Donald Trump is trying to hurry up and cash out before he’s ousted
If federal prosecutors have just implicated you for two felony counts, and they’re gearing up to implicate you in dozens more, there are two ways to respond. One is to distance yourself as far as possible from the kinds of behaviors being alleged, and try to make the argument that you’re not the kind of person who would have committed such crimes. The other is to realize that you’re screwed, conclude that your remaining time is short, and use that time to carry out whatever additional crimes you can. It now appears Donald Trump has settled on the second path.
Two weeks ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller strongly hinted in a mostly redacted document that Michael Flynn had given him all the details of a bizarre plot involving Turkey. The scheme consisted of Flynn and his then-business partner Bijan Kian taking half a million dollars from a Turkish government liaison in exchange for targeting a Turkish dissident named Fethullah Gulen. The plot reportedly involved discussions of kidnapping Gulen from his home in Pennsylvania and shipping him off to Turkey.
So what did Donald Trump do when he learned that Mueller was about to blow the entire plot wide open? According to the government of Turkey, Trump decided to step in and try to extradite Gulen to Turkey himself. Really? Does this sound like a smart move, if Trump is trying to paint himself as being innocent of everything that Mueller’s investigation is alleging?
Of course not. But it’s not hard to figure out that the corrupt government of Turkey is now offering to personally compensate Donald Trump if he hands Gulen over to them. And so Trump is looking to hurry up and take the big payoff, while he still can, even though it helps make him look guilty.
Donald Trump is a guy who thinks his time is up soon. He’s facing everything from impeachment, to imprisonment, to asset forfeitures. He’s doomed and he knows it, and one more crime isn’t going to change his fate. So he’s decided to cash in on the offer from Turkey. The remarkable part is that he didn’t get there in time. Mueller’s allies arrested Kian this morning, and indicted the Turkish government liaison. Now Trump can’t pull it off – and he’s further exposed himself as guilty for having tried.
