The editorial continued to note that “there was a time when even a single lie — a phony college degree, a bogus work history — would doom a politician’s career. Not so for Trump.”

Indeed, for anyone with a shred of recall prior to Trump’s occupation of the White House, lying used to be reason enough to seek impeachment.

Congress didn’t file articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon for ordering the break-in to the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate, but for lying about it. And no, the nation did not buy his line that he “was not a crook.” Bill Clinton didn’t face impeachment for his shameful dalliances with a young intern in the Oval Office, but for lying about it when he claimed: “I did not have sex with Monica Lewinsky.” Unfortunately for Clinton, the semen stains on Lewinsky’s dress proved him undeniably wrong.

The real problem with lying at the highest levels of government is that it sends the message to those throughout the bureaucracy that lying is tolerated. While the proof of Trump’s aides and political appointees lying through their teeth is well known, this contagion has now spread to the corruption of the foundational Freedom of Information Act whereby citizens are legally entitled to request and receive information from government files.