I highly recommend the thoughtful column published on Thursday by Ben Wittes of the Lawfare Blog, “Thoughts on Rod Rosenstein’s Testimony.”

He provides a sober review of Rosenstein’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, and a biting assessment of the attempts by Republicans to attack and delegitimize the special prosecutor’s ongoing investigation. It seems that the more evidence is uncovered in the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the more the GOP Congress strains to undermine it.

In the process, Wittes also comments on the revelations of emails that have provided the latest bit of leverage for those Trump defenders.

The release of private correspondence between two Justice Department employees whose correspondence is the subject of an active inspector general investigation is not just wrong. It is cruel. It is not the practice of the Justice Department to turn over to Congress—let alone to give to reporters—active investigative material related to the private communications of its own employees. Justice Department and FBI employees have the right to their political opinions. To the extent their private political expressions for some reason make it impossible for them to work on a certain matter, they certainly have the right to have that determined without having their careers ruined and their names dragged publicly through the mud by politicians who know nothing about the circumstances in question.

I don’t know whether agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page did anything improper, or merely engaged in ill-advised and foolish communications that did not impact their work. I have no quarrel with Mueller for removing Strzok from the investigation, whether for substantive or appearance reasons. But I do know this: these questions deserve to be adjudicated within the confines of a serious internal investigation, not a partisan circus.

In any case, Wittes’ careful columns are one of the things that keep me returning to Lawfare Blog, and I’m rarely disappointed.