Donald Trump stunned the political class into collective paralysis, disbelief, and snarling lawlessness when he won the presidential election in 2016. They have thrown at him what the attorney general rightfully called an “unprecedented” campaign of (he did not use this expression) dirty tricks and defamation. The defeat he has inflicted on them, furnished by investigators committed to the cause of destroying Trump, is not one that can be cushioned, as the election loss was cushioned by the immense distraction about illegitimacy.

The Democratic guerrilla war has not been conducted without betrayals from the Republican side. The NeverTrumpers, especially former House Speaker Paul Ryan and now departed Senators Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and John McCain, and a few of the other senators, including Ben Sasse and Lisa Murkowski, gave some aid and comfort to the enemy for the first two years. But at this late stage, only Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled that if the Democrats used their House majority to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, they would have one Republican vote. Romney was pleased that no American had illegally cooperated with Russian election-meddling, but was “sickened” by Mueller’s nasty portrayal of the president’s foibles.