At the end of the day, the “public trust” is our most important national asset. Without public trust, the wheels fall off of our nation of laws. Can there be an act more loathsome than the intentional squandering of the public trust, for the sake of political gain?

The congressional passage of the disastrous Obama-brokered Iran nuclear deal of 2015 is a prime example. The tactics used to intentionally deceive the American public — 57 percent of whom disapproved of the deal — amounted to a gross non-disclosure of significant dangers.

For the sake of political gain, Iran, America’s sworn enemy and the world’s largest purveyor of Islamic terror, was handed a pathway to a nuclear weapon and $150 billion, including $400 million in cash delivered to the Islamic Republic in an unmarked cargo plane. Former Secretary of State John Kerry admitted in an interview with CNBC, “some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC (Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps) or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists.” The world knows these “labeled terrorists” as Hezbollah and Hamas.

Basking in the glowing approval of President Obama, nobody worked harder to facilitate the passage of this foully flawed arrangement than Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Despite the massive strategic downside of the deal’s terms, Schumer proceeded with vigor to employ a skillful combination of smoke, mirrors, and political trinkets. One by one, despite intense opposition, even those senators who seemed to understand the dire consequence of an empowered Iran accepted Schumer’s sparkling trinkets. In a classic act of political trickery, Schumer — understanding the need to cover his tracks with New York voters, including within his own Jewish community — issued a statement of “conscience” and voted perfidiously to disapprove of the agreement, while simultaneously refusing to lobby for other “no” votes.

Amid the abrupt termination of former FBI Director James Comey, Schumer is once again exercising profound hypocrisy. The Senate minority leader, who last year said he does “not have confidence” in Comey due to his reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails days before the presidential election, is suddenly outraged over Comey’s dismissal.

In the event that President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians is proven, the president should, in bipartisan unanimity, be quickly removed from office. Yet Schumer should not be the delegated poster child for the pursuit of the truth. Abdicating the fundamental obligation of upholding the safety and security of Americans, as evidenced by his deceitful ramrodding of Obama’s nuclear deal, disqualifies him as an impartial judge of the truth.

By boastfully lecturing Americans that “nothing less is at stake than the American people’s faith in our criminal justice system and the integrity of the executive branch of our government,” Schumer makes a revolting mockery of this essential task. Not since the era of the Vietnam War has America’s faith in the integrity of the government been so deflated. At the same time, the future credibility of the Democratic Party relies on the party’s ability to sit Schumer on the bench.