AT PRESENT, THEY ANSWER ONLY TO DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS: “Republican presidents have accepted the canard that the D.O.J. and F.B.I. are — quote — ‘independent.’ They are not independent agencies. They are part of the executive branch. They answer to the elected president of the United States.”

Well, they don’t, but they should. None of our allegedly independent or apolitical agencies are any such thing, and it’s important not to pretend otherwise.