Once the midterms are past, Americans can resume their reveries about a hypothetical report from the special counsel’s office. There’s no telling how much Robert Mueller knows, but onlookers can speculate about how much the country is likely to find out and how it’s likely to do so. A Mueller Report? A Rosenstein Report? An Impeachment Report? All three? Although some of the issues raised by these notions are familiar, they’re worth revisiting during this lull of attention to the Mueller investigation, in the context of law and regulation rather than hope and fear, and without the summertime chaff of misfired forecasts.

A couple of caveats. First, lots of legal issues remain murky. For instance, Jack Goldsmith has suggested that because of the manner of the appointment, the Justice Department special counsel regulations may apply to Mueller but not to his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. That might make it easier for Rosenstein to release information from the investigation. Second, Mueller and his monolithically tight-lipped staff have surprised Americans before. They may do it again. Accordingly, take these predictions, and all others about the Russia investigation, with a grain of salt.

That said, here’s my take on the reports that Mueller and Rosenstein may prepare and the odds that the public will see them.