The problem is that in making this case, Consovoy inadvertently backed into another problem, one much bigger and more alarming. Earlier in the argument, Consovoy had emphasized the danger of “the proliferation” of hundreds of state prosecutors investigating a president, if all 50 states were “unleashed.” Judge Christopher Droney replied, “How is that different from federal grand juries’ subpoenas? There are a lot of state [prosecutors] but there are a lot of federal U.S. Attorneys, too.”

Consovoy’s answer: “Because the Attorney General exercises control at the end of the day over all [those prosecutors].”

In this answer, Consovoy revealed the precise reason state prosecutors must be able to investigate, subpoena, and even indict a sitting president. The world is now witnessing a partisan, conflicted, and perhaps even criminal co-conspirator attorney general capture a Department of Justice to protect a sitting president. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance felony, but his co-conspirator client remains unindicted. Somehow the alleged inauguration crimes that other federal prosecutors were investigating and the many other investigations that Robert Mueller spun off have gone dark or have stalled on marginal figures. And, as was reported late Thursday, William Barr is using the DOJ instead to start a criminal investigation of the investigators, while also running around the world to pursue Trump’s conspiracy theories about how the investigation started. Trump mentioned Barr several times in his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Barr may be violating election laws by soliciting campaign support from foreign governments.