The death of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, Chinese communist shipping magnate Angela Chao, has taken another strange turn. The Blanco County, TX, Sheriff’s Office now says it is investigating Chao’s death as a criminal matter.

Right as this announcement was made, Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to announce that he’s retiring from his post as Republican leader after the 2024 election. McConnell even hinted in his speech that his sister-in-law’s death might have something to do with his relinquishing power.

The death of 50-year-old Angela Chao was weird from the very beginning. The initial news reports all said that a drunk driver had run a red light and smashed into her car. We quickly learned that initial narrative was completely false. A day later, the story changed to reveal that Chao’s Tesla had backed into a pond. The police were not saying that Chao backed into a pond. They were saying that her Tesla backed into a pond.

Angela Chao was the CEO of a shipping company called Foremost Group. The company was founded by the father of her and Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao. Before becoming CEO in 2018, Angela Chao was a board member at the communist Bank of China and a director of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. The Chao family’s direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party have ensured that Mitch McConnell’s family is awash in Chinese cash and that the Kentucky Senator lives in absolute splendor compared to most Americans.

The Blanco County Sheriff’s Office sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week, to update him on the case.

“This incident was not a typical accident,” the letter states. “Although the preliminary investigation indicated this was an unfortunate accident, the Sheriff’s Office is still investigating this accident as a criminal matter until they have sufficient evidence to rule out criminal activity.”

Since it is now a criminal investigation, the Sheriff’s Office recommends to AG Paxton that all reports, 911 logs, audio and video evidence, and other materials, be withheld from the press and the public.

Here is the most interesting sentence of all in the letter:

“Releasing the reports, videos and other information prior to the completion of the investigation would interfere with the investigation and possible prosecution of this matter.”

So, now we know it was not a typical accident, the Sheriff’s Office considers it a criminal matter, and it is a criminal matter to the extent that there may be a possible prosecution at some point. That’s a huge shift from last week when the Sheriff first classified Chao’s death as an “unfortunate accident.”

The same day that the Sheriff’s letter was made public, Mitch McConnell marched down to the Senate floor and made the surprise announcement that he would finally give up his position of power as the leader of the Senate GOP later this year. Here’s the cryptic statement that he made:

“This has been a particularly difficult time for my family,” McConnell said. “We tragically lost Elaine’s younger sister Angela, just a few weeks ago. When you lose a loved one, particularly at a young age, there’s a certain introspection that accompanies the grieving process.”

Setting aside the weirdness of Chao’s death, some of us have been calling for Mitch McConnell’s removal since 2009, when he sold America out on Obamacare. Getting rid of him has been a long time coming since he is considered one of the most hated figures in American politics by Republican voters.

The House Tea Party Caucus sent out a particularly snarky tweet, suggesting that McConnell should just step down now:

“Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine). No need to wait till November… Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader.”

Ouch. We can’t really disagree with that, though.

We speculated previously that Angela Chao’s death might be related to some sort of retaliation, or a threat or a warning, to Mitch McConnell after he passed a bill containing military aid for Taiwan. Teslas are built in China, they are equipped with self-driving technology, and they are connected to the internet.

Did someone in China hack Angela Chao’s Tesla and drive it into a pond with her inside it? This is sheer speculation, obviously, but our initial instincts that there was more to this case than meets the eye have been proven correct.