LEGAL/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Donald Trump and Robert Mueller look ready to go to war. It was always theoretically possible that the Russia investigation could end with the President and the special counsel on either side of a constitutional showdown. But a breakneck sequence of events over the last two days may have made the nightmare scenario increasingly likely. Trump, the rule-breaking President who relishes throwing punches, has restocked his legal bench and now has a defense team that might better reflect his aggressive tendencies. After saying he’d love to sit down with Mueller, he now seems to be backing away. And his White House is right behind him — branding the special counsel’s probe a ‘witch hunt’ in an official news release.The President is also escalating the political heat around the Mueller investigation, seeking to rile up supporters, who he has been priming for months as a firewall against any eventual impeachment fight.”
-Stephen Collinson, “Trump and Mueller are closing in on open war,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 3, 2018 2:08 pm