A thought about why the Mueller report hasn't leaked

[matt819]

Random thought. You'd think someone would have leaked the report by now.

Numbered, identifiable copies. A leak would track back to a specific individual.

As I said, a random thought.

[qazplm135]

1. I'm more surprised

it hasn't been hacked and then released.

[marylandblue]

2. Everything is electronic these days.

So it would have been emailed to only a few individuals on a secure server. Only a few people would have access to it. With just a handful of suspects, who will take the chance?

[zipplewrath]

4. You have to know what you're doing

Printers have subtle features that identify which printer was used to make a physical copy that can be detected in the printed page. Electronic files can have underlying "meta data" that can reveal who saved the copy. Unless you believe you know EXACTLY what to do to prevent these things, one will do well to re-think the action. It will come out, ultimately. We've waited 2 years. 2 weeks or so isn't going to kill anyone.

[Hekate]

10. I was shocked to learn that photocopiers leave ID on each page...

Apparently in a pale yellow not really detectable with the naked eye.

We live in a post-anonymity world.

[PSPS]

3. Ask Reality Winner

[jberryhill]

5. Because the DoJ is staffed by professionals

I hate to state the obvious, but there are gazillions of lawyers and law firms all over the place with all kinds of information, who are used to the rules of professional responsibility.

[matt819]

7. Agreed

And it's great that there are still a few professionals. But we're not talking about those people. We're looking at leakers. Whistleblowers. People able and willing to take a risk for something resembling the greater good. I grew up (professionally speaking) in an environment where nothing was leaked. Nothing. At. All. My integrity and ethics, and those of my colleagues, was so ingrained that this was not ever an issue. And I never encountered a situation where I would consider otherwise (thank goodness). But we live in strange and dangerous times. The risks are high. The lines between right and wrong dangerously blurred.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Leaking is very risky.

Daniel Ellsberg was charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy for leaking the Pentagon Papers, and he faced the possibility of a 115-year sentence. Fortunately for him, all charges against him were dismissed when the judge was informed of the break-in of his psychiatrist's office and of the FBI's illegal wiretapping of Ellsberg's conversations. But he took a huge risk. Not many people would be willing to face espionage charges.

[jberryhill]

9. I don't think compromising a criminal investigation is a "greater good"

Congress, which has the ability to act on it, is going to subpoena it if they don't get it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. It's somewhere on some DoJ computer system.

Last edited Tue Apr 2, 2019, 03:48 PM - Edit history (1)

That also makes leaking difficult because the computers will require passwords and the system would be able to track which computer is being accessed, by whom, and when, so if someone wanted to copy the report onto a flash drive it would be hard to get away with it.

Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers by laboriously photocopying the whole document, which was much longer than the Mueller report - but that was back in 1969 when copiers didn't have access codes. Ellsberg took the original out of his office at the Rand Corporation and used a Xerox machine at an advertising agency where he knew the owner. It would be much more difficult to pull off something like that now.

[mitch96]

11. Like Ellsberg, someone has to decide if they want to fall on their sword and expose the truth

I think it would be more effective if the Mueller Report is released and then the unredacted report is released at or just after and they are compared...
Things that make you go Hummmmmmm...

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