...if Mueller's filing against Manafort was a deliberate response to Trump's string of Presidential Pardons, or if the timing was purely coincidental.

Granted, drafting the legal paperwork for such an action must have been initiated a long time ago, but the action itself could have been held in reserve for just such an occasion. Either way, the message to Trump, and his Vegas sleazebag houseboys, is perfectly clear and right on target.

It is also amusing that Mr Trump's Deep State enemies' list are all Republicans--Mueller, Rosenstein, Comey, even Sessions, and appointed by Trump himself. He characterizes this all as a Democratic conspiracy, but it is all coming from his own party. And the "leaks" he continuously rails against are all coming right out of the West Wing. The Mueller investigators are remarkably closed-lipped and disciplined, but there's a lot of people in the White House out to sabotage this President. Granted, most of them are trying to solidify their own positions in the Trump slow-motion coup, rather than doing their best to prevent it. But right now the nation can use any help it can get.

I'd like to read someday the "All the President's Men" of the Trump administration. It will make the Watergate gang look like a collection of patriots and statesmen.