In the days since the FBI searched the Florida home of former President Donald Trump for classified documents that he wasn't supposed to have, top Missouri Republicans, like their counterparts around the nation, have been whipping up their constituents with frenzied but baseless allegations of corruption.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Senate candidate, vowed to "take a wrecking ball" to the Justice Department. Sen. Josh Hawley called for the removal of top Justice and FBI officials — a purge, in essence, for the infraction of legally executing a court-approved warrant. Gov. Mike Parson declared it an "unsupported and hostile targeting" of Trump, even though Parson, like Hawley, Schmitt and the rest, had no idea what evidence was shown to the federal judge who issued the warrant.

The simple solution to all this hysteria was for Trump to publicly release the warrant, which would have shown exactly what the FBI was looking for. If Trump is such a victim, why wouldn't he do that? And why were his GOP allies not pressing him to? Instead, it was Attorney General Merrick Garland who had to request that the warrant be unsealed, given the heightened public interest.

Garland is calling Trump's bluff, forcing his lawyers either to argue against unsealing the warrant — signifying Trump has something to hide — or make the warrant public so that the secrecy can no longer be used as a weapon against the Justice Department.

Trump and his inner circle have played up how "cooperative" (his lawyer's word) Trump had been with Justice Department officials in their quest to get the documents back — as if, two years out of office, an ex-president gets to negotiate the terms under which he might be willing to obey the law.

After leaving office, Trump had to be hounded for months by the National Archives to return 15 boxes of classified documents improperly spirited to Mar-a-Lago. And then it turned out that he hadn't turned over all of them, and the search reportedly uncovered 10 more boxes of documents.

Trump consistently demonstrates an attitude that the rules don't apply to him. Yet Hawley and the rest automatically took Trump's side without knowing the facts and ignoring Trump's obvious disregard for the rule of law. Many have demanded that the Justice Department explain the justification for the search, either not knowing or not caring that the agency can't reveal details of its investigation without a judge's approval, as Garland explained Thursday.

Trump was never under such restrictions. He could have immediately publicized what the warrant sought and what was seized. Republicans suddenly sided against law enforcement and seemed not to be interested in pressing Trump for those answers. That's a clear indication they don't want to hear the actual legal justification for the search. Outrage works far better than facts when the goal is to whip up the base.

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