Late on the Friday afternoon of February 16, 2018, Mueller indicted 13 Russians for such heinous crimes as creating fake identities on Facebook and Twitter and organizing rallies, both for and against Donald Trump, as well as spending more than $100,000 on political ads -- all this, for the purpose of interfering with the United States Presidential Election -- keep in mind, not a single indicted person will ever see the inside of an American courtroom since there is no extradition treaty between our country and Russia.

The American people have turned against Robert Mueller, and that’s the least of his problems.

After almost a year of investigating, that’s all he had: fake Twitter and Facebook accounts, some minor rallies and a paltry sum spent on political advertising. The left went bananas ululating at the top of their lungs:

“Smoking gun!” “Smoking gun!”

It was the first time in years anyone on the left supported guns! Progressives and their adjuncts, the mainstream media, made it out to be a big deal, but for those of us looking closely, it smacked of desperation.

What has he done lately?

Well, there was…

And then, there is…

Actually, he did ask Rod Rosenstein to give a referral to Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office for a warrant to search the office, home, and pied-à-terre of Michael Cohen. For Mueller, this was an attempt to distance himself from what many see as an abrogation of attorney/client privilege.

Yet, it was something he needed to do, because if he can’t turn Cohen, he’s beginning to realize he has nothing -- and there is the added advantage that “taint” team or no “taint” team, every single damaging thing found in those raids will either be leaked to him or leaked to the press.

Well, not “nothing,” he does have loads of prosecutable crimes committed by key Obama administration figures (including the big man himself), Clinton camp figures, FBI agents, active, retired, and terminated, especially, James “the bitch is back” Comey.

In fact, the more Mueller investigates Trump, the more he discovers crimes committed by the people who engineered his own appointment as well as his ideological brethren.

It was a shrewd, if underhanded, move by the special counsel, even if it was a Hail Mary. It looked as if he might finally be able to force someone to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Then, it happened. Donald Trump granted a pardon to Scooter Libby, who was the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration.

In 2007, Libby was convicted of perjury as a result of the investigation into the leaking of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity. President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month sentence but didn’t grant a pardon. Libby’s alleged crimes happened a decade ago and according to the Washington Post:

“Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby was dealt a severe injustice by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who knew early on that another official, Richard Armitage, had leaked Valerie Plame’s name. Fitzgerald asserted that Libby had lied to prosecutors rather than mistakenly recalled a phone call with now-deceased reporter Tim Russert. The case should never have gone forward (or, if it had, a memory expert should have been permitted to testify), and President George W. Bush should have granted Libby a full pardon before leaving office.”

Why is that significant to Mueller and his investigation?

As the venerable Andrew C. McCarthy has pointed out, the warrant to search Cohen’s offices and homes would probably not been approved had the only crime been a violation of campaign contribution laws (the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about the one night stand she had with the president more than a decade ago), which almost always involve only a return of the donations and a fine, with no jail time. There must have been evidence of other, more significant crimes. As of today, we don’t know what those crimes might be, but it wouldn’t be out of hand to assume they involve potentially substantial prison sentences.

Mueller is smart, because there aren’t many men Cohen’s age, with his money, who would be willing to do time to prevent Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Most would probably say anything to avoid a five, ten, or even twenty-year prison sentence -- even something untrue.

Trump’s pardon of Libby was brilliant. It sent Cohen a message that he wasn’t going to go to jail. If the president was willing to pardon someone who worked for Dick Cheney, probably the man most hated by those on the left and the media, at least until Donald Trump came along, he would pardon Cohen as well.

The Libby pardon took all the air out of Mueller’s attempt to “turn” Cohen. I would have loved to be in the room when Mueller got the news -- time to hit the Johnny Walker Black heavy or beat his dog or something.

If anything, it shows Mueller that Donald Trump is a different kind of Republican. I like Mitt Romney and I think he would have made a decent president, certainly better than Barack Obama, who admittedly set the bar low. Yet, does anyone believe Romney would play dirty like Mueller plays? Or would he fold his hand and accept impeachment rather than fight?

Then something else happened. Rudy Giuliani joined Team Trump.

Trump and Giuliani together are an entirely different animal; they won’t give up; they will fight to the death. Throw in Inspector General Horowitz’s investigation (the report will drop in May) and U.S. Attorney John Huber’s criminal investigation of the FBI (with grand jury power), as well as the public tiring of his witch-hunt, and Mueller must realize he is not on the winning side and unless he has evidence of something criminal on Trump -- and after almost a year that doesn’t seem likely -- he can’t possibly win. In fact, he must be wondering whether many of his witnesses are about to be charged with crimes themselves.

I think Mueller realizes this and has had enough. He’s a smart guy and I think he understands it is time to cut his losses and salvage whatever is left of his reputation.