What do they owe and when did they owe it? Or really, what do they owe and to whom did they owe it?

At some point, a lawyer has to be very honest with himself or herself and ask the question,

am I by hanging on actually accomplishing something that is productive and consistent,

both with the interests of the institution and with my professional responsibility, or have I become an enabler?

Hi, and welcome back to Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts, the Supreme Court, and the law.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick. I cover the courts for Slate, and once upon a time I used to sleep. But I don't anymore because we're crazy. We are in the midst of yet another Anthony Kennedy retirement saga at the Supreme Court this week. This one was triggered by Nevada Senator Dean Heller's comments obtained by Politico last week,

intimating that he knew that the justice was going to step down this June.

Now, it is certainly, I think, safe to say that neither Senator Heller nor you nor I,

nor maybe even Anthony Kennedy, knows whether he plans to step down this summer, but also probably safe to say that a whole lot of people will do a whole lot of fundraising in the coming weeks off this rumor regardless.

This week we thought we would turn to something we don't always pay enough attention to on this podcast.

And that's in some small part because there are other podcasts where

other people pay attention to it all the time. And that is the Mueller probe. And specifically,

we want to ask what the ever-loven what is important anymore and what is ancillary and what is

wheat and what is chaff and what it all means to you. Now, later in the show, we're going to talk to

Bob Bauer. He served as White House

Counsel under President Obama, and he writes indispensably for just security and lawfare. But

first, we wanted to try to get our head straight on some news you can use, what matters and what

doesn't, particularly in this weird financial crimes, white collar portion of the Mueller probe.

So the truth is I'm confused. I totally understood the collusion and obstruction parts that I think understood the hacking portion of the Mueller investigation.

But I have run out of brain cells and flashcards now to follow the money parts.

So there are sprawling news

stories in the last couple of weeks. There are meetings in the Seychelles and there's Jared

...