Merrick Garland has one last chance to do something right

That this is even a question at this point is just flat-out crazy:

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to release the rest of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President-elect Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents even if it means dismissing charges against his co-defendants.

Democrats on the panel, led by ranking member Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, said in a letter to Garland that Americans have a “right to know” how the second part of Smith’s report details the charges against Trump: that he willfully retained national defense information after he left office and then conspired with two aides at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to obstruct officials from retrieving the records.

“As Attorney General, it is incumbent upon you to take all necessary steps to ensure the report is released before the end of your tenure, including, if necessary, by simply dismissing the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s co-conspirators, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira,” they wrote in the letter released Thursday.

The case against the remaining defendants has zero chance of going forward as of this coming Monday, when something or the other is happening although I can’t quite remember what.

So this isn’t even a case where you have to weigh the cost of dismissing the charges against the benefit of making the report public. The charges are going to be dismissed. So not for the first time: What the hell is Merrick Garland doing, or more precisely not doing?

And yes releasing the report isn’t going to lead to some groundswell of opposition to Trump. But it’s better than burying it, which is what’s going to happen if it isn’t released in the next four days.