"WHERE THE HECK IS THAT AMANTILLADO?":

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is methodically lining up his targets for what increasingly looks like a recommended indictment of Mr Trump for more than one federal crime. On Friday, "individual #1", as Mr Trump is called in the filings, was implicated in a federal crime in the sentencing reports for Michael Cohen, his estranged personal lawyer, and Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman.

The filings were heavily redacted. But even from what was visible, they establish connections between the Russian government and people around Mr Trump from as early as November 2015 -- eight months before he took the Republican nomination. The chess grandmaster, Garry Kasparov, once said that Mr Trump "had more Russia connections than Aeroflot". Mr Mueller has by no means finished mapping them out. "Individual #1" also directed Mr Cohen to break federal election laws in the payment of hush money to two women.

The looming denouement of Mr Mueller's investigations coincide with the Democratic takeover of the US House of Representatives, which formally starts in early January. Mr Trump remains fixated before then on securing funding for his border wall. But the walls closing in on his presidency are more tangible than the one on the Mexican border.

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