At this point the most obvious fair-minded explanation of the Russia investigation is that it exists to paralyze the Trump administration. It certainly monopolizes the president’s attention. When he is abroad he broods over the latest media talking points from his suite. When he is in Washington, he fumes in front of the television and tweets his favorite tidbits from Fox News. The special counsel has taken his attention away from diplomacy and the other ordinary business of the presidency. Mueller has failed to deliver the goods not simply because there are no goods to deliver but because delivering them is not the point. The point is to hurt Trump.

Even if Mueller gets something real — a perjury charge, say — it won’t matter anyway. There is no constitutional mechanism for the criminal prosecution of a sitting president. Mueller understands this. His fanboys should too but they insist that somehow, somewhere, in some way it must be possible to get the commander-in-chief in front of a jury. It cannot happen while he is in office. Nor should it. If it were possible to prosecute the president of the United States, the number of frivolous charges brought against the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would be almost unimaginable. The White House would have to be moved to Guantanamo Bay to prevent a Republican attorney general in Nebraska from indicting a sitting Democrat on RICO charges because he vetoed legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act.