I like this question, because I like any question that seems to come out of the blue. What we knew is that The Washington Post reported that President Trump actually tried to get Dan Coats to pressure the F.B.I. to shut down its investigation. But we didn’t know anything that suggested there was something going on behind the scenes when the special counsel showed up to interview these three senior intelligence officials. So it really makes me wonder: Does Bob Mueller know something? Does he have some indication that something went on behind the scenes? Or is this just kind of an open-ended question? It seems far more likely that Bob Mueller thinks there’s a reason for lifting up this rock. This question is toward the bottom of the list, but it gets at the heart of Robert Mueller’s investigation. His mandate is to look at Russian election interference and whether the Trump campaign was complicit. We’ve already seen evidence that a Trump campaign adviser was told that the Russians had compromising emails about Hillary Clinton. This question gets at whether the candidate himself knew. President Trump has said repeatedly to the public that there is no collusion. “There’s been no collusion.” “No collusion.” “No collusion whatsoever with Russia.” Will he say the same thing when he’s asked by federal investigators? We’ll see. Well, if you remember, President Trump met with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, inside the White House. And during their meeting he told the Russian ambassador, quote: I think this question stands out to me because it really goes to the heart of this case. Did President Trump try to end the Russia investigation into whether any of his associates colluded with that country by firing James Comey. This question cuts at one of the most sacred powers the president has: the ability to pardon someone. But in this case, was the president using that power as a way of stopping his former national security adviser from cooperating with Mr. Mueller’s investigation?