Mueller report PDF download link: How to read the explosive Trump document – and why it could be one of the most read files ever

Justice Department website will be the official home to the report – though free ebooks are already being made available

The full text of the Mueller report has been released – and could trigger one of the biggest rushes to download a document ever seen.

The 400-page document can be found here and reveals the key findings of a two-year investigation into Donald Trump by Robert Mueller, rocking Washington as soon as it was released.

The report was first discussed in a press conference by Trump's attorney general William Barr. It was then be delivered to Congress on CDs, in keeping with the organisation's slightly archaic way of delivering documents.

But when it came to the public, it arrive in the form of a PDF, uploaded to the Justice Department website in the first instance.

The rush of internet traffic to the site is expected to be significant. Though the US government should have made preparations for such high interest, it is nonetheless possible that the website might not work quickly or at all when it first drops.

But it will almost certainly be passed around other websites and hosting services as soon as it is made available, meaning that it should be accessible in some form.

Barnes & Noble is offering the full report as an ebook, free to download for owners of its Nook ereader. "This is a PDF/direct replica of historic The Mueller Report as released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Barr redactions and all, and it is essential reading for all Americans on both sides of the aisle," the overview on its website reads.

The retailer said people can pre-order it now from the website and suggested it will arrive as soon as it is released.

The report will be widely distributed after it is released, meaning that it will probably be made available for other ereaders, too. Anyone giving away the report should be doing so for free, so while it is likely that links and versions of the PDF will be sold online, such listings are best avoided.

When the Starr Report, the final findings of an investigation into Bill Clinton, were published in 1998, they swiftly became one of the most popular documents of all time.

Some 12 per cent of all Americans – 20 million people – headed to the internet to look at the document, according to polling reported by CNN at the time. "It's probably the single highest number of people who have ever used the computer to access a single document," David Webber of the Frank Lutz polling company said then.

That time around, the file was made available over seven different US government websites, in an attempt to spread the load. Though those websites and the news organisations that covered the release were swamped by the traffic, the internet nonetheless continued to work, reports at the time said.