“The most difficult decision a lawyer has to make is whether to allow his client to speak to the prosecutor—or in this case, the special counsel,” Washington attorney Robert Bennett told me in February, just as Robert Mueller and Donald Trump were beginning to clash over the terms of an interview with the special counsel’s office. Among members of the president’s legal team, however, that decision is not the difficult part—the client is. “He’s always been interested in testifying,” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer in the F.B.I.’s Russia probe, recently remarked. “It’s us—meaning the team of lawyers, including me—that have the most reservations.”

Indeed, there is little upside in making Trump available to Mueller. Given his history as a fabulist, veterans of the D.C. Bar say, the president is almost certain to perjure himself. But Trump apparently has a blind spot where his legal vulnerabilities are concerned. Citing three people briefed on ongoing negotiations with the special counsel’s team, The New York Times reports Trump is convinced he will emerge from the interview unscathed. What’s more, according to these people, he seems to believe that he might actually persuade his interrogators that their investigation is, in fact, a “witch hunt.”

It’s a dangerous delusion given the stakes. As in his meetings with foreign adversaries like Kim Jong Un and his proposed sit-down with Hassan Rouhani, Trump continues to express an unfounded confidence in his ability to bend reality to his will. But an interview with Mueller won’t be another photo-op. If the special counsel finds evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Trump’s words could become the basis for articles of impeachment. (As Trump biographer Tim O’Brien has told me, the president “has never been subjected to this kind of scrutiny in his entire business and political life. He’s certainly never been subjected to someone who has all of the firepower that Bob Mueller is bringing to bear on this.”)

Trump’s sangfroid—surely alarming to his lawyers—is plainly foolish given what is known about Mueller’s investigation. It is true, as Giuliani suggested, that the president’s testimony could prove critical to the obstruction-of-justice and collusion aspects of Mueller’s probe. But that doesn’t mean relief for Trump. On the contrary, it would likely be the beginning of an even more excruciating political process as Mueller turns over his report to Congress. What’s more, Trump himself is only one component of the Russia affair, which has birthed parallel inquiries into Michael Cohen, foreign influence campaigns, the behavior of the president’s son and son-in-law, and a two-part trial of Paul Manafort. Even if Trump can avoid both perjury and self-incrimination—a feat his own lawyer, Giuliani, has suggested is likely impossible—his troubles with the Justice Department will not have a neat ending.

Nevertheless, negotiations over Trump’s testimony are moving forward. On Tuesday night, Mueller responded to a set of specific conditions for an interview that Trump’s legal team proposed earlier this summer. According to the Times, the special counsel agreed to accept some written answers from Trump, as long as the team could preserve the ability to ask follow-up questions of the president in person. But investigators reportedly did not agree to limit the scope of the topics they hope to discuss with the president, including those related to collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians and obstruction of justice. Giuliani said Wednesday that his team is “in the process of responding to their proposal.” And the three people told the Times that Trump’s legal team is expected to counter the offer in the coming days. But Mueller’s proposed format is unlikely to alleviate the concerns of Giuliani and Co., as Trump would still be vulnerable to perjuring himself under the new conditions. Instead, it looks increasingly likely that the two sides will end up in a courtroom showdown over Mueller’s power to subpoena the president for a grand jury testimony. Giuliani has previously said the Trump team is willing to go to court over the issue, entering into untested legal ground.

As the lawyers confer, Trump’s frustrations with the Russia melodrama are bubbling over. Amid a flurry of angry tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump called on Jeff Sessions to end the Mueller investigation, ignoring the fact that the attorney general is recused from overseeing the probe. “This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”