As outside allies urge the White House to do more to push back against special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, President Trump’s team has settled on two lines of defense: point the finger at Hillary Clinton and keep the former campaign adviser who has already pleaded guilty to lying to investigators at arm’s length.

The political effectiveness of both tactics will be tested in the coming weeks, but neither tests the bipartisan congressional blowback the president would risk if he took concrete steps to pull the plug on Mueller’s probe as some in his orbit advise.