Trump's only hope is to discredit Mueller -- here's what he may have planned

Donald Trump's best hope of avoiding political ruination—and maybe spending the rest of his life in prison—is to discredit the probe being conducted by Robert Mueller.

As the November midterm elections draw closer, some expect that he will implement a plan to do just that.

Vice talked to Ron Oleynik, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer and expert in foreign lobbying regulation, who laid out the situation. Basically, it comes down to Trump being able to convince his base to stand by him—even if he committed treason.

“The question is when the [results] come out, has the White House prepared the 35 percent or so of the voting population that seem to be strongly behind the president, have they prepared that piece of the electorate to say, ‘Well, yeah, the president has been saying all along this is a witch hunt and it’s not really legal’," Oleynik told the site.

The timing, which Trump does not control, is a major factor in what happens.

“He probably doesn’t want the results coming out during the midterm campaign, but he probably doesn’t want it coming out after, if the Democrats take the House, either,” said Oleynik.

But coming after Mueller, a lifelong Republican who enjoys a sterling reputation, also brings peril.

Another DC lawyer that the site talked to, Lanny Davis, who served on Bill Clinton's legal team, predicted that intensifying his attacks on Mueller will backfire.

"We attacked Ken Starr because he was an overzealous prosecutor," he said. “Muller is the 21st century version of Eliot Ness... Attacking him is a boomerang. Even the most partisan among us would not have been stupid enough to attack Bob Mueller, who is beyond reproach."

You can read the full Vice article here.