First arrest carried out in Michael Flynn plea deal – and it connects back to Donald Trump
Two weeks ago Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a sentencing memo which announced that Michael Flynn had provided enough evidence to avoid prison, meaning he gave up the biggest of big fish. The memo was so thoroughly blacked out, we could only make educated guesses about the targets. Now the first Flynn-inspired arrest has indeed been carried out.
It’s long been publicly known that Michael Flynn was deeply caught up in illegal dealings with the Turkish government. Now people on both sides of that scheming are paying the price for it. Flynn’s former business partner Bijan Kian and Turkish government-connected businessman Ekim Alptekin have both been indicted for conspiring with Flynn to illegally lobby the U.S. government on Turkey’s behalf. Kian was arrested today, while it’s not clear if the Feds will be able to get to Alptekin in Turkey. But the real upshot here is where these two names take us next – and how they tie back to Donald Trump.
If the name “Alptekin” sounds vaguely familiar, Palmer Report has previously brought you the story of how he does oil business with ISIS. Alptekin is the guy who paid Michael Flynn more than half a million dollars to investigate a cleric named Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania. The deal included a discussion about kidnapping Gulen and shipping him off to Turkey. Notably, just yesterday, CNN reported that Donald Trump is trying to ship Gulen off to Turkey. It’s not difficult to parse that Turkey must be offering to bribe Trump to do this, just as it bribed Flynn.
Today’s moves were made by the Eastern District of Virginia, which has long been working closely with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Michael Flynn related matters. Now we’ve got a situation where Mueller’s allies are indicting and arresting the people involved with the longstanding plot to ship Gulen to Turkey, just as Donald Trump is desperately trying to ship Gulen to Turkey. This can’t be a coincidence. Our guess is Mueller and the EDVA carried out these moves a bit sooner than they planned, specifically to derail Trump’s last ditch plot at cashing in on what little time he has left in his illegitimate presidency.
