As I explained in the most recent issue of National Review, the domino effect of Biden’s classified-information scandal is that, while Trump’s indictment on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents appeared imminent just a few weeks ago, it now seems inconceivable that he could be charged when Biden will not be — and, equally salient, when Hillary Clinton got a pass. That does not change the political calculus that a Trump prosecution is the Democratic base’s most devout wish. Ergo, I’ve theorized in discussions with Rich Lowry on The McCarthy Report podcast that the Biden Justice Department, through its special counsel, would redouble the effort to make a January 6 case against Trump.

That has always been the Democrats’ principal objective — indeed, insisting that such a prosecution should be brought was the leitmotif of the House January 6 Committee. It is a hard case to make because, in essence, the Justice Department would be arguing that a frivolous legal theory at some point transmogrified into a felony fraud and obstruction. That would be a promiscuous precedent for federal prosecutors to set — frivolous legal theories are very common, and it’s always been thought that, for the sake of promoting zealous legal defense, we should be content to rebuke such theories without criminalizing them.

A subpoena for the former vice president of the United States strongly suggests that the Justice Department is poised to go down this perilous path, and that a final decision on that score is probably nearing.