Bad Call

NYT Op-Ed: 'We Don't Need to Read the Mueller Report'

On the day Mueller delivered his report, a Times op-ed by American Constitution Society president Caroline Fredrickson argued the public already knew enough about the Trump campaign's Russia ties without it.

First reported Mar 22, 2019 · The New York Times

Screenshot of the original report as published — Screenshot of the report as published: nytimes.com (archived copy, Wayback Machine). Tap to open the source.

Who it helped: Democrats

Argued the conclusion was settled before the evidence was public.

What was reported

What actually happened

Fredrickson cited the guilty pleas and convictions of Manafort, Cohen, Flynn and Papadopoulos, and the indictment of Stone, as evidence enough. She also noted the Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. The report itself said the investigation did not establish a conspiracy or coordination with Russia. Those convictions involved lying and financial crimes, not a conspiracy with the Russian government. On obstruction, the report did not conclude Trump committed a crime but explicitly did not exonerate him, so it had substance for both sides.

The proof

The report's conspiracy finding, released Apr. 18, 2019, differed from what the op-ed said readers already knew.

The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:

NYT Op-Ed: 'We Don't Need to Read the Mueller Report' — Bad Call. The report's conspiracy finding, released Apr. 18, 2019, differed from what the op-ed said readers already knew. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/nyt-we-dont-need-to-read-mueller-report/

Original reporting

The New York Times: We Don't Need to Read the Mueller Report (Mar. 22, 2019)https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/opinion/trump-mueller-report.html
Benicia Independent: full repost of the NYT op-edhttps://beniciaindependent.com/?p=15165

Corrections, findings & records

Axios: Mueller report's exact language on conspiracy and obstructionhttps://www.axios.com/2019/04/18/mueller-report-bill-barr-letter-principal-conclusions
Mueller report (GovInfo)https://www.govinfo.gov/features/mueller-report

Archived copies

Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.

Archived copy: The New York Times: We Don't Need to Read the Mueller Report (Mar. 22, 2019)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/opinion/trump-mueller-report.html
Archived copy: Benicia Independent: full repost of the NYT op-edhttps://web.archive.org/web/2/https://beniciaindependent.com/?p=15165