“Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.” This maxim from the cubist painter Georges Braque is itself a truism, but it is a profound one. It applies now to the findings of Robert Mueller. The special counsel’s two-year investigation of Russian tampering with the 2016 election found that, contrary to innumerable tendentious assertions from the Left, neither President Trump nor his associates colluded with the Kremlin in its dastardly interference with American democracy.

As the allegations were not fact, it follows that they were false, and substantially malignant, too, given the ferocious tenacity with which they were fostered and spread. It’s vitally important for the nation’s political hygiene that those who concocted the fable be exposed and punished as necessary. Their strategy and tactics need to be laid bare. Only thus can public faith in our electoral and political system begin to be restored.