Democrats clamoring for Donald Trump’s immediate removal from office may be afraid of what documents he might declassify in his final week. I say, what is taking him so long?

I have written on the topic of declassifying and releasing full, unredacted government documents related to Trump-era controversies many times. The point is the same in every instance: the deep state can never be trusted to engage in meaningful oversight over its corrupt and potentially illegal actions. And because self-policing is unlikely, if not impossible, it is up to the American people to decide. But the public cannot judge the case lacking full information, so President Trump must supply the full, unadulterated record as evidence.

This is becoming more critical as days pass and the Trump presidency runs out. It’s now or never. Those about to take total control of the government move to censor, de-platform and otherwise gag conservative voices, and would certainly have no problem destroying documents that conflict with their preferred narrative. The inconvenient truths preserved in the documentary record would simply be put down the Orwellian memory hole, shredded in the basement on January 21.

People in the president’s retinue are aware of the issue. On November 8 Donald Trump Jr. tweeted “DECLASSIFY EVERYTHING!!! We can’t let the bad actors get away with it.” Rudy Giuliani has said the same thing for months, and most recently commented that Trump “owes it to the American people to put it out.”

What is “it”? Everything connected to the scandals of the last five years. All the documents related to the fraudulent Russian collusion investigation and the “insurance policy” seeking to destroy the Trump presidency. All of the FISA-gate documents, full and unredacted. Everything connected to the sweetheart investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal home-brew email server, not to mention the extant files from that server and from the Anthony Weiner laptops. Release the records from the Awan brothers in the Congressional IT scandal. Release the Seth Rich files that the government at first denied existed, then suddenly began discovering. Expose hidden documents related to the Benghazi attack and coverup scandal. Tell us more about Chinese and Iranian attempts to influence the 2020 election.

How about also exposing everything the government has on Hunter Biden’s lucrative influence-peddling travels abroad while his father was vice president? The media already took steps to censor that information from getting out – but failed. Is there any more on “the big guy” and contacts he or members of his family had with China or other countries during the Trump years? Democrats might cry foul over hobbling Biden this way in the first days of his presidency, but unlike the Russian collusion hoax, the China connection is a fact.

President Trump had delegated the authority to declassify information, but that did not produce solid results. The deep state was too ingrained for most government officials to do the right thing and actually release the information, with some notable exceptions. Now it is too late even for the president to give the task to a trusted team of professionals, because frankly he can’t know who to trust. No, this document dump must come directly from the president’s desk to the American people.

Once the information is made public President Trump could also seek the appointment of independent counsels to investigate these and other matters of public interest. Again, Democrats would cry foul, but they do that no matter what Trump does. Such investigations are long overdue. The American people have a right to know how foreign entities were involved in actions seeking to sway (or rig) the 2020 election, and China’s efforts to allegedly pay off a political family seeking to ascend to the White House.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called President Trump “unhinged, unstable and deranged,” but Democratic attempts to pursue a hurry-up impeachment would be far more injurious to our Republic than a bunch of MAGA-rowdies spontaneously milling about the Capitol. It would be impossible to have any semblance of due process impeaching in the few remaining days of the Trump presidency, and kicking Trump while he is down would hardly promote the peace and unity that President-elect Biden says he wants. Yet Democrats are determined to move ahead. So, at this point, President Trump has one move left on the political chessboard, and he might as well take it. Declassify, distribute, and let the people decide.

Chris Farrell is the director of investigations for Judicial Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog. He is a former military intelligence officer.