To be sure, Schiff, Nadler and their Democratic colleagues are not Russian operatives, any more than Trump is. But the Kremlin official currently in charge of the “distrust and discord” campaign could have no greater evidence of success than the impeachment of our president. One can imagine him reporting to Putin this week: “Look, Mr. President! The Democrats are telling the American people that President Trump cheated to win and will cheat again. They are trying to remove him from office. Americans are divided. Our efforts have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams!”

Russia is most certainly not upset that it was caught interfering in our elections. They and other foreign adversaries interfere in every U.S. election. Sure, they may have made a weak effort to pin it on Ukraine, but they can’t really care much either way. Whichever nation gets the blame, it has to count as success when Americans know that foreign interference happened and, in turn, suspect U.S. leaders of colluding in the effort.

The plan leads to success in every scenario.