White House Staffers Scared the Mueller Report Will Get Them in Trouble With the Big Boss Man

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full—albeit redacted—report on Russian interference in the 2016 election is set to finally be released on Thursday, and with it comes new concerns for the many White House staffers who cooperated with the nearly two-year-long investigation: Trump’s gonna be soooooo mad at them.

According to an NBC News report published Tuesday, multiple current and former White House officials are worried their testimony to Mueller’s team will be publicly included in the final report, exposing them to the president’s mercurial temper—especially if they said something that might be not-so-great for the Trump administration and its preemptive refrain that the report constitutes “total exoneration” of any wrongdoing.

“They got asked questions and told the truth and now they’re worried the wrath will follow,” a former White House official told NBC. Another person “close to the White House” described the current mood as “breakdown-level anxiety.”

At this point, you might be picturing a bunch of rapscallions holding baseball bats and gloves, standing around a broken living room lamp and freaking out about what’s gonna happen when dad gets home and sees what they’ve done. That seems pretty accurate—only instead of a gaggle of unruly scamps, these are all high-powered political operatives, the broken lamp is a massive national security investigation, and “dad” is a mush-brained lunatic who allegedly slapped his own son for not wearing a suit in college.

Among those who spoke to Mueller is former White House counsel Don McGahn, who seemed prepared for what’s coming, reportedly telling a group of Republican Senate staffers last week, “I spent the last couple of years getting yelled at. And you may soon read about some of the more spirited debates I had with the president.”