With his legal team in shambles and the Russia investigation snowballing, President Donald Trump is torn between Senate Republicans who are worried he’ll fire Robert Mueller, allies who want him to purge the F.B.I., and the stark reality that any of his self-described moves to “fight back” will only be considered more evidence of obstruction. Until recently, Trump’s attorneys had kept him calm by promising that Mueller’s probe would soon be over, and that if he offered his full cooperation with the special counsel, he would swiftly be exonerated. As this fantasy has unraveled, however, Trump has turned to new sources for legal strategies, all of which revolve around a common theme: it is time to stop playing innocent, and start fighting like you’re guilty.

The Fox News Nuclear Option

On Wednesday night, just minutes before Fox News host Sean Hannity went live, Trump hyped what he said would be a “big show,” and urged his millions of followers on Twitter to watch. One of the big guests was attorney Joseph DiGenova, whom Trump almost hired to join his legal team last month before undefined “conflicts” came between the two. Among Fox News commentators, there are only a few schools of thought when it comes to the Russia probe: those who think Trump should oust Mueller; those who think he should fire Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the probe; those who think Jeff Sessions should go, too; and those who think all three (along with the leadership of the F.B.I.) should be taken out in chains. DiGenova, falling into the more conservative of these camps, argued that Sessions should fire Rosenstein, who signed off on the F.B.I. raid of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. According to diGenova, Sessions has “a duty to fire Rod Rosenstein.” He also derided Mueller’s team of investigators, characterizing them as “legal terrorists” and slammed former F.B.I. director James Comey as a “dirty cop.” Trump was almost certainly watching.

The Dershowitz Defense

Harvard emeritus turned Fox News regular Alan Dershowitz, who has become one of Trump’s favorite legal minds, has said that he doesn’t give “advice to the president, except on television.” (Meetings at the White House on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, in the wake of the Cohen raid, he has insisted were unrelated.) Whether he is advising Trump in person or telegraphing legal counsel through the media, however, Dershowitz is talking, and Trump is listening. Politico reports that Dershowitz “has spoken with him about a range of issues, including his escalating legal troubles” and that “top White House advisers said they view Dershowitz as an important legal asset, even if he’s not officially on the payroll.”

The strategy Dershowitz has outlined seems to be a more elegant version of the blunt-force tactics advocated on Fox News. “I would say not to fire,” he told Slate in an interview Tuesday, referring to Mueller and Rosenstein. “I have already said it on television. My advice would be don’t fire, don’t pardon, don’t tweet, and don’t testify.” He has, however, floated a way to sideline Rosenstein, placing the Mueller probe in the hands of the next person in line at the Justice Department—a prelude, perhaps, to restricting the scope of the Russia investigation.

“I think Rod Rosenstein [should be] recused,” he told Hannity on Wednesday night—the same show Trump had urged his followers to watch. “I don’t think he can serve on an investigation in which he will end up being the key witness.”