It’s time for John Bolton to panic over Maria Butina
Back when Donald Trump hired John Bolton to be his National Security Adviser, most observers assumed that Trump was gearing up to invade Iran. However, Palmer Report looked at the available evidence and came away with a very different conclusion: this hire was entirely about the developments in the Trump-Russia scandal. Now it’s come home to roost.
The first reports about Donald Trump preparing to hire John Bolton surfaced just days after Cambridge Analytica was exposed as having been a mere clearing house for stolen user data, with strong ties to Russian hackers. Bolton had such a deep financial relationship with Cambridge Analytica, he had to have known the company’s true nature. Our interpretation at the time was that Trump brought Bolton in-house in the hope of dissuading him from cutting a plea deal or immunity deal with Robert Mueller. Then the Bolton-Butina thing happened.
Three months after Trump hired John Bolton, the United States arrested Maria Butina for being an alleged Russian spy. That was a real problem for Bolton, because he’s been documented as having had extensive communications and interactions with Butina. Combine this with Bolton’s deep ties to Cambridge Analytica, and it’s not difficult to parse that he’s some kind of agent of Russia. Butina’s arrest has been a ticking timebomb for Bolton, and today it went off.
Maria Butina formally filed in court today to withdraw her prior “not guilty” plea, which means she’s cut a plea deal. It’s since been reported that it’s specifically a cooperating plea deal. That means, in addition to everything and everyone else she’s giving up, she’s definitely giving up John Bolton. It’s time for Bolton to panic.
