Morning Joe: Chances of presidential indictment are ‘next to zero’ — but Mueller won’t let Trump off the hook

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said special counsel Robert Mueller's conservative instincts and faith in democratic institutions would likely keep him from overturning the results of the 2016 election -- but that doesn't mean President Donald Trump will be cleared in his investigation.

"Morning Joe" hosted New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt to discuss the latest developments in Mueller's probe, and Scarborough discussed the chances that Trump might be indicted in the sprawling investigation.

"A really good source told me a few days ago, and I wonder if you've been picking this up too, because I talked about the possible indictment of the president, that Bob Mueller at the end is a conservative with a small 'C,'" Scarborough said.

He said that natural conservatism would likely stop Mueller from triggering a constitutional crisis with a presidential indictment.

"He is not going to indict anybody if he can't bring that indictment home and he is not -- he's going to do everything he can do to make sure he doesn't break china in America's constitutional republic," Scarborough said. "The possibility of him actually indicting the president is next to zero because that's not who Bob Mueller is."

He said the former FBI director would most likely present his evidence against the president and let Congress sort out what to do, as Chief Justice John Roberts did in the Supreme Court challenge of the Affordable Care Act.

"It's much more likely if he builds a case for the president, he'll build that case and then, like John Roberts on Obamacare, will say, 'It's not my job to do the voter's job,'" Scarborough said, "'we're going to uphold Obamacare and they can do their job in the voting booth.'"

"Mueller is thinking, 'It's not my job to indict the president and kick him out of office, that's Congress' job,'" he added.