Almost four months ago, allies of Donald Trump found themselves consumed by a scandal so mind-boggling, they felt sure it would turn the political world on its head. “Watergate times a thousand,” Sean Hannity warned. “This is 100 times bigger [than what led to the American Revolution],” Sebastian Gorka insisted. “[This is] a component of what looks like a much larger conspiracy involving the #Obama DOJ & FBI & more,” tweeted Iowa Rep. Steve King, clearly incensed. They were referring to a memo compiled by G.O.P. Congressman Devin Nunes, which allegedly revealed abuses of surveillance power by key members of the Justice Department and F.B.I., including James Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Yet when the memo itself was revealed to the public, it turned out to be such a hopeless dud that the conspiracy around it dissipated almost immediately.

It seems the cycle may repeat with the president’s newest pet theory, perhaps his most desperate attempt yet to discredit Robert Mueller: that the F.B.I. planted an illegal “spy” within his campaign for political purposes. Despite his feverish claims, which continued into Friday, that #SPYGATE “could be one of the biggest political scandals in history”—“Can anyone even imagine having Spies placed in a competing campaign, by the people and party in absolute power, for the sole purpose of political advantage and gain?” he tweeted Friday morning—a small group of lawmakers who met with F.B.I. and D.O.J. officials to be briefed on their use of an “informant” came away wholly unimpressed.

“Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the F.B.I. or any intelligence agency placed a spy in the Trump campaign or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols,” ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff told reporters, speaking on behalf of all the Democrats who attended, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Republicans, in contrast, have been uncharacteristically mum since the Thursday meetings, with Nunes choosing not to comment and House Speaker Paul Ryan simply saying, “I cannot and will not comment on a classified session . . . I look forward to the prompt completion of the intelligence committee’s oversight work in this area.” A source familiar with one of the meetings told Reuters that Nunes “did not speak at all,” and that his Republican colleagues “did not aggressively push or defend Trump’s spying allegations.”

For weeks, a group of Republican lawmakers, led by Nunes, had pressed top law-enforcement officials to give them information on the use of an F.B.I. informant who reportedly made contact with three members of the Trump campaign during the early stages of the D.O.J. investigation. But Rosenstein, along with F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, refused, arguing that complying would jeopardize a critical intelligence source. (Multiple outlets have since confirmed that the informant was Stefan Halper, a former Cambridge University professor.) Yet they were seemingly strong-armed by Trump’s escalating tantrums, which reached a peak on Sunday night when he “demand[ed] . . . that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” In a savvy half-capitulation, Rosenstein agreed to have Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is already investigating the handling of the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe and the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, look into it.