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One lesson I hope we learn from the #MuellerReport is that writing a lot of words on a lot of pages isn't the same as communicating. 2/
Mueller's central conclusions, especially on obstruction, were vague and confusing even to expert legal readers. /3
See today's perplexing exchange with @tedlieu about the impact of the OLC opinion and Mueller's "clarification" of it an hour later: cnn.com/videos/politic… 4/
We #legalwriting folks harp on seemingly picky things like double negatives, passive voice, and legalese. But we aren't picky for picking's sake. We focus on those things because they make it harder for people to understand what we meant to say. 5/
Clear legal writing is good manners and good business, but it's much more than that. It's essential to the rule of law itself. People listen to voices they understand. They tune out the voices they don't. 6/
Compare: "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state" vs. "TOTAL EXONERATION!" 7/
The law doesn't belong to those of us who went to law school. It belongs to everyone, and our job as lawyers and legislators and judges is to translate it into terms our audiences get. /End
