The Mueller Report Must Be Disclosed to the American People

Tom Coffin
5 min readFeb 21, 2019

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The newly confirmed Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, asserts that under Department of Justice policy he has the ultimate say on whether the Mueller report, or any of its contents, is released for public consumption or whether its findings are to be sealed and effectively buried under a landfill. It is my contention that our Constitution requires the report to be disclosed in its entirety to the American people.

The Mueller investigation and the report on its findings is not by any means a normal or standard report by a US Attorney on a run of the mill criminal investigation. It is in contrast one of the most, if not the most, important reports in the history of our nation that goes to the very heart of our Constitutional form of government.

In summary form, Mueller’s investigation involves the existential issue of whether our nation’s democratic institutions have been compromised and corrupted by the influence of foreign governments, primarily Russia, on highly placed government officials, including the office of President, through secretive and lucrative financial dealings, campaign contributions laundered through third party nominal donors, blackmail, election interference, or other means.

DOJ policies and the various privileges that can be claimed by the White House or its surrogates to bury the Mueller report are subordinate to the Supreme Law of our nation — the Constitution — if they are in conflict.

While there is no express provision in the Constitution that addresses this precise scenario, the very essence of the Constitution is that it is a Compact between the governed (the people) and those who govern (our elected officials and those appointed to serve the people). The people consent to be governed according to our Constitution, not outside of its contours. The entire framework of this government (by, for, and of the people) is supported by its foundation — the Rule of Law. Whether corruption has infiltrated our system to the degree that one or more government officials betrayed their office by subordinating the country’s interest to personally profit by advancing the interests of a foreign power is a question that is vital to our very existence as a democratic republic.

It is critical to the health of the Republic for the people to have confidence and trust in their government. Thus they have an intrinsic right, not merely a vain hope, to be assured that their elected and appointed officials are in fact fulfilling their constitutional obligations of governance. The compact between people and government is not a one-sided bargain conferring authority on those who govern to betray their loyalty to the people and use their power to suppress the truth about any infidelity on their part while in office. Such a power would render the compact an illusion.

This concern about the very integrity of our democratic institutions is hardly overstated. There is much information to support it that is already in the public purview from court filings, investigative journalism, public records, media reports, comments by Senators and Representatives, and former high-ranking government officials. This publicly disseminated information includes statements from the nation’s own intelligence officials and certain military leaders questioning and raising “red flags” about the president’s submissive behavior towards Putin and other Russian leaders, his secret and unrecorded meetings with Putin, and the undisclosed and false cover-ups of financial dealings involving Putin and Russian oligarchs.

Rather than pay any deference to the unanimous advice from the United States’ own intelligence services about the threat presented to this country from Russia, the president summarily dismisses their counsel, chastises them for offering it, professes his belief in Putin’s word, and effectively abandons our long-standing alliance with our NATO partners in the joint pact to defend Western democracy. Rather than standing firm against the very real danger of Russian aggression, we are to be distracted by an imaginary national emergency involving asylum seekers on our southern border [which declaration enables the president to expand the powers of his office by assuming powers allocated by the Constitution solely to Congress (appropriating funds),

thus weakening the authority of Congress and diminishing its effectiveness as a co-equal branch.

Beyond these troubling issues, there is the matter of reports of dark money of Russian oligarchs, funneled through the NRA and other go-betweens, that enriched the campaign coffers of certain supporters of the president in Congress, raising questions about whether the independent function of Congress under our Constitution has been breached by foreign influence.

These concerns are known, are real, and are a cancer that erodes confidence in our institutions. officials, government, and loyalties of those who govern us — We the People. We have a right to ask and to know: What in God’s name is going on?

Let me leave you with this thought: During our nation’s history, our jurisprudence has been soiled by some egregious decisions by the Supreme Court such as the Dred Scott ruling upholding slavery, the Plessy case which approved segregating public schools based on the race of the students, and the Korematsu decision wherein the Court upheld the internment of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans (most of them US citizens) as a perceived threat to our country during WW II. Some 40 years after the end of that war, it was revealed that our government had not disclosed to the Court but had suppressed a report from Naval Intelligence that there was no evidence that Japanese Americans were a security danger to the nation. The United States has since repudiated the Korematsu case and apologized for the internment policy and resulting human rights and Constitutional violations. Korematsu was a tragic episode in our history, but it would pale in comparison to the collapse of our Republic at the hand of infiltration and corruption of our institutions. Secrecy is the weapon of tyranny; Truth is the armor of democracy. We find ourselves at the crossroads of the history of American democracy, and we must have transparency in order to take the right path.

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Tom Coffin

Retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Former professor at UofO Law School. Married with 7 children.