There are legal disagreements about whether Trump could directly fire Mueller and whether there would have to be a showing of misconduct, and it might well be difficult to find a credible figure to obey instructions and curb the special counsel. In any case, that would not automatically end the separate investigation that led to the raid on Michael Cohen’s files, and it might even fuel state investigations and prosecutions in New York.

If Trump were to recklessly end an investigation into whether he is obstructing justice, that would seem prima facie evidence of obstruction of justice. Trump should have learned something from firing James Comey; that misstep didn’t stop the investigation but assured that Comey’s book will be a best seller when it comes out next week, and handed Comey the ABC interview in which he apparently compares Trump to a mob boss.

Sadly, that’s an apt comparison. Trump’s ethos, ever since he was first sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination in 1973, has been about cutting corners. He got away with it when he was a businessman buying $100,000 worth of pianos and stiffing the seller.

Now his pattern of behavior may finally be catching up with him; he and those around him may rue the day he was elected president. Trump himself is probably protected from indictment under Justice Department guidelines, and people like Paul Manafort may be counting on a pardon, but the political price of pardons will be increasingly costly — and they won’t provide protection from state prosecutions.

Trump says he’s the victim of a “witch hunt,” but it’s actually a “criminal hunt” — one presided over by Republicans, most of whom he has appointed. He claims persecution, but it’s just embarrassing for a billionaire who is the most powerful person in the world to exhibit a victim complex.

Any attempt to block the investigation would discredit not only Trump but also our country. Foreign policy moves such as a strike on Syria or confrontations with Iran or North Korea would be clouded by the assumption that Trump was tossing us a new and shiny object to chase.

There’s a Latin phrase that goes to the heart of this investigation: “fiat justitia, ruat caelum,” meaning “justice be done, though the heavens fall” — signifying that the law must be followed wherever it leads. Our legal system may in practice sometimes be as ugly as any sausage factory, but it is inspired by a principle as noble and lofty and simple as any: equality before the law.

This isn’t just about Trump, and it’s not just about sex or hush money or even just about collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. This is about the kind of nation we live in, and whether we aim to be a nation of citizens equal before the law. This is about America.