Back in March, watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Comey, I was struck at his blatant lies, not just about the facts related to his investigation, but as to the applicable provisions of the Espionage Act, which admittedly, is long and complex.
At the time, I thought that Comey was merely trying to embarrass the senators by taking advantage of the fact that most of them have a very full plate, and unless they have spent many years as prosecutors in the national security arena (out of the whole bunch that might only be applicable to Sen. Blumenthal, but I don't think he practiced in that area, and anyway, as a Democrat, he focused more on the Russia probe anyway), they wouldn't necessarily be familiar with all the nuances of all the applicable charges - and neither would their staffers on the Committee, all fine lawyers, but likely with experience in less exotic areas of law.
In retrospect, it seems that the more likely reason is that Comey, who had failed to conduct a full investigation before drawing his conclusion, simply didn't want to be questioned about how is it that he failed to apply all the relevant charges to the facts.
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