The Obama Administration is hoping that the Repubs will play nice and sweep this all under the rug.
Pardons imply guilt, even if there were none. They don't want to have to accept that kind of responsibility for their criminal actions.
Those criminal actions extend all the way to Obama, Hillary, and on down from there at many levels.
They need to foment people, keep everything off kilter, and get past the Trump inauguration. Then they will try to play the underdog card and hope for the sympathy of the American people to discourage lawmakers from pursuing investigations.
Mark my word--after the Inauguration, ALL of the Democrat talk will immediately swing to discussions of the "economy" and "helping the average American citizen." They need the smokescreen.
