What’s now unfolding is a collision between the country’s most secretive institutions and the basic promise of equal justice under law. The documents and testimony described by Tulsi Gabbard point to a two-track system: one standard for Hillary Clinton, another for Donald Trump. The same FBI officials who soft-pedaled critical decisions in the Clinton case allegedly drove an aggressive, thinly sourced pursuit of Trump-world figures, all while exchanging messages dripping with open contempt for the man they were investigating.

Layered on top of this is the claim that elements of the outgoing Obama-era apparatus worked to cripple an incoming presidency before it began. If the Justice Department fully investigates and corroborates even part of this, it would mark one of the gravest abuses of power in modern American history. If it does not, many Americans will conclude the system protects its own, no matter the cost to the Constitution.