Again, the question is not why the FBI would game an interview to its advantage; that’s what the FBI does. The question is this: What was the FBI investigating? The closest Congress has gotten to answering that question is in the report of the House Intelligence Committee, which says it received three conflicting responses.

One is that the FBI was investigating a possible violation of the Logan Act. This law, which dates to 1799 and makes it illegal for private citizens to conduct unauthorized negotiations with foreign powers, has never been successfully prosecuted. If this were what the Justice Department was investigating, it would at the very least be an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Do Democrats want the Trump administration investigating John Kerry’s recent conversations with European and Iranian diplomats about the 2015 nuclear deal?

The other explanations are equally troubling. One is that the FBI continued its counterintelligence probe into Flynn even after its director wanted to end it. The other is that the FBI had an obligation to investigate Flynn’s “potentially misleading statements” to Vice President Mike Pence.