And Whitaker decided to keep his distance. No way anyone can stop this train, now. Delay for awhile, maybe, but not stop.

???

... Mueller’s investigation. Everyone recognizes that. But, it looks to be squarely on the rails today. In trump’s very big brain, aided by his even bigger gut, he may conclude that Whitaker is weak and ineffective.

Shoot Cohen or Bob Mueller?

Stand in front of the court's doors a la George C. Wallace?

Not that I discard anything from Team Individual-1, or Republicans in general. They are capable of damn near anything.

I just don't see how Whitaker could stop this.

But I do tend to dwell in boring reality I guess.

... thinks he could - or should have - because that’s the way trump thinks. I generally dwell in reality as well. But the question you asked - how might this cause problems between trump and Whitaker - requires one to consider trump’s perspective. That most often makes reality irrelevant.

Yeppers

Trump, by everything I've observed about him, seems to think that the Department of Justice should function as his personal law firm. He was jacked all out of shape when Sessions followed DOJ guidelines and recused himself from the Russia investigation as almost his first official act. Trump fumed about that until Sessions finally resigned, and Trump stuck Whitaker into the AG's spot (a move of dubious legality), hoping that Whitaker might prove to be a little more amenable to an attorney-client relationship than Sessions was.

I don't know what Whitaker could be expected to do about the additional guilty plea by Cohen, but you can bet that Trump is super pissed that Whitaker didn't try to stop it some how. Whitaker should probably spend a good deal of time this weekend putting together his story about how that mean old Mueller caught him flat-footed and he didn't have time to do anything about Cohen. Or he got some grit under his contact lens, and before he could flush it out . . . Or he was on his way to the courthouse to stop Mueller, but got a flat tire.

The call that made Trump grab Melania and leave the press pool without notice?

I just have to wonder.

but it was Rosenstein who signed off.

I had seen another report that said that Rosenstein has apparently still maintained control of this investigation.