But Giuliani understands that a messaging campaign does not always require evidentiary support in order to succeed. If Mueller isn't setting public expectations about when the White House can expect the probe to end, it makes sense for the president's lawyers to step into that void and float a few trial balloons, hoping to create an unofficial deadline that starts to feel official as Labor Day draws nearer. Once "September 1 Mueller Deadline" has been reported and repeated as fact in the newspaper of record, it is tough for the special counsel's office to ignore it without appearing, to anyone not paying close attention, as if it is reneging on a promise. The fact that Mueller didn't make this promise is lost to history.

It's fair to wonder whether the Times should have allowed Giuliani to act as a de facto spokesperson for an office that never says much to begin with. But until recently, a baseline assumption of American politics held that while every president dodges and pivots and puts his spin on the news of the day, the White House, at the very least, does not just make things up. For all its bad-faith complaints about the unfair treatment it endures at the hands of the Fake News Media, the administration's willingness to flout these norms allows it to use trusted outlets to make its disinformation seem a little more believable. Maybe this was the goal all along: When no one is credible anymore, the liars are as credible as anyone else.