Mueller report essential reading

Recently departed Special Counsel Robert Mueller sent a simple and clear message to his fellow Americans last week: Read my report.

We’d like to reiterate that message. Indeed, we’re imploring you: Read the Mueller report.

Yes, it’s been redacted somewhat, but plenty of details remain about Russia’s concerted attempt to interfere with the 2016 presidential election so as to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Republican Donald Trump.

Don’t rely on our interpretation of it. Or Attorney General William Barr’s. Or the president’s. Or Nancy Pelosi’s. Read it for yourself.

Pick up a print copy at your nearest bookstore or public library. Ask a local book seller to order it for you. Or order it online from Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Get the basic report — Parts I and II — for about $10, roughly the cost of the paperback you plan to read at the beach or pool this summer. Electronic versions can be downloaded onto your e-reader for even less — or for free on any device from the Justice Department website.

Turn off Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, MSNBC and Fox, and read the report. Yes, it’s 448 pages long, but that’s roughly the same number of pages as in Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” and you likely had to read at least one of those when you were in school.

Consider the Mueller report your homework as an American citizen and patriot. As in school, reading the CliffsNotes — or in this case, watching TV pundits offer their hot takes — won’t suffice. You must read, and carefully consider, the real thing.

We won’t ask for a book report, but we’d encourage you to ask our elected representatives in Congress for one. Ask them if they’ve read the Mueller report — not assigned staff members to provide a synopsis, but actually read it themselves. Ask them specific questions based on your reading of it. They should be able to provide detailed answers — vague answers or deflections shouldn’t suffice. We’d go so far as to say that a member of Congress who hasn’t read the Mueller report — every one of its 448 pages — lacks the credibility to comment on it.

If you buy the printed version that includes an introduction by lawyer Alan Dershowitz, we’d urge you to skip the intro. We’ve all had our fill of partisan voices telling us what to think of the Mueller report. It ought to be digested without prejudice.

So, accordingly, we offer some of Mueller’s remarks — verbatim — from his Wednesday press conference. If you don’t read the special counsel’s report, we’d ask you to at least read these remarks.

We yield to Mueller:

“The matters we investigated were of paramount importance. It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.”

He continued: “The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.

“And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the president.

“The order appointing me special counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. We conducted that investigation, and we kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of the progress of our work.

“And as set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.