Mueller’s Report Must Be Made Public

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Michael Cohen's appearance last week before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was surely a spectacle. The former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who had spent a decade lunging at anyone who threatened Trump's image or interests, marshaled his own attack on the president's character and behavior.

Cohen also documented his testimony with financial statements and canceled checks. This was meant to compensate for his own damaged credibility. But in revealing the hard evidence, Cohen also demonstrated why it's essential that the most prominent presidential investigation — Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election — ultimately makes its evidence public.

There is no guarantee that this will happen. Regulations require Mueller to produce “a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the Special Counsel.” He must submit his findings to Attorney General William Barr, and Barr must notify Congress of the report's completion. But the attorney general is not required to share its details. Nor is he compelled to make those findings public. In his confirmation hearings before the Senate, Barr conspicuously declined to promise he would, saying only that he would provide as much transparency as possible “consistent with the law.”

That's not good enough. Russian sabotage of the 2016 election is a matter of vital public concern as well as national security. High-ranking members of the Trump campaign and Trump's former White House national security adviser have already pleaded guilty to crimes.

Of course, the special counsel must be careful not to speculate, or impugn the reputations of people who are not charged with crimes. But Mueller should lay out in as detailed a manner as possible what his team has learned, regardless of whether or not that information results in criminal indictments. This becomes especially important if Mueller follows a Justice Department rule that a sitting president cannot be indicted. If indictment is off the table, and only information that leads to an indictment can be made public, then this president and all his successors in perpetuity essentially will be rendered unaccountable.

And Congress's job, as it embarks on what promises to be a long series of hearings having to do with President Trump's behavior and policies, will be that much harder.

The only way for the public to digest the complexity of the Russian attack, and for Congress to either act on that information or move on from it with confidence, is for the investigation's scope and implications to be clear. Four in five Americans say Mueller's full report should be released. Barr and Congress must see that it is.

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.