Washington greeted the news that the Justice Department had named Robert Mueller special counsel to oversee the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election with a collective sigh of relief. The speed and intensity of events and developments about this interference—and the possibility that Trump associates were involved or had knowledge of it—had only increased over the first four months of Donald Trump’s presidency.

It was particularly virulent in the nine days preceding Mueller’s appointment. In quick succession, the FBI director was fired, the White House lied about the reasons, the president reportedly disclosed classified intelligence to the Russian foreign minister, and the White House declined to comment on whether Trump had recordings of his conversations with Comey or others. Then on the evening of May 16, the New York Times reported that Comey had drafted a detailed memo following a February meeting with Trump in which the director claimed the president had pushed him to “let go” of the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn, the epicenter of scrutiny about Russian meddling.