Breaking

Caucus Race. Emily Carew Woodard, 2015, via Classic FM.

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A little literally breaking news on BBC News Hour, reporting on ongoing debates in the House of Commons: what the government is proposing to do after they lose the next vote they're going to lose, which will be to seek a longer extension (beyond 29 March) to the Brexit process than the one they were seeking before, and to use "the first two weeks" of that extension to try to "find a majority" either for her deal (which will be trotted out as a zombie, I guess, since it's pretty clear there will never be a majority for that) or for some unnamed cross-party alternative, as if the parties themselves were going to stand down from the debate and the MPs take over as individuals.

As if it were starting to sink in for them what we've all been seeing from the outside, that the deepest problem is the political incompetence of all the UK political parties as currently constituted, but who knows what's really going on. May herself has evidently understood that just asking for more time isn't a solution, so that's progress.

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Also in semi-breaking news from Washington, the return of the rumor that the Mueller investigation is about to end, this time more convincing than usual, as the top money-laundering prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, leaves the team:

#BREAKING: Andrew Weissmann, one of the most prominent members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team, will soon leave the office and the Justice Department, two sources tell NPR. https://t.co/FkT15Ek8Jh

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) March 14, 2019

What we know for a fact that means is that the special counsel's investigation of Paul Manafort is over, but we knew that already. What was more novel in this report was a separate piece of news, that the law firm Wilmer Hale is preparing for some of its own members to come back to work from the investigation.

I figured Weissmann might be out after Manafort's sentencing, but the bit about WilmerHale preparing for SCO staff to return strikes me as a clear sign if true.

— Peter Cazar (@peter_cazar) March 14, 2019

Since Wilmer Hale is Mueller's firm, does that mean he's leaving too?

It certainly won't mean there won't be more indictments, or that Manafort's lawyer was right yesterday to inform the public (or more likely the #AudienceOfOne) that there is "no collusion". (As Judge Amy Jackson Berman warned, "The 'no collusion' refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand. The 'no collusion'’ mantra is simply a non sequitur. The 'no collusion' mantra is also not accurate, because the investigation is still ongoing.") They haven't interviewed Donald Junior yet, and if they shut down without interviewing him that's a sign he's going to be arrested. The SCO already has had some weeks to work with the transcripts of the House Intelligence Committee's interviews with Junior, Kushner, Hope Hicks and Keith Schiller, and more. There's also Rick Gates's sentencing yet to happen, to say nothing of Mike Flynn's (though his cooperation with the Mueller squad is said to be now complete—he seems to have more to tell in the Turkish lobbying case). It's definitely not the end of the news on the subject.