And indeed, within days, Trump told NBC News’s Lester Holt (and, reportedly, top Russian officials) that he fired Comey because of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey,” Trump said.

That explanation made a great deal more sense, but it raised the possibility that Trump had obstructed justice if he fired Comey to impede Russia investigation. Within days, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed Mueller as special counsel. (Hence Bannon’s argument that without a Comey firing, there would be no special counsel.)

Then, earlier this month, The New York Times and Washington Post reported that Mueller was reviewing a draft letter from Trump to Comey, reportedly written by senior aide Stephen Miller. The letter was never sent, with cooler heads apparently prevailing upon Trump to release the memos from the Department of Justice instead, not expecting Trump to so abruptly contradict them. The letter, a “meandering” “rant” according to people who read it, expresses frustration that Comey would not say publicly, as he had privately on three occasions, that Trump was not personally under investigation for collusion with Russia. It also underscores that Trump had decided to fire Comey before the consultations with Justice officials that Trump cited in his formal dismissal.

Faced with more evidence that Trump’s initial public rationale for firing Comey was misleading, the White House seems to have constructed an ex post facto legal justification for the dismissal, which Sanders delivered on Wednesday. There’s an elegance to it: Trump is currently under investigation for firing Comey, but if he can reframe Comey as the real lawbreaker, it both takes him off the hook and undermines any testimony that Comey might deliver against him.

There are a few problems, though. One is the impropriety of the White House encouraging prosecution of anyone, especially a political problem like Comey. (Sanders’s repeated insistence that this is the Department of Justice’s decision to make do not change the fact that it’s consequential for the president’s spokeswoman to make such statements publicly.) The question of whether Comey acted inappropriately in sending his memos to a friend who is a law professor at Columbia is a murky one, though it’s unclear any prosecutor would bring charges against him even if he was in the wrong—ironically, the same conclusion that Comey drew about Clinton’s email server.

The White House wishes to argue not only that Trump did not obstruct justice in firing Comey, but that he was manifestly right to do so because of Comey’s alleged misconduct. But the latest statements go one step further, arguing that Comey ought to face prosecution in addition to firing.

This conflicts with the arguments that Trump reportedly made to Comey himself in the case of Michael Flynn. Flynn, who is under investigation for lying to the FBI and for failing to disclose various lobbying work, among other issues, was fired from his post as national-security adviser in February after news reports revealed he had lied to the vice president about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In that case, the White House argued that Flynn’s firing was punishment enough, and Trump allegedly pressured Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation into him. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Comey, according to one of the memos that Comey wrote and then gave to his friend at Columbia. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” There appears to be a double standard: For Trump’s friends, firing is adequate punishment, but for foes, prosecution is also necessary.

Could the latest barrage against Comey successfully undermine him, and slow down any case against Trump? It’s possible. But Comey’s reputation for probity in Washington is strong, as demonstrated by senators’ deference during a June hearing, and the special counsel is an old colleague of his. Besides, as Steve Bannon might warn his old boss, sometimes going after Comey doesn’t have quite the Trump it intends.