Why is Amazon already selling the Robert Mueller report?
This month two different books called “The Mueller Report” have become available for preorder on the Amazon.com website. One is being offered by the Washington Post, and the other claims to be from Robert Mueller while boasting of an introduction from Alan Dershowitz. Both books claim a release date of March 26th, 2019. Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has made no indication of when or how his report will be released. So what’s really going on here?
Here are the facts. No one, outside of Robert Mueller and his team, has any specific knowledge about when his report will be issued. These two “books” are merely empty templates that have been put up for preorder, with best guesses for release dates. They each plan to take the publicly available version of Mueller’s report that you’ll be able to get anywhere else for free, stuff it into a book, add some custom material, and charge you money.
The version being offered by the Washington Post says it’ll include “related materials” from the newspaper. Fair enough; you’re paying to get the Post’s analysis of the Mueller report, once the report surfaces. Considering the solid investigative research that the Post has done into Donald Trump’s various criminal scandals over the past few years, this analysis could prove to be useful.
The other version misleadingly lists “Robert S. Mueller III” as the author but is actually being offered by Skyhorse publishing, which has previously published pro-Trump books from Alan Dershowitz, including “The Case Against Impeaching Trump.” For this new book, the “introduction” from Dershowitz will likely be something more akin to a rebuttal of the Mueller report. Unless you’re a Trump supporter and you want to read Dershowitz defending his ally Trump while attacking Mueller, ordering this version would be a complete waste of money.
In any case, neither of these books has any actual connection to Robert Mueller. He’s not releasing or participating in these two book releases. He’s simply going to issue his report, which will then go to the Attorney General, who will release some or all of it publicly, ostensibly followed by a battle with House Democrats about how much more of it to publicly release. These two book publishers will then take the publicly available version of Mueller’s report, which will be published for free by every major news outlet out there, and “sell” it to you along with added content. One book claims to be 720 pages and the other claims to be 960 pages, but these are both clearly made-up numbers.
If Robert Mueller’s report doesn’t become public by the March 26th “release date” that’s arbitrarily been assigned to these two books, you’ll see that release date moved further back, as the publishers take revised guesses about when the report might surface. While these books will technically include the Mueller report, these books are not how Robert Mueller is releasing his report; you’re simply paying to get third party analysis of Mueller’s report once it’s released to the public for free.
