So this happened today, and the Green Rooms of America will be lit tonight. From the Washington Post:

The statement — signed by myriad former career government employees as well as high-profile political appointees — offers a rebuttal to Attorney General William P. Barr’s determination that the evidence Mueller uncovered was “not sufficient” to establish that Trump committed a crime. Mueller had declined to say one way or the other whether Trump should have been charged, citing a Justice Department legal opinion that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, as well as concerns about the fairness of accusing someone for whom there can be no court proceeding.

“We emphasize that these are not matters of close professional judgment,” they added. “Of course, there are potential defenses or arguments that could be raised in response to an indictment of the nature we describe here. . . . But, to look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice — the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution — runs counter to logic and our experience.”

And good for you all.

Barr’s decision on obstruction charges was just torn apart by hundreds of former prosecutors. It won’t matter. Mark Wilson Getty Images

But so what?

The statement is notable for the number of people who signed it — 375 as of Monday afternoon — and the positions and political affiliations of some on the list. It was posted online Monday afternoon; those signing it did not explicitly address what, if anything, they hope might happen next.

Among the high-profile signers are Bill Weld, a former U.S. attorney and Justice Department official in the Reagan administration who is running against Trump as a Republican; Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush Administration; John S. Martin, a former U.S. attorney and federal judge appointed to his posts by two Republican presidents; Paul Rosenzweig, who served as senior counsel to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr; and Jeffrey Harris, who worked as the principal assistant to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was at the Justice Department in the Reagan administration.

The list also includes more than 20 former U.S. attorneys and more than 100 people with at least 20 years of service at the Justice Department — most of them former career officials.

Nobody of any real influence to do anything about this self-evident welter of impeachable offenses has any intention of doing it, not even if every Supreme Court justice back to John Marshall rises from the dead and signs onto this letter. The fact is that the very nature of political influence has changed, and it's been placed in other hands. It is now a blunt instrument, like a hammer, and the people wielding it believe themselves to be in a universe of nails. If nothing else, this letter is yet another public demonstration of the fundamental impotence of bipartisanship in an age in which someone like this president* can prosper.

How do these people change Mitch McConnell's mind? Or Jim Jordan's? Or Sean Hannity's? Or the minds of all the millions of people who watch his show? Or Rush Limbaugh's? Or the minds of the millions of people who listen to him every day? What pressure can 350 former law-enforcement bureaucrats and high-ranking supervisory jamokes bring that will not fall before the combined political pressure of the Federalist Society and the rest of the Koch-infused wingnut welfare state? How do they plan to overcome a political system gone so mad with money that it will accept almost anything as long as the plutocrats are not inconvenienced? Why do so many people believe that the president* and his enablers can be pressured into doing the right thing for the country? You might as well try to pressure a cobra into being a housepet.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io