Trump’s unwillingness even to acknowledge the scope of the Russian attack or suggest that he’ll do anything about it comes off as conspicuously defensive—and suggests fear of what may still be to come from Mueller, who is reportedly close to a plea deal with yet another former Trump aide, Rick Gates.

Trump’s position is also starkly at odds with that of his own top national security aides. Following the indictment, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said at a security conference in Munich that the evidence on the Russian campaign of “disinformation, subversion and espionage” targeting the 2016 US elections “is now incontrovertible.”