The Mueller Report

I was at Barnes and Noble earlier in the week and found The Mueller Report for sale in two formats.  One was published by the Washington Post newspaper and the other one was published by Skyhorse Publishing.

There are slight differences between the two books.  Both contain the full redacted version of the report. How that redaction is shown differs in each book.


The Washington Post version has articles in the beginning of the book as well as the indictments of the people who were indicted by the Mueller Team in the back of the book. The other version only has an article by attorney Alan Dershowitz in the front of the book. The redactions in the Skyhorse version are shown only with [redaction] in between sentences. The Post version has page after page of blackened out paragraphs for the redactions. This makes the redactions seem more sinister than what we have been told they are about, i.e., national security matters.

The Mueller Report has citations on each page showing where information came from. For example, information may have come from an interview with Donald Trump, Jr. on a particular date. In the Post version of the Report the citations are on each page. The Skyhorse version has them all at the back of the book. Clearly, the Post version is a better read because of the placement of these citations.  Both books have Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress wherein he summarized the Report.

Which version should you choose?  I did not want to be influenced by any articles before reading the actual report itself so I didn't read them initially. I wanted to form my own beliefs. If you have watched cable news then you know that Alan Dershowitz loves Trump and the Washington Post doesn't. If you lean right or left politically you may want to make your choice that way. The Washington Post version is easier to understand because the citations from where information came from are on the same page where the information is stated. The Post version is much larger but is only $3 more expensive.

I am not going to state what I believe about the Report, Barr's summary or the articles. My only recommendation is that you read the Mueller Report itself before reading the Barr summary or any articles. Form your own conclusions before reading about someone else's conclusions. Whichever one you choose it will be a collector's item in decades to come. My copies are already on the bookshelf next to The Pentagon Papers.