Good question, Felicia Rosshandler. I can’t answer in terms of what was going on his head, but the FBI was clearly deeply divided and parts of it had been seriously compromised by Trump, the GOP, and Russia. Fmr director William Sessions ended as a lawyer representing RU mobster Mogilevich. Fmr director Louis Freeh represented Prevezon. The FBI’s NY office chief Kallstrom was a personal friend of Trump. I suspect Comey had to juggle pressure from all these forces and made a stupid and wrong decision. Either that or he went over to the dark side himself.