The FBI’s Russia investigation was a tangle of conflicting motives and unintended consequences.
1. Many factors relevant to the investigation’s fairness have been invisible.
2. Trump and his people brought the scrutiny on themselves.
3. The FBI’s secrecy helped Trump.
4. There were good reasons for the secrecy.
5. Investigators tried not to hurt Trump, in part to avoid helping him.
6. The “insurance policy” was an argument for propriety.
7. One key factor was that then–FBI Director James Comey was kept out of the loop.
William Saletan
