“Everyone is paranoid,” said a person close to Trump’s White House. “Everyone thinks they’re being recorded.”

Politico goes on to quote Trump administration lawyer and noted steak enthusiast Ty Cobb pooh-poohing the notion that Mueller can make much use of wiretaps within the bounds of relevant ethical constraints—a blanket assertion that is, to put it generously, dubious. But the precise legal underpinnings of any information-gathering techniques that the special counsel may or may not be employing are of little interest to extremely-shook staffers who have no idea what any of their colleagues know, or what they may have said, or what their interests might be in engaging in any given conversation. When you wake up every morning terrified that you might see your name in a push alert, everyone starts to look like a snitch.

“They’re probably shitting bricks,” said an attorney who represents a senior Trump aide caught up in the Russia investigation. “How can you not?”

It's admittedly satisfying to watch these people slowly grapple with the ramifications of their association with this rotten-to-its-core administration, and to squirm in an attorney-imposed cone of uncertain silence. However, this toxic environment could also have serious consequences that extend beyond any one individual's potential legal liability. While Robert Mueller's work continues, the people in the White House are still responsible for fulfilling the day-to-day duties of the executive branch. The self-preservation instinct is a powerful one, and it's hard to imagine the government functioning normally with so many of its key figures unable to really trust one another. This sounds like a miserable experience for everyone involved, but on the bright side, they have no one to blame but themselves.