Byron York’s new book, Obsession: Inside the Washington Establishment’s Never-Ending War on Trump, will be published Sept. 8. An account of the long effort to remove President Trump from office, from the roots of the Mueller investigation through the impeachment acquittal, the book includes interviews, documents, and accounts that have never been seen before. This excerpt focuses on the days after the president was stunned by the appointment of Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller. He quickly assembled a legal team — veteran litigators John Dowd, Jay Sekulow, Ty Cobb, Michael Bowe, and communications adviser Mark Corallo — and considered the most basic question: Should he attack Mueller or cooperate with him? Or both? “I would say to him, ‘Mr. President, just don’t attack Bob Mueller by name,'” recalled Corallo. “‘Don’t attack him. … It doesn’t help you.'” But Trump could not resist taking shots at Mueller, who was personally disturbed by them. “Bob was annoyed by the president’s teeing off,” recalled Dowd. “I explained to him that it’s political. He’s got a political role. And Bob seemed to understand that. But he said, ‘What I’m worried about is that it will discourage cooperation.’ And I said, ‘Hell, we’ll fix that. We’ve told everyone to cooperate, and we’ll do it again.’ … Bob appreciated that.” For most of the investigation’s early months, Trump held back. And what the public did not see was that the president and the special counsel made an extraordinary deal to cooperate. The basic structure of the deal was that Trump would provide unprecedented access to White House staff and papers — remember, he allowed the White House counsel, Don McGahn, to testify for dozens of hours — in exchange for Mueller promising to speed the investigation. It started out with high hopes. From Obsession:

Trump and his team began the Mueller investigation by believing that 1) they could build a good working relationship with Mueller and 2) it would be all over by the end of 2017, just six months away.