The collusion nonsense was an attempt to frame an innocent man, Donald Trump. The principal aim: Save the necks of the Uranium One culprits. Let that sink in. We can be sure the president has.

Not much distance was needed to gain confirmation. The Trump-Russian collusion charges were all deception and diversion. It reeks of conspiracy. It was Plan B in the Clintons’ and Democrats’ playbook. Plan A was the election of Hillary as president. From the Oval office, she’d bury Uranium One deeper than any nuclear waste could be in Yucca Mountain.

House Republicans have just launched an investigation into the Uranium One deal. The deal happened during Obama’s tenure. That’s no coincidence -- not with Hillary Clinton around. The former president may be neck-deep in yellowcake. Uranium One is a tangled web of criminality. It appears to involve higher-ups -- elected and appointed -- on an unprecedented scale.

The bigger allegations: Massive payoffs to the Clintons, via their foundation. Bill also pocketed a cool half million dollars for a speech in Russia -- suspiciously at the time the Uranium One deal was developing. National security breaches by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which Obama may be complicit. That’s along with his then-attorney general, Eric Holder. A coverup, involving the Clintons (of course), Obama, Holder, Lynch, maybe McCabe, maybe Mueller, maybe Rosenstein, more likely maybe Comey.

Who are we missing? Obama White House maids, butlers, and kitchen help have yet to be implicated.

The big questions are: if allegations bear out, will the Clintons and their coconspirators be held accountable for their criminality? Is a special counsel in the offing? (Jeff Sessions, call the office.) If a special counsel finds wrongdoing, will indictments be referred? That’s regardless the star-power of the culprits. Will justice be done, or will the wrongdoers slip -- legal -- nooses? Slipping nooses is a Clinton artform.

Tuesday evening, Newt Gingrich declared to Sean Hannity that Uranium One will be the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. That’s not hyperbole. Watergate pales by comparison. The Teapot Dome scandal didn’t involve selling out a national security asset to a rival nation -- Russia. Putin’s Russia, which -- irony of ironies --Democrats and establishment Republicans have been decrying as Enemy Number One. You have to marvel at the audacity.

The massiveness of the corruption, the breaches of national security, the players involved, and the daring to misdirect and coverup should stun -- but for the names central to the plot: Bill and Hillary Clinton. They’re proof of reincarnation. They’re the Borgias sans miters. The Borgias weren’t just scoundrels, they were evil.

So are the Clintons -- from sex scandals to dirty money to enemies’ lists and revenge… decades worth of sordidness and corruption. They’ve tainted about everything and everyone they’ve touched. Future generations will be intrigued and appalled. How on earth did these rogues get away with serial lawbreaking? How? They were excused and abetted by Democrats and the MSM. Political gain, power, and money -- which flowed from Clintons’ successes -- had Faustian seductiveness.

So, will justice be done? Can the nation tolerate no justice in this affair? If investigations substantiate allegations, but the culprits – and not just the Clintons -- get away with crimes, what harm is done to the nation?

If the Uranium One rogues’ gallery are guilty but skate, it will rupture whatever faith is left in the U.S. justice system. It will hang a cloud over federal law enforcement; chiefly, the FBI. Everyday Americans’ belief will be validated: justice is for them, not for the rich, powerful, and connected. So great a rupture will be hard to fix.

Justice, mind you, means criminal punishment. That’s not to be confused with the punishments typically meted out by elites toward miscreant elites. You know, shunning, board directorships stripped, loss of book deals, and pricey speaking gigs evaporating.

Justice is investigations, fairly and thoroughly conducted, that lead to the truth. It’s indictments, if warranted (and everything points that way). It’s prosecutions – and not just of those down the chain.

The risks to national security and the depth of venality that are part and parcel of Uranium One means getting at the truth and sparing no one. No chatter about sparing the nation the trauma of months of trials of people who once held -- or who now hold -- high stations and the public trust. Because it’s precisely the public trust that hangs in the balance.

Saying that, President Trump must catch his breath at times, as he weighs the impact of criminal investigations and indictments. Even a man as bold as Trump must be shaken by what needs to be done to remedy wrongdoings of historic magnitude.

Short term, bringing powerful Democrats and high profile federal appointees to justice is sure to roil the nation. Democrats, the left, and the MSM are sure to stir up trouble among their partisans. They’d see powerful personages on their side going down as threats to political fortunes -- theirs. It’s also sure to discomfit segments of Americans to witness former presidents and high officials in federal courtrooms, attorneys pleading their cases.

But as Lincoln once said, “Let the grass grow where it may.” There’s no gain without pain. Whatever the passions and tumult are in the moment, justice done in Uranium One makes for a stronger nation in the long run. Americans must see that the system can be cleaned up and act on the side of the angels.

Let’s underscore that the Uranium One scandal is a greatly disturbing -- and actually frightening -- affair. It sets a dangerous precedent – if real justice isn’t sought and rendered. High officials -- elected and appointed, existing and former -- willingly compromising national security for bribes, and then covering up the affair. Getting away with it could only embolden unscrupulous characters to dare similar crimes in the future. Not just the welfare but the lives of Americans could be endangered.

Bad people with vaulting ambitions there always will be. But their bad deeds must be punished -- doubly so for acts of treachery… treachery by the very men and women sworn to uphold the law and protect the nation.