My surmise: The Obama administration and the intelligence community conflated the real threat of Russian interference in the American electoral process with the false narrative of Trump-campaign collusion in the interference. In an explosive announcement that departed from Justice Department protocols against commenting on investigations, then-director Comey gave congressional testimony that induced the media to report, and much of the public to believe, that Trump was a prime suspect in an FBI investigation, focused on a suspected conspiracy between his campaign and Russia to tamper with the election process. The FBI was even assessing whether criminal charges should be filed.

Trump knew that this was not true because Comey had repeatedly told him it was not true — both before and after Comey’s March 20 congressional testimony. Yet, in what Trump had to find an exasperating and inexplicable stance, Comey refused to state publicly that Trump was not under investigation, even though — in a deviation from both law-enforcement guidelines and the assurances he had given the president — Comey had led the world to believe that Trump was under investigation.

Trump did not do anything to interfere with the investigation of Russia’s interference in the election. According to Comey’s testimony, the president even said it would be good to find out if any of Trump’s “satellites” — his associates — had done anything wrong.