Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano reacted to James Comey‘s congressional hearing on Thursday by underlining the serious legal implications of the former FBI director’s testimony.

“Today certainly advanced the ball on the seriousness of this investigation and the breadth of its scope,” Napolitano said. “If you look…at the big picture…you get a very, very credible and compelling argument that the President of the United States has not been truthful with the American people; and ordered the director of the FBI to shut down an investigation.”

The pundit continued by outlining, “Did he order it because he wanted to conserve Justice Department resources, or did he order it because he wanted to protect a friend? The former would be a legitimate order; the latter is arguably a corrupt order or a…corrupt intent.”

Moments later, anchor Shannon Bream pointed out that “we found out today that the former FBI director admits he’s the one who essentially funneled the information that got out there about these memos that he was keeping throughout a friend at Columbia.” She wondered, “What do you say about those documents and the leaking of them?”

Napolitano replied, “I think you could make both arguments. I think you could make the argument that the former director of the FBI improperly and unlawfully; and, for a venal purpose — to protect his own reputation — leaked a government document.”

The analyst added, “You could also say he viewed it as his own note to himself which he still possessed — even though he had given a copy to his former employer — and he wanted to advance the ball of truth. I don’t know where that’s going to go.”

You can watch Napolitano’s remarks above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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