There were underlying crimes — lots of them. Trump’s own aides pleaded guilty to lying at various junctures. His campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of a series of crimes, as was his lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen. And Trump has even been implicated in crimes — campaign finance violations — in the Cohen case that was related to the Mueller probe.

Trump also rather obviously didn’t like the story line that Russia made the difference in electing him, so he also had a political motive to want to hamper the investigation. When the special counsel was appointed, Mueller reported, Trump said he was “fucked” and that it was the “end of my presidency.”

So the idea that Trump had nothing to hide — including crimes — by obstructing the investigation is pretty far-fetched.