Indeed, these people "represent" us and if they are crooked and do not get punished then our republic will falter.
Our so-called representatives are all a little bit crooked. Its the nature of politics and I can accept that reality — to a degree. But outright abuses of power that threaten the foundations of our democracy cannot be tolerated. Several agencies have been weaponized to target people with different political views. That goes well beyond petty corruption. What they are doing is felonious, if not downright subversive.
Behavior like that cannot go unpunished or there will be no end to it. As Cicero said “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.”