Some flunky will be blamed and might go to prison.
Yup. That flunky will take the fall, with a similar offer from the administration for his service to the Dems. It doesn't make it right, but that's the way it's done. Very unlikely that the administration “perps” will roll over on the big guy (but it happened with Nixon). There is really no other way to explain a politician committing electoral suicide, unless something better was offered for taking the fall for the greater good