Part of me wonders if Mueller being appointed as special counsel is a good ol' case of handing a black hat rope knowing that he'll hang himself with it. Mueller likely knew this too and tried to use that rope to hang Trump, but keeping up with a growing list of lies is always harder than just telling the truth. To that end, I think Mueller is both hanging himself and taking his associates down with him. He knows where the skeletons are hidden, so it should be relatively easy to use available evidence and cross reference it with the closets he's barricading.