Many observers have attributed the resignation of alleged Russian mob fixer Paul Manafort from the Donald Trump Trainwreck to him being peeved over Trump’s decision to bring on board an alt-right champion, Breitbart’s Steve Bannon. There is probably a grain of truth in this story. But there may be more at play here.

Since this past weekend, Paul Manafort has been undergoing a long overdue proctological exam concerning his ties to the Kremlin, to the FSB, to the Russian mob (yes, I know those are redundant terms for all practical purposes), and to former Ukraine president and perennial Russian stooge Viktor Yanukovych. Those ties seem to include money laundering, fomenting anti-NATO riots in Ukraine, and hiding the source of lobbying funds to avoid disclosure under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The evidence is sketchy at this point but consider Eric Trump’s (he’s the Trump son with the same forehead you’d find on a hen) statement on Manafort’s resignation:

Eric Trump pretty much says to Fox, in a bite that just aired, that Manafort was pushed out: pic.twitter.com/B1tyovbb50

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 19, 2016

When viewed in context with the text of Trump’s own statement, it becomes clear that Manafort did not leave voluntarily, he was fired because he was awash in seemingly/allegedly/speculatively illegal Russian cash.

Two days ago, the Chicago Tribune ran a story titled “FBI partnered with Ukraine team on investigation that revealed Manafort files.” Intriguingly, that article has been disappeared from the Trib but you can still a snippet on a Google Search and find the text of it in news aggregator sites who are wildly unconcerned about the niceties of Fair Use.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Mr. Manafort helped the party secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to a pair of prominent Washington lobbying firms. That revelation came at a time when Mr. Trump has faced criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin. FBI officials recently formed a partnership with the Ukrainian anti-corruption agency handling the Manafort case, could heighten potential legal problems for him and draw further scrutiny by U.S. authorities to his extensive political and financial ties to Ukraine.

Then there is this from a Huffington Post reporter who has an interesting connection to the case

On Monday night, I heard from a source that Manafort is now under federal investigation. This is why he likely resigned, not the shake-up.

— Andrea Chalupa (@AndreaChalupa) August 19, 2016

My sister was one of the earliest ones to investigate Manafort and she paid the price of threats and harassment: https://t.co/8VndxY4P7P

— Andrea Chalupa (@AndreaChalupa) August 19, 2016

If we connect the dots: the FBI partnership, the Ukrainian sourced financial documents, the resignation, the Eric Trump interview, we have a very strong circumstantial case that the FBI is hot of Manafort’s chubby ass and you can bet Loretta Lynch isn’t going to make any “unscheduled” visits to pull it out of the fire.