Does anyone in the Biden administration recognize the wisdom in the First Rule of Holes? Nine months ago, Joe Biden swore to punish mounted Border Patrol agents over entirely false allegations of “whipping” based on a misunderstood photograph. Two months ago, the Department of Homeland Security quietly let it be known that no whipping had taken place at all.

And yet, they’re apparently still going to punish the agents for supposed “administrative” violations, Fox’s Bill Melugin reports:

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to discipline “multiple” horseback Border Patrol agents involved in the infamous “whipping” incident of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border back in September.

A federal source told Fox News an announcement on the matter is expected within the coming days.

The source said that DHS will be putting forth proposals to discipline the agents who will have a chance to respond to the charges. The charges, Fox News is told, are “administrative violations,” and do not amount to criminal conduct – of which the agents were previously cleared.

What “administrative” violations could they have committed if they didn’t whip the immigrants? They have been confined to desk jobs since the photo got released and Biden stoked outrage over the “misinformation” about the use of reins in mounted patrols. Riders twirl their reins to keep migrants from trying to grab the horses or the agents themselves, which is what the photographer captured in this instance. The photographer himself tried explaining that even before Biden seized on the outrage:

The photographs, which were taken Sunday, appear to show agents on horses with a whip in hand. The photos caused outrage because from certain angles, it appears to show Border Patrol whipping migrants, but photographer Paul Ratje said he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone.

“Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses,” Ratje said.

Ratje is a photographer based in Las Cruces and has been in Del Rio since Friday. He said took the photographs from the Mexican side.

“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Ratje said. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

Nevertheless, Biden persisted in his demagoguery the next day:

"Of course I take responsibility, I'm president."

Pres. Joe Biden tells @rachelvscott the controversial handling of Haitian immigrants "sends the wrong message around the world," claiming "there will be consequences." https://t.co/kx01LNbaNT pic.twitter.com/o3kDDt5Giq

— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2021

Having smeared these agents in the first place and railroaded them out of border enforcement, DHS appears to be punishing them for the “administrative” violation of Joe Biden making a fool of himself. This smells like a cover-your-ass decision to somehow keep digging in that hole that Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas created with Whipgate as a means to justify the entire embarrassing mess. It’s a disgrace, and it has been since Day One of this demagoguery against border-enforcement personnel.