A joint FBI-U.S. Attorney probe of the Clinton Foundation has begun, and the federal prosecutor leading the charge has a history of taking down politicians.

Preet Bharara, dubbed “The Showman” in The New Yorker for his penchant for theatrics and wisecracks, runs the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York and has racked up an impressive number of corruption convictions — from Wall Street bankers, hedge funds, and New York organized crime to prominent politicians.

But a lot of other conservatives scoffed at the notion that the Obama Justice Department would ever take such a step. Given the track record, there is ample reason for doubt. And yet.

I wonder if James Comey is playing a long game? He knew that Loretta Lynch would never go after Hillary Clinton over her breaches of law regarding the treatment of classified information. There is just too much wiggle room. And besides, the public would not be able to see the evidence since it is classified. If you are going to go after somebody that powerful, the public needs to grasp very tangibly what the crime was.

It may well be that he saw a stronger case, much easier to prove and transparently corrupt in appearance to the public, in the Clinton Foundation maneuvers he saw from recovered emails. And then there are Wikileaks emails yet to come.

Instead of going to Lynch, the referral to Bharara, who is known for going after influential pols of both parties, may have been very shrewd. Not a man to shut up if strings are pulled.

I am keeping my fingers crossed. And postponing a final verdict on Comey.