One of the great mysteries of the American legal system for the last couple of decades has been the fact that the Clintons, their actions, and their various criminal enterprises seem to be immune to scrutiny by anyone in the legal system. During the time Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, she ran a virtual Blue Light Special on American foreign policy where favorable decisions to foreign governments ran in tandem with hefty donations to the Clinton Foundation or six-figure speeches by Bill Clinton. While there is no doubt that they were enabled by a credulous press that, in exchange for having its head scratched or belly rubbed by the Clintons, simply looked the other way when not outright excusing illegal behavior, it is pretty obvious that a lot of people who served as US Attorneys, or as senior Justice Department officials, or who led law enforcement agencies felt much more class and political loyalty to the Clintons than they felt to the US Constitution.

Earlier in the month, President Trump expressed some frustration over the fact that his own Justice Department seemed perfectly content to sic a special counsel on his presidential campaign while giving the Clintons a pass. Now it seems that Jeff Sessions is on the cusp of doing the right thing and appointing a special counsel to look at a wide range of Clinton-related wrongdoing.

Prodded on by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, the Justice Department has sent a letter in which it says the use of a special counsel is being considered.

The department, in a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee, said the prosecutors would examine allegations that donations to the Clinton Foundation were tied to a 2010 decision by the Obama administration to allow a Russian nuclear agency to buy Uranium One, a company that owned access to uranium in the United States, and other issues The letter appeared to be a direct response to Mr. Trump’s statement on Nov. 3, when he said he was disappointed with his beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and that longstanding unproven allegations about the Clintons and the Obama administration should be investigated. Any such investigation would raise questions about the independence of federal investigations under Mr. Trump. Since Watergate, the Justice Department has largely operated independently of political influence on cases related to the president’s opponents.

This is deflection of the first order. Law enforcement agencies and inspector generals routinely use media reports as a reason to open inquiries. The Clinton misconduct has been documented by several organizations and, for reasons we can only speculate, escaped scrutiny. The letter, itself, makes it clear that Justice is responding to several requests for investigation sent by Goodlatte. Sending a letter on November 13 is hardly a breathless response to Trump’s radio interview ten days earlier and much easily explained by the fact that the letter was sent the day before Sessions was due to testify before Goodlatte’s committee and the same day Representatives Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz co-authored an op-ed demanding Sessions take some action.

The fact is that we either live in a society where we have one set of laws for everyone, rich, poor, Clinton, and non-Clinton or we don’t. The evidence on the Uranium One and State Department pay-to-play are significant and substantial enough that they merit an inquiry. I don’t like the use of special counsels for a lot of reasons, but the best way to ensure that the Clinton’s are treated fairly is to take the case out of the direct management lines of Justice and place it in the hands of a neutral and impartial investigator. Ken Cuccinelli would be a great choice.