While many were focusing on the favorable Michael Flynn ruling by a three-judge panel from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, there was another big piece of news — this one about the FBI’s abuse of its counterterrorism powers in Spygate. We’ve long sought accountability for those abuses, and we’ve also noted that they’re part of a pattern. But the new information is damning on several levels.

For starters, thanks to newly released notes from former FBI hack Peter Strzok, we now know that during the infamous January 2017 White House meeting — the one that was the subject of Susan Rice’s CYA email to herself on Inauguration Day — Barack Obama ordered that the investigation into Flynn continue and that the “right people” conduct the investigation.

If you think that doesn’t sound ominous, consider a hypothetical we’ve posed before, in which George W. Bush suggests that the “right people” look into the so-called Gitmo Bar for possible violations, while CIA lovebirds text about an “insurance policy” to protect the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation procedures, undermine Obama’s (badly misguided) policy objectives, and ruin the lives of the leftist lawyers who’ve thrown in with al-Qaida terrorists. How would Spygate’s defenders react to that?

Not only do we now have the ominous order from Obama, but that order came despite then-FBI Director James Comey saying that the calls Flynn had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak seemed to be “legit.” Keep in mind, Flynn was President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for national security advisor, and part of his job during the transition would be to touch base with ambassadors of major powers like Russia while the U.S. was preparing to peacefully transfer power from one administration to the next (which the Democrat Party’s actions since November 9, 2016, have sorely tested).

Obama giving the order is bad enough, but he isn’t the only person caught up in all of this. Strzok’s handwritten notes also implicate then-Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee. Contrary to past denials, not only did Biden know about the investigation, he was apparently the one who suggested using the wildly obscure Logan Act as the pretext for the FBI to continue its unwarranted investigation. Strzok’s notes should certainly benefit U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation of the investigators. As our Mark Alexander recently pointed out, the path to Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan starts with an indictment of Strzok.

We remember the time one Clinton administration official claimed he “lied to his diary.” Well, Susan Rice, best known for her role in the Benghazi cover-up, may have gone one better. She’s been claiming that things were “by the book,” but perhaps she intentionally lied in that bizarre 11th-hour email to herself.

That being said, we’re acutely aware that Peter Strzok isn’t exactly the most honest person, either. The big difference is that his handwritten notes came at the time of that meeting, whereas Rice typed up her email the day President Trump took office.

If nothing else, the Strzok notes should finally put to rest the notion that there was any legitimate purpose behind Spygate. Now, the focus must be on accountability — and that includes Joe Biden. He may not face a court of law, but he does have to face the American people on November 3.