The Justice Department cannot be so afraid of losing a case—or of political blowback—it fails to do its duty.

That filing that the lawyers for the congressional committee looking into the events of January 6 dropped in court last week, part of the committee’s continuing effort to get John Eastman to turn over email correspondence, seems to have fallen quite hard on the heads of congressional Republicans. The whole smoke-fire thing has a new salience in their minds, and they’re lashing out, poor dears.