You know that moment in Jurassic Park when the "clever girl" Australian guy is trying to explain how smart the raptors are by saying that "they've been testing the fences"? Lately it seems that every piece of news from Donald Trump's administration has been reminding me of that moment. Only the limits they've been systematically testing aren't a simple electric fence, but rather the limits and bounds of our country's institutions. Also, unlike with the dinosaurs, the Trump administration's "testing of the fences" doesn't prove they're smart so much as it proves they're despicable. The latest boundary to be pushed comes from a new Washington Post report that details the many ways in which Donald Trump and company have been trying to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the president and his campaign's ties to Russia, especially now that it seems Mueller is looking into Trump's finances as part of the probe.

One way that Trump's legal team is trying to undercut the investigation is to claim that Mueller and his team have conflicts of interest. Mueller was once a member at a Trump golf course, and Trump's lawyers claim that he had a dispute over membership dues when he resigned his membership. Mueller's spokesperson says this isn't true and that no such dispute happened. Additionally, Trump's team claims that some prosecutors working for Mueller had given money to Democrats in the past. Now, obviously there is a great irony in the fact that Trump's team is trying to argue about conflicts of interest while attempting to stop an investigation that is moving into Trump's finances, where it seems likely that conflicts of interest would be found, but even if you were to grant that maybe some donations to Democrats in the past qualifies as a conflict (and I'm willing to bet it doesn't), it seems absurd to believe that Mueller is out to get Donald Trump over his golf membership at Trump National. The only person who could believe that would be a narcissist who thinks his golf course is the most important thing in someone's life.

And as if this odd and transparent attempt to neuter Mueller's investigation weren't disturbing enough, The Washington Post alleges that Trump's contingencies for dealing with any fallout that may occur from being the subject of a wide-ranging investigation into a possible international conspiracy to steal an election may be even broader than we initially thought:

Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

Now the Post does go on to quote a Trump adviser as saying that Trump was simply curious about the extent of his pardoning power and that “This is not in the context of, ‘I can’t wait to pardon myself.’” But I have to say, if you believe that Trump was simply curious about pardons from some sort of theoretical or civic education perspective, then you're either a person who just woke up from a 40-year coma and is totally unfamiliar with who Donald Trump is or, even worse, you're literally Sean Hannity.

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