping as hell! What I’m amused by is that I can often fill in the redacted parts (when it’s a single name) based on my BJ education.

  46. 46.

    FelonyGovt

    I’m in! I’ve been reading the report through a link my local Democratic Club posted, which I think is the DOJ link. But I haven’t been as diligent getting through it as I should be, so this will help. Thanks, Cheryl!

  53. 53.

    Buckeye

    @debbie:
    Simon and Schuster has ‘analysis’ by Dershowitz. If you’re going to buy a copy I’d buy the Washington Post edition.

  55. 55.

    Redshift

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I have this e-version, which I got for 99 cents on Amazon. It has a big M on a black cover.

    I’ll have to try that. I got the updated searchable DOJ version, which still contains the scanned pages, so it’s huge. I couldn’t send it to my Kindle because it’s too big, so I had to hook up a USB cable. Then it turns out it displays the scanned pages, scaled down, so it’s completely unreadable.

    All the more infuriating because it’s obvious Barr was given the original electronically, and did the print it out and scan it back in crap just to make it harder to read.

  56. 56.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @debbie:

    @plato:

    I loved his tweet from last week, implying that Mueller wanted “that FBI job.” //

    That job he had for 12 years? Because the POTUS at the time (a real one, 44) requested he stay 2 years beyond his appointed term when it expired? Instead of a partnership at a law firm where the buy in is over, say, 1.5M? Of course he wanted “that FBI job” instead!

  57. 57.

    BC in Illinois

    @Barbara:

    Here is the DOJ link, and I think the report is now searchable: https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

    The weekend that the report came out, I had access to a printer and a 3-hole punch. So I have the two volumes in two 3-ring binders.

    I went through the first volume in a matter of days – – Putin’s attack on the 2016 elections, welcomed by the Trump campaign. Ever since I saw a documentary that approached the 2016 interference from the viewpoint, not of “what was Trump doing?” but of “What was Putin doing (and how did Trump receive it)?”, I have found the Trump/Russia narrative to be clear and undeniable.

    I will welcome the commentary and analysis — especially legal analysis — of the second volume. What Trump did in obstructing the investigation was shady as can be. But, we come back to Lester Holt’s [SNL] question, “Did I get him? Is this all over?” The guilt is [a lot of it] out in the open. The question is what to do with it.

    And a lot of the Trump criminality is not in the Mueller area of investigation. We have binders full of corruption that Mueller did not touch.

    You know what the Beach Boys said about impeachment:

    You know it seems the more we talk about it
    It only makes it worse to live without it
    But let’s talk about it
    Oh, wouldn’t it be nice?

  58. 58.

    J R in WV

    I’ve read quite a bit, esp from Vol 2, on what I downloaded when it first came out and was available online. Like some others, after a few pages I have to set it down and go process anything else, from the anger, nay, fury that it generates inside me.

    Fiction, for now, is the only remedy, except action. Wife just contributed to one of the Democratic campaign committees, that helps a little.

  59. 59.

    zhena gogolia

    after a few pages I have to set it down and go process anything else, from the anger, nay, fury that it generates inside me.

    That’s where I am right now, in Vol. 1, about the Russian interference campaign. Seeing it all spelled out in minute detail is so infuriating. I keep yelling, “Hillary Clinton should be President right now!”

  60. 60.

    chris

    @Redshift: Would it work on your Kindle if you converted pdf to mobi or epub? I use a program called Calibre to do that because pdfs suck on small tablets. Just a thought.

    Looking forward to the book club, Cheryl.

  61. 61.

    Quaker in a Basement

    @BC in Illinois: You have nailed down what was the initial takeaway for me: There is no question that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has never admitted that it happened, has taken no action to prevent it from happening again, and has tried to halt the investigation into how it happened.

  63. 63.

    Fair Economist

    I got the Wapo print version. Looking forward to the series!

    Obviously I didn’t get the one with commentary by Dorkowitz. The clerk mentioned there were other version and laughed when I said that I obviously didn’t want the one with his commentary.

  64. 64.

    grandmaBear

    Cheryl, thank you for doing this. I just got the WP hard copy version, tho am also considering the audible version.

  66. 66.

    Bonnie

    I have The Washington Post version because I wanted to have a book to hold onto. Also, my printer isn’t working. I plan to start it this weekend.

  68. 68.

    Barb 2

    Slate has a podcast of the executive summary. I listened to that after skimming the redacted Mueller report. Then I got the free Audible version and listened to part one of volume one.

    There are several books by journalists about the Russian contacts with Trump. Beginning with his first wife and her father. Then the Brighten Beach Russian Mafia. All of this provides context for the 2016 Russian warfare. “House of Trump, House of Putin”by Craig Unger. All the Russian names, all with links going back to Putin.

    Thank you Cheryl – perhaps I can get to the end of the Mueller report? Barr needs to be in jail for his crimes against the Mueller report.

    Lawfare – Benjamin Witted ” Notes on the Mueller Report: A Reading Diary. ”

    Trump is dirty in plain sight. Barr is and has been dirty almost his whole career.

  69. 69.

    StringOnAStick

    I’m currently on vacation but thanks to all the comments he’s I’ve decided to go buy the Washington post hard copy version as soon as we get back home. Thanks for the heads up to avoid the Dersh ‘s crap “analysis” !

  70. 70.

    EL

    I wish I remembered where my version came from. I downloaded into iBooks, so it’s searchable, and I’ve been meaning to start reading. Thank you, Cheryl; a group reading will nudge me to keep at it. Will there be a scheduled day to post and discuss?

  71. 71.

    Dave W.

    I got the free (non-searchable) Nook pdf version when it first came out. Probably should grab the searchable EPUB version mentioned above. I’ve read both halves.

    I figure most of the Harm to Ongoing Matter reductions relate to Roger Stone’s upcoming trial, and a lot of those redactions can be guessed at pretty accurately with that as context.

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