All of this stonewalling constitutes a grave violation of public trust and respect for the rule of law.

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Is concealment and destruction of official government records somehow congenital to the contemporary political left, or at least anyone associated with Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? 

One might reasonably infer so, given the festering scandals surrounding IRS persecution of conservative organizations and Hillary Clinton's emails during her tenure as Secretary of State. 

In fact, the malfeasance dates back even further.  Recall how Clinton claimed for years that relevant Rose Law Firm records were lost, up until they were miraculously discovered in an upstairs bedroom of the White House itself. 

In encouraging news this week, however, federal judges in separate proceedings reached the end of their patience regarding the IRS malfeasance and Clinton's email discovery.  In an extraordinary display of disgust that makes for entertaining reading for anyone outraged by either matter, the judge in the IRS case threatened to hold IRS commissioner John Koskinen in contempt of court: 

"As expressed at the hearing, the Government's reasoning is nonsensical.  Officers of the Court who fail to comply with Court orders will be held in contempt.  Also, in the event of non-compliance with future Court orders, the Commissioner of the IRS and others shall be directed to show cause as to why they should not be held in contempt of Court.  The Court's July 1, 2015 ruling from the bench stands:  (1)  the Government shall produce relevant documents every Monday;  (2)  the Government's document production shall be accompanied by a status report that indicates (a) whether TIGTA has turned over any new documents to the IRS, (b) if so, the number of documents, and (c) a timeframe for the IRS's production of those documents. 

Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on July 29, 2015." 

Even more extraordinarily, Judge Sullivan threatened to actually jail the IRS's attorney upon further noncompliance: 

"If there is further noncompliance, I will haul into court the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to show cause why that person should not be personally held in contempt of court.  I can't make that any clearer.  Is there any part of what I just said unclear?  But think about these court orders.  They're enforceable.  You're in a very difficult position, but you're walking out of court with your colleagues.  That might not always be the case, okay?" 

It bears emphasis that Judge Sullivan was appointed by Bill Clinton, undermining any suggestion that he's on some sort of Tea Party crusade. 

Elsewhere this week, the judge overseeing production of Clinton's State Department emails expressed similar intolerance toward needless delay and also threatened his own court order mandating faster compliance. 

That proceeding stems from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related lawsuit filed by the Associated Press (AP) in March of this year.  Among other official records, the AP sought documents reflecting Clinton's communications with high-level State Department aides, scheduling and calendar records, items regarding the Osama bin Laden operation, government surveillance and other relevant records.  Some of the requests date all the way back to 2010, and the lawsuit itself began after Clinton admitted earlier this year that she used a personal email server during her tenure. 

In a hearing to address production delays, Judge Richard Leon expressed incredulity and went so far as to observe that compliance could be achieved in mere days "by the least ambitious bureaucrat." 

Meanwhile, a highly-publicized new report from Inspector General Charles McCullough concluded that Clinton also conducted classified State Department business via her private email, contrary to her earlier unequivocal assurances. 

Back in March when the email controversy forced her to finally address the matter before reporters, Clinton claimed that, "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email.  There is no classified material."  The IG, however, reached a different conclusion.  After inspecting just 40 emails out of 30,000 exchanged during Clinton's tenure, four "were classified when they were sent and are classified now."

It's anybody's guess how much other classified information will be discovered following inspection of the remaining 30,000 unreviewed emails, although the Chinese and Russians already probably have a pretty good idea. 

All of this stonewalling constitutes a grave violation of public trust and respect for the rule of law.  It is not something that should be tolerated by the American people, but it's refreshing that the judicial branch appears intent on pursuing just resolution. 

A recent survey from Rasmussen suggests that the public by more than a 2-to-1 margin is similarly skeptical, despite Obama's protestations that there's "not a smidgen of evidence" of corruption in the IRS scandal.  Fully 52% of respondents believe the IRS broke the law in targeting conservative groups, while just 24% believe it did not. 

In a notable twist, this week also marks the 40th anniversary of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance in 1975.  It is an interesting question whether his body will be discovered before we finally obtain the relevant records in the IRS targeting and Clinton email scandals.  But at least Judges Sullivan and Leon are doing their part.