One of the central questions brewing in the investigation into the FBI anti-Trump cabal is not only how wide and deep the scandal pervades government, but how high it reaches.

The ladder of suspicion was recently sawed short by a leak of former attorney general Loretta Lynch's closed-door congressional testimony regarding her notorious airport meeting with Bill Clinton of June 27, 2016, a rendezvous mere days before Hillary Clinton's scheduled interrogation by the FBI.

The content of the leak tells a story, but the leak itself appears designed to persuade us that it's a story we are supposed to believe.  Caveat fabula!  Beware of leakers bearing gifts.

A little history:

The original 2016 exposé of the infamous airport meeting may or may not qualify as a leak per se but follows the same story arc as any tasty tale begging to be swallowed.  News rapidly went viral, and the nation became appropriately shocked that the sitting A.G. and former president Clinton would engage in such clandestine skullduggery while the fate of candidate Hillary Clinton awaited judgment.

Or did the nation take the bait, biting the hook of a first-class red herring theatrical production staged to bench team Lynch in favor of team Comey?  While political critics of all types vented righteous indignation, A.G. Lynch semi-recused herself from her Justice duties; gagged her deputy, Sally Yates, who, by rights, should have assumed the A.G. tasks; and stood aside as FBI director James Comey seized the sword of justice to acquit candidate Hillary in a performance that even Alexander Haig could admire.  Breathtaking!

But is this a one-act play?  The current leak suggests not.  Loose ends have been known to strangle many folks, even those in high and mighty places.  If Loretta Lynch was indeed an airport conspirator, her former boss, President Obama, might well be in the loop, or certainly in the know.

The recent congressional leak tries to tidy things up.  Loretta was just a babe in the airport woods when ambushed by an irrepressible Bill, or so goes the leak.  If Loretta was the polite, but prevailed upon, aviation hostess, Barack Obama could remain above the fray.  As for further damage to Bill Clinton's reputation, his legend as a master of political derring-do would only grow, much to the admiration of the Slick Willie fan club.  Any naysayers panning Bill's stagecraft may hurl their boos and hisses, but are they just chomping on the newest and shiniest red herring?

In a nation of 514 paved airports, Loretta Lynch snuggles up in Phoenix with Bill Clinton in front of a blabbing tattler, then testifies behind leaky closed doors that she and the White House (by implication) remain politically virginal?  Save room on your bookshelf between Ian Fleming and John Le Carré for this tale.

Dean Kedenburg is a political anthropologist in the hamlet of Leucadia, California.