When President Donald Trump’s legal team made the early decision to cooperate with Robert Mueller III’s investigation, they successfully gambled that the strategy might help them avert a subpoena fight and a sit-down interview with the special counsel.

That strategy might have also backfired. Thanks to the witnesses and thousands of documents made available to the special counsel, the findings also contained details, often recounted through the eyes of Trump’s aides, of how the president repeatedly sought to curb the Justice Department’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.