Republican insiders: Robert Mueller is “going for the kill” against Donald Trump
With each passing day, another piece of the puzzle emerges revealing just how swiftly, thoroughly, and aggressively Special Counsel Robert Mueller is moving forward in his investigation of Donald Trump. That fact isn’t merely obvious to those who have been following closely from the outside. Word from the inside of Trump’s inner circle is that the belief inside the White House is that Mueller is doing nothing less than “going for the kill.”
That’s the latest word today from Republican sources close to Trump, according to a new Axios report (link). This shouldn’t come as a shock. Robert Mueller wouldn’t have taken this job and risked tainting his legacy with failure unless he was nearly 100% certain he’d be able to succeed in exposing what he was looking for. Mueller would have based this initial assessment on guidance from his friend James Comey, who saw the early stages of the case against Trump when he was running the FBI. So Mueller knows he can nail Trump in the end – but what now?
Much as some members of the anti-Trump Resistance may not want to hear this, “going for the kill” does not necessarily mean racing forward as quickly as possible. An investigation like this is more akin to surgery than a foot race. Doing it thoroughly gives a greater chance of success than doing it hastily. Mueller only gets one chance to get this right, and he knows from experience that the best way to pull it off is to use legal leverage to get Trump’s underlings to flip on him.
It’s why we’ve seen Mueller have the FBI knock down Paul Manafort’s door in the middle of the night. It’s why Mueller is pursuing everyone who was even so much as in the room when Donald Trump was plotting to obstruct justice. The point is to push some of them into flipping on Trump, which makes for the most ironclad case of all.
