The Times report finds that Barr relentlessly pushed Durham to substantiate Trump's theory that the Russia investigation was a conspiracy by intelligence and law enforcement against him. But Durham's effort petered out "without uncovering anything like the deep state plot" invented by Trump and Barr.

Worse, the Times also found bizarre irregularities. Durham relied on Russian intelligence memos to access emails of an adviser to financier George Soros, in hopes of finding evidence of improper collaboration between law enforcement and the Hillary Clinton campaign. It never materialized.

That, plus Barr's habit of publicly hinting that Durham was on the trail of major wrongdoing -- unscrupulously serving Trump's political interests -- were strongly opposed internally by Durham's top deputy, the Times reports. Similarly, Durham leaned on the department's inspector general to change his 2019 conclusion that the Russia probe was not politically motivated.

"It certainly ought to be investigated," Noah Bookbinder, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told me. "The Senate is the place where that can happen."

We also need to know how Attorney General Merrick Garland approached the situation and how much he knew about it. That could be very awkward for Democrats.

"How much of the material in the Times report was Garland aware of?" asks former FBI agent Peter Strzok. "It's possible he didn't know some of it. If he didn't, why on earth not? And if he did, what on earth is going on?"