second. what the "times" is reporting tonight is that in june, the month after robert mueller was appointed special counsel, the president, maybe the president alone, we don't know if he received advice or encouragement but he came up with an argument, a three-part argument that robert mueller had personal conflicts that meant he could not be special counsel and continue to serve in the role and there was a dispute over fees at the trump national golf club when he was a member and fbi director in virginia years ago, that he had been associated with the law firm wilmer hail that once represented jared kushner and interviewed to possibly return as fbi director in the trump administration. none of those seem like terrible personal conflicts that would be seen by, you know, ethics folks at the justice department as a reason somebody couldn't serve as special counsel. those would be things that the justice department knew about