Donald Trump makes panic moves to protect Michael Flynn, suggesting imminent arrest
During the course of last Friday, a series of events in the news made it appear that Michael Flynn would be indicted and arrested fairly soon. On Friday night, word leaked that someone would indeed be arrested the following Monday. That led a number of people, including me, to suspect that Flynn was being arrested on Monday. That didn’t happen. But now new details about Friday’s series of events reveal that Donald Trump is making panic moves to try to protect Flynn, suggesting his arrest is indeed now imminent.
Two key storylines emerged on Friday regarding Michael Flynn. The first was that U.S. Attorney Dana Boente, who oversees the district where Robert Mueller’s grand jury against Michael Flynn has been taking place, announced his retirement. The second was that former CIA Director James Woolsey revealed his cooperation with Mueller on the Flynn case. Both of these details suggested that the grand jury against Flynn is complete, and that Mueller already has a sealed indictment that he’s strategically waiting to unseal. But now it’s being reported that Trump actually fired Boente.
Rachel Maddow reported on her MSNBC show on Wednesday evening that Donald Trump forced Dana Boente to resign. When his resignation was announced as being voluntary, it appeared he was stepping down because his role in securing an indictment against Flynn was complete. Instead, it now very much appears that Trump fired Boente in a last ditch effort to try to prevent Flynn from being indicted.
It’s likely that Donald Trump got word of an impending indictment against Michael Flynn because that grand jury is already complete, and the details are now leaking out after the fact. Trump probably has too little understanding of the criminal legal system to realize that this means Robert Mueller already has a sealed indictment against Flynn, and that firing Dana Boente this late in the game won’t do anything to stop it. If the grand jury really is finished, then Flynn’s arrest is imminent – and Trump will be shocked to learn why his belated panic move failed. Lock Him Up!
