Prior to the latest move, the administration had been laying the groundwork to attempt to cut off Iran from global energy markets without raising the price of gasoline or alienating some of Washington's closest allies.
Trump did not explain why he believes Mueller is conflicted, a charge that could lay the groundwork for attempting to fire him as special counsel.
[Page A10.] Outside Falluja, American marines resumed fierce clashes with insurgents, continuing a military push that began on Friday and appeared to be laying the groundwork for an attempt to retake the city from insurgents.
But this time, Democrats are prepared — and are already laying the groundwork to accuse Republicans of a cynical attempt to weaponize anti-Semitism.
Since January, Gov. Jerry Brown has been laying the groundwork for an attempt to regain greater control of California's 33 adult prisons, the nation's largest corrections system.
After pleading guilty in September and pledging to cooperate, Manafort then began leaking information about the Mueller investigation to the president's lawyers, in what former prosecutors and defense attorneys have called an apparent attempt to lay the groundwork with Trump for a presidential pardon.
The move to name the commanders could be seen as laying the groundwork for future war crime prosecutions, though a previous attempt by the Security Council to get the situation in Syria referred to the International Criminal Court was vetoed by Russia.
The Dalai Lama scoffs at attempts by the Chinese government in recent years to claim a role in the approval of reincarnations (an obvious attempt, say exiles, to lay the groundwork for rejecting the legitimacy of any Dalai Lama chosen outside China and for installing one whom the Chinese authorities believe they can control).
But the new bid is spelled out in much greater detail, in an attempt to lay the groundwork for a crucial regulatory ruling in the next few weeks.
It is an attempt to lay the groundwork for innovative Chinese companies and to reshape the technological landscape by doing something more than assembling the world's desktop PCs.
But Clinton advisers have recently pointed to Mr. Obama's financial advantage, in what appears to be an attempt to lay the groundwork to stay in the race should she lose by a small margin or squeak to victory in either or both states.
