Word came out late Friday afternoon that a grand jury has filed the first charges in the investigation over Russian interference in the 2016 American election. The charges come after months of investigation, headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
There’s been much speculation since Friday over who’s about to be charged with some fairly serious crimes. Is it Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who played a key behind-the-scenes role in the 2016 presidential campaign, and was apparently present in key meetings with Russian officials?
Or is it Paul Manafort, who for a time was Trump’s campaign manager last year? Manafort has spent most of his life in the shadows, mainly working former eastern bloc nations, mostly closely perhaps in the Ukraine where his business dealings attracted the attention of the FBI, who have been investigating Manafort for nearly 5 years over possible money laundering crimes.
While Manafort is a strong candidate for indictment (Kushner might be a longshot at this stage), my money is on retired general Michael Flynn, who served a fleeting few weeks as Trump’s National Security Advisor before resigning in disgrace after it was disclosed that Flynn lied about lobbying for the Turkish government and purposefully deceived Vice President Michael Pence over conversations with the Russian Ambassador about U.S. sanctions.
Why Flynn? Mainly because of another story that broke a few hours before the Grand Jury indictments leaked to the media. Dana Boente (you can be forgiven if you don’t know who that is) was, at least until last Friday, a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Boente however, resigned his post with no explanation. Why is that important? Because individuals such as Boente cannot maintain their position as an attorney if they are significant witnesses to significant crimes.
So where’s the connection? Well, according to the previous special investigator James Comey (who you know was fired by Trump earlier in the year), Boente was witness to at least two conversations between Mr. Comey and President Trump where the subject of the conversation was … Michael Flynn.
Still, this is very speculative. We won’t know until the indictments are announced. But whomever it is, it’ll mark the first strike it what will surely be many months of legal, if not Constitutional drama, as Mueller peels back each layer from the onion that will almost certainly lead to the White House.
That is assuming of course, that Trump doesn’t fire Mueller first.
Which might just happen this upcoming week.
Strap on the seat belt, the next part of this ride could get terribly bumpy.
Democracy Interrupted 