A review by dsperling82
The Mueller Report by The Washington Post

4.0

This was not at all a pleasure to read. It was long, dense, and full of footnotes that went on and on about the canons of statutory construction, and also forced me to revisit a shameful moment in modern American history. I read it not because I expected to learn anything new but because I felt it was my duty as an American to read it, like I felt it my duty to read the 9/11 Commission Report and the Justice Department’s report about Ferguson, MO. The one thing I did learn that surprised me was just how sophisticated the Russian hacking and disinformation operation was. It was carried out by Russian military units. The biggest news out of the report is that no, there was no evidence that the Trump team ever colluded with the Russians. But the investigation was not a witch hunt. Given the sophistication of the Russian operation, the operation’s specific goal of benefiting Trump and undermining Clinton, the glee with which the Trump campaign took and used the fruits of the operation, and the level of subterfuge the Trump campaign took to conceal its Russian contacts and to hide the nature of Trump’s Moscow hotel dealings and the nature of various meeting with campaign officials, it would have been malpractice for law enforcement not to investigate possible collusion. The obstruction case, I felt, was quite solid, though I can understand why it didn’t make it into the articles of impeachment. It’s complicated and hard to follow. Not as sexy as ordering and then covering up a break-in on political opponents and not as likely to rile up pearl-clutching conservative family-values voters like lying about a blowjob. Not found anywhere in the report, but what you can gather from penumbras and emanations, is that collusion really doesn’t matter and it’s a far bigger deal for the Republic that you can’t tell whether the administration’s policies vis-à-vis Russia are to benefit the national interest, or are to benefit a personal or financial interest. The Washington Post introduction and commentary were helpful for framing some of the issues that went beyond the scope of the investigation.