Melville House co-founder on publishing Jack Smith and Tulsa reports [View all]

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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/09/melville-house-jack-smith-trump-tulsa-race-massacre-reports

‘Stand up for what’s right’: Melville House co-founder on publishing Jack Smith and Tulsa reports

Stunned by Donald Trump’s return, Dennis Johnson saw a chance to hit back by publishing official reports into shameful episodes in US history

Martin Pengelly in Washington
Sun 9 Feb 2025 06.00 EST

A US publishing house has decided to publish official reports into sensitive matters in US politics and history against the backdrop of a new Donald Trump administration committed to a radical rightwing agenda of reshaping American government and fiercely aggressive against its opponents, especially in the media.

The publisher, Melville House, will on Tuesday release The Jack Smith Report, a print and ebook edition of the special counsel’s summation of his investigation of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Later in February, the company will then publish another report the Department of Justice issued shortly before Trump returned to power, concerning the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Dennis Johnson, co-founder of Melville House with his wife, Valerie Merians, said The Jack Smith Report would be published with no frills: “It is just a report, and we’re just reprinting it. We’re not doing anything to it. We’re not adding anything in the front or back. We’re not getting star introductions or anything. We just wanted it to speak for itself.”

But he also described an urgent need to put out physical copies, in light of Trump’s push to revenge himself on prosecutors who worked for Smith and FBI agents who investigated the January 6 attack on Congress.

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(Years ago my neighborhood librarian remarked how she disliked the web: there’s no way to authenticate or preserve things.)