Donald Trump may have hired Anthony Scaramucci to distract from Michael Flynn’s secret arrest in July
Sometimes all you need is one key piece to fall into place, and the rest of the puzzle solves itself. Observers on all sides have been trying to figure out a strange sequence of events back in July which involved everything from Donald Trump’s decision to hire Anthony Scaramucci as an ill-timed distraction from the Trump-Russia scandal, to the secret arrest of George Papadopoulos. Now, new information seems to tie all of it back to Michael Flynn.
Newly published court records reveal that when Robert Mueller and his team arrested Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos on July 27th, they didn’t even have an arrest warrant in place, according to a Politico report (link). That meant they suddenly decided, out of nowhere and with haste, to scoop him up as quickly as possible. Considering that he was arrested in July for having lied to the FBI all the way back in January, new information had to have come from somewhere which suddenly proved Papadopoulos had been lying.
Six days before Papadopoulos was arrested, Michael Flynn announced to the Associated Press that he was “moving on” from the Trump-Russia scandal and entering the private sector (link). It was a bizarre announcement, and our interpretation at the time was that Flynn may have just finished cutting a deal which would ensure his freedom. If so, Mueller would have secretly arrested and processed Flynn as part of that deal.
The same day Flynn announced to the AP that he was moving on, Donald Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci out of nowhere to be his new White House Communications Director. At the time, the move was widely suspected to have been an attempt at distracting from the Trump-Russia scandal, though it made little sense, because nothing about the scandal ended up publicly coming out during that timeframe. Now, however, it all seems to make sense in context.
Let’s say that Michael Flynn cut a deal with Robert Mueller in July, and spilled the beans about everything. Then he told the AP that he was moving on with his life. The AP would have called Trump’s White House for advance comment on this story at least a few days ahead of time. Trump’s team could have correctly interpreted the Flynn quote as a sign that he had cut a deal, and then incorrectly assumed that it was all imminently going to hit the media.
Scaramucci was hired as a distraction a few days later, because his over-the-top behavior would be sure to dominate the news cycle for awhile. Meanwhile Robert Mueller went on to raid Paul Manafort’s home on July 26th and arrest George Papadopoulos on July 27th, based on information provided by Flynn. It’s all just a theory, but it lines up remarkably well with the dates, facts, and underlying logic. By the way, if Michael Flynn cut the kind of deal that assured his freedom, if means he gave up everyone. In such case, several lower level people were secretly arrested in July in order to flip them – and Papadopoulos is simply the only one we know about.
