SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And official - Washington, D.C., has been abuzz, I think it's safe to say, with news that the Robert Mueller investigation has concluded. And he submitted his long-awaited report to the Justice Department. Reporter Bobby Allyn gathered reaction from residents of the nation's capital, where there's been a lot of interest with the Mueller investigation going on for the past two years.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Work was winding down Friday for Robin Bell. He's a video artist at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at D.C.'s George Washington University.
ROBIN BELL: I mean, I was packing up my bags for the night.
ALLYN: As Bell was leaving work, he looked at his phone.
BELL: What? It's out?
ALLYN: The it, of course, is Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Since nobody knows whether the report will ever be public, Bell had an idea. He went to his exhibition space and changed its theme to Release the Report. Bell notes that the gallery is across the street from the White House.
BELL: Everyone who walks into the museum for the weekend will see Release the Report.
ALLYN: On the other side of town, Jatna Breton is hoping that message turns into reality.
JATNA BRETON: I would definitely read it. I would probably host, like, a reading in my office for it.
ALLYN: She works in the student health department at American University.
BRETON: We know it's bad, but please just show us how bad this is so that this doesn't ever happen again.
ALLYN: For Peter Bauman, it's not just what's in the report that merits its public release.
PETER BAUMAN: It's our tax dollars that are paying a lot of money for it.
ALLYN: Bauman runs a consulting firm focused on international conflict zones. He says keeping the report confidential could stir conspiracies.
BAUMAN: If it's not made public, then what it does is increase the suspicion that there was something in it. And then you even have less closure because then you're wondering what's been hidden and why.
ALLYN: Sophie Greene agrees. She's a federal government worker who is quick to make a case for the report's full disclosure. But she says some people may be disappointed.
SOPHIE GREENE: I also am worried that it's going to be a little bit of a whole lot of what we already know, which is fine. We already know a lot. But I'm worried that there won't be bombshells and the media will respond as if there's no news here.
ALLYN: Bombshells or not, Greene says confirming what we already know is better than waiting in the dark. For NPR News, I'm Bobby Allyn in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
