As Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation churns on, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow suggested Thursday that the consequences for the White House could be worse than initially suspected.

She was reacting to colleague Nicolle Wallace‘s reporting on her afternoon broadcast during which she said that the probe was still under Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein‘s management and direction, and that President Donald Trump “has not involved himself yet in any of [its] machinations.”

Maddow was stunned.

“That is remarkable…and that’s a really big deal,” she told Wallace, noting that she wondered whether Mueller was “somehow throttled compared to how he used to be able to conduct his investigation and pursue prosecutions related to this matter.”

“Is he unable to bring new indictments because Matt Whitaker won’t approve them? Is he unable to take other major steps? Is he acting the way that we’ve seen over the past few days with the sort of augmentation of the situation that he’s got with Paul Manafort? The friction now with Manafort? The rescinding of his plea deal? Opening this new line within the Michael Cohen inquiry?”

Just hours before Maddow and Wallace spoke, it was reported that Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, had worked out a new plea deal with Mueller, admitting to lying to Congress. Earlier this week, Manafort, who chaired the president’s 2016 campaign, was accused of lying to the special counsel, thus breaking his plea deal.

Though there are concerns that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker could attempt to interfere in Mueller’s investigation, Maddow implied that might not be the case.

“It actually makes me feel like this must be a much more ominous moment for the White House because if Mueller is proceeding without being throttled or stymied and proceeding at this kind of a pace, rolling out this stuff right now, everything is aiming right at the president personally and that’s got to be very unsettling for them,” she said.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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