It’s a sideshow. There is a serious Justice Department investigation underway, one that may be nearing resolution. When a committee of Congress bestirs to start holding hearings under those circumstances, two things happen. First, if the witnesses the Senate suddenly decides it must interview are material to the case prosecutors are trying to build, the Justice Department objects . . . and the Senate must stand down, lest it be accused of interfering with law enforcement. Second, if other witnesses the Senate suddenly decides it must interview are subjects of the Justice Department’s investigation, then they have a very live Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Therefore — with all due respect, of course — they tell the Senate to stick its subpoenas where the sun don’t shine.

By the way, nobody knows this better than a very accomplished trial lawyer named Lindsey Graham, who served as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, and a judge in the military-justice system.

When the salient witnesses are unavailable, what do you get? You get witnesses who appear both to have known nothing and to have avoided learning anything. That is, you get Rod Rosenstein, the star . . . ahem . . . witness in the big hearing the Judiciary held before this week’s spat over the subpoenas.