The saga of Donald Trump’s impeachment, which ended earlier this month with his long-predicted acquittal in the Senate, largely followed the path that leftist critics foresaw. Trump remained in office throughout, the Democrats focused overwhelmingly on questions of process and propriety, and Trump was able to present himself as the victim of state bureaucracy. The result, coming less than a year after the Mueller Report dashed earlier Democratic dreams, would seem to suggest that a fundamentally new approach is needed for beating Trump.

Yet, last week, the Democrats effectively announced that there would be no new course and plunged headlong into a renewed round of accusations against Trump and his administration. This time, the accusations center on attorney general William Barr, who intervened through the Justice Department to recommend a lighter sentence for Trump associate Roger Stone, who was convicted of interfering with Congress’s investigation into Russian election meddling.

In response to Barr’s intervention, Democrats raised a new round of accusations that the Trump administration is corrupting the organs of state for its own ends. Nine Democratic senators issued a letter calling on Barr to resign, and Amy Klobuchar has called for him to testify before the Senate under oath.