Second, Comey’s much-vaunted statement that Trump was not personally under investigation comes with at least two very important qualifications. One: Comey made clear that at least one senior FBI figure disagreed with his assessment that Trump was not being investigated, on the grounds that the campaign was under investigation and Trump was head of the campaign. A different director may well have shared this (quite legitimate) view, and informed Trump that he was, in fact, under investigation. Two: I know from experience that whenever you are investigating an organization, be it a political campaign, an organized crime family, or a terror group, you almost never start at the top. Instead, you seek to “turn” more junior lieutenants and work your way up the chain from there.

It’s possible to read what’s publicly known about the investigation as reflecting that kind of progression. For example, during the campaign itself, the FBI reportedly received a warrant to monitor Carter Page, then one of then-candidate Trump’s foreign-policy advisers. Then there’s Michael Flynn, the former national-security adviser who was ousted after lying about his communications with Russian officials during the transition. Late last month, it emerged that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and an adviser firmly in Trump’s inner circle, had reportedly become a focus of the investigation.

There is every possibility that the president may already face personal investigation by special counsel Mueller. Bear in mind, too, that obstruction of justice is just as much a crime as collusion with a foreign power. I have seen many cases begin by looking for evidence of one offense, only to end with quite different charges; even Al Capone was ultimately jailed not for murder or bootlegging but for tax evasion.

Third, over the course of his nine one-on-one meetings and conversations with Comey, not once did the president ask to be briefed on the main focus of the FBI’s investigation, Russian interference in American democracy. Instead, he allegedly concentrated on getting his own adviser off the hook and attempted to extract a pledge of loyalty from the FBI director. This is bizarre conduct from the leader of a country facing massive national-security challenges emanating from the Kremlin—challenges the FBI is at the forefront of countering. By behaving in this way, the president implied that his focus is not on protecting the nation he is sworn to serve.

Trump’s mendacity, selfishness, and personality-cult politics did not develop in a vacuum; they were enabled, in part, by a culture of impunity in Washington. We have seen no real accountability for the Iraq War, the Bush-era torture program, or the many other national-security disasters of the past two decades; Trump could be forgiven for assuming that he will prove similarly immune in this case.