I agree with you, Mueller's position is weak. Trump has bigger fish to fry, and wants this wound up yesterday. But it needs to wind up in such a way that it dies.
AGREE!! I find it so strange that people can't see Trump's pattern. What he's doing parallels his other negotiations, including NK, Iran, and China - he spends a lot of time in the "maybe I will, maybe I won't, who knows?" phase.
He campaigned on his technique of deliberate unpredictability, yet people are just flummoxed when they see it happening in real life.