'Ask Sen Mondale' ...Is that possible? Personally I just wouldn't know where to start.

Here's some more speculation on my part concerning the Baron report:

One of the things that has always bugged me is that the general assumption seems to be that there was only one copy. That suits the HB's claim that it went missing under mysterious circumstances. It's easier to claim that one copy went missing rather than multiple copies, but by my estimation there should have been at least three copies in different hands, and possibly more.

There was the so-called 'missing' copy that went to the inquiry,
There should have been a copy that Baron himself kept and probably
There should have been a copy taken by Sen Mondale, and possibly other copies made for the committee members.

It is inconceivable to me that Baron would have released the 'only' copy of what he must have considered his most important work on which he had laboured for months and over which he had lost his job. Even the infamous Fox film shows Baron entering the inquiry building carrying a large briefcase and a loose bound tome that looks as if it fits the bill. If that was the 500 page report as implied in the film then I would suggest that that copy probably went home with him afterwards leaving at least one other copy in the hands of the committee.

I would have thought that Sen Mondale was no fool. For him to have instigated Baron's appearance at the inquiry he would have had to have seen the report to know its contents and what Baron's testimony would be, if for no other reason than to safeguard his own credibility if Baron's testimony appeared to be inadequate in some way. That implies that he would have had it copied or that a copy would have been passed to him before the inquiry took place.

There were at least six members of the the committee. I would have thought that each of them would have been given individual copies of the original 'missing' copy to examine prior to the hearing, at least to appraise themselves of its contents, rather than the one copy passed among them.

Just conjecture though,
DK