Monday morning, just hours after pundits had settled into dissecting what everyone assumed to be the day’s big revelation—the indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates on a slew of charges related to an alleged money laundering scheme—came an even bigger revelation: George Papadopoulos, foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, had struck a plea agreement with Robert Mueller’s special counsel office.

The name atop that bombshell: Jeannie Rhee, whom Mueller recruited from WilmerHale, the law firm where he has worked since he stepped down as FBI director in 2013.

The former federal prosecutor is known to her colleagues, as one told me, as “an absolute ace trial lawyer—one of the best to ever come out of the US Attorney's Office.” Mueller evidently agreed, asking her to join perhaps the greatest assemblage of prosecutorial talent ever gathered at the Justice Department.

It’s a hire that paid immediate dividends.

Monday morning’s Manafort indictment alone would have been big news, not least because the 31-page document accompanying it laid out a lavish lifestyle of Range Rovers, Mercedes, men's clothing, rugs, and luxury condos allegedly financed with income hidden from the IRS and funneled through a Matryoshka doll of international front companies.

But even as the White House was beginning to put out talking points—and the president himself was tweeting—that Manafort was a “bad guy” but his conduct was unrelated to the 2016 campaign, Mueller’s team produced its surprise second act.

They had another case that went to the heart of whether the Trump campaign had attempted to collude with Russia officials during the 2016 campaign.

And the suspect had already been arrested.

And he had already pleaded guilty.

And he was cooperating.

Until today, Papadopoulos had seemed a bit player in a year-long scandal that starred Manafort, former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and even the president’s own son, Donald Trump Jr.

He is a bit player no longer.

Papadopoulos’ exact level of engagement in the Trump campaign became an instant point of debate on Monday; the White House downplayed him as a low-level “volunteer,” even as photos circulated of him sitting at a table with Trump and just two people away from Jeff Sessions.

Mueller’s bombshell announcement: Papadopoulos had worked with people he knew to be involved at a high level with the Russian government in an attempt to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, notably thousands of stolen emails. He had worked to “arrange a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian government officials,” and had otherwise endeavored through multiple rounds of contact with both Russian-linked individuals and with the Trump campaign to coordinate gaining access to material that would harm Trump’s Democratic opponent. At least one of his contacts was with a woman he believed—evidently incorrectly—was a niece of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Then he lied about that effort to the FBI—a violation of 18 U.S.C., Section 1001, and one of the easiest traps for federal investigators to spring on targets who think that the FBI is less savvy than it is—and made ham-handed attempts to cover up those lies by deleting social media profiles and changing his telephone number.

The Papadopoulos plea will likely be seen as the point of no return.

The allegations date back to March 2016—just as the GOP primaries were wrapping up with the surprise victory of a New York real estate mogul and reality TV host over a field of 16 other more traditional candidates. At that point, Mueller’s court documents lay out—and, according to his plea agreement, Papadopoulos has admitted the documents are “true and accurate” descriptions of his involvement—how Papadopoulos made contact with a London-based professor known to have Russian connections who suddenly developed a “great interest” in Papadopoulos after learning he was advising Trump.