I say "might" because I have no inside information, but here's an educated guess: Mueller spread out his investigative work in progress to various Federal prosecutors, states' Attorneys General, foreign governments, and document repositories outside of the reach of U.S. authorities. The plan is to make Trump et al. aware of the "Doomsday option": if Trump fires Mueller, a large number of his associates will be prosecuted by federal, state, and foreign prosecutors and likely convicted in absentia. State convictions can't be removed by presidential pardon. Those states will invoke their various fraud and racketeering statutes to levy fines against Trump and his people, declare them as fugitives, put out warrants for their arrest, and confiscate their properties.
Foreign governments can do the same thing, but also with the extensive release of documents showing beyond a reasonable doubt that the Trump presidency is dominated by Russia, will feel also free to abrogate treaties and trade agreements and to impose new heavy-handed restrictions on trade and travel.
We Cold War babies haven't forgotten about Mutually Assured Destruction.
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