At the risk of dating myself, I vividly remember the summer of 1987, when Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s congressional testimony captured the nation. And I remember feeling a sense of disgust when, two years later, this highly decorated American Patriot was convicted of three felony counts related to the Iran-Contra affair — despite having previously been granted immunity for his testimony.

The first of those felony counts, later overturned on appeal due to its reliance on North’s immunized testimony, fell under 18 USC § 1505, namely, aiding and abetting an endeavor to obstruct Congress.

Which brings me to yesterday’s latest bombshell that the very face of thuggish leftist lawfare, one Hatchet Jack Smith, had been reviewing the text messages of 44 current and former members of Congress.

Why am I not surprised, especially given the revelations last fall about Smith’s “Arctic Frost” fishing expedition against essentially the entire Republican political apparatus?

In these most recent revelations, which came first to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and then to Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Ron Johnson via the Trump Justice Department, we learn that the unconstitutionally appointed former special counsel had pilfered communications between the Trump White House and a group of 44 lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, from both the House and the Senate. (Here’s the letter from Assistant AG Patrick Davis to Senator Johnson.)

Also unsurprisingly, Smith and his investigative henchmen apparently did their dirty snooping after bypassing a team created specifically to screen potentially privileged material.

Given that there were four Democrats among this group of 44, it seems like the outrage should be bipartisan — Cory Booker, Adam Smith, Karen Bass, Josh Gottheimer: looking at you — but it won’t be. After all, this sort of thing would further expose the Democrats’ prolonged weaponization of the law against Donald Trump. And besides, this sort of trampling on the Constitution is what the Left lives for.

As the Washington Examiner reports, “Smith’s office requested messages sent between October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021, from phones associated with President Donald Trump and numerous senior advisers, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, daughter Ivanka Trump, deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, counselor Peter Navarro, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, and former Vice President Mike Pence.”

According to Grassley, “Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes.” Johnson called it “yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Here, though, it’s not just the deep state’s unconstitutional spying on a sitting president and his senior staff, and members of Congress. It’s also the middle finger that Smith flipped to congressional investigators while under oath. And journalist Greg Price has the smoking gun. As Price writes, “Jack Smith explicitly denied under oath during his House Judiciary deposition last December that he reviewed text messages from members of Congress.”

Here’s the question that was put directly to Smith: “Did the records that you requested from the Member of Congress include the content of text messages?”

To which Smith answered, “No.”

That seems pretty unambiguous, no? So can we indict this guy already, or is blatantly lying to Congress really not a big deal anymore? Remember: This guy raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth just like Ollie North did. But unlike North, Smith didn’t enjoy any immunity for his testimony.

As legal analyst Joy Pullmann puts it, “An executive agent spying on members of a legislature not only violates the Constitution but is a hallmark of authoritarian states.” She adds:

When will Congress do something serious about this besides pontificate on TV and in no-results hearings? Federal agencies have already spied on Congress on other topics and gotten away with it. This sheds light on why many Republican lawmakers are too fearful to fight to preserve the republic from becoming a leftist police state and instead protect these dangerous agencies. The most recent episode of this was GOP senators’ shameful objections to a Democrat lawfare compensation fund.

Exactly so. I’ve noted it previously, and it bears repeating: The Left loves lawfare. And unless and until we punish those responsible for this weaponization of our criminal justice system, their successors will simply learn that they can keep doing it with impunity. Especially in a rigged town like Washington.