That's been my theory. The "Uriah the Hittite" treatment. Admittedly a wacko conspiracy theory but in this case it could be true. The obvious weakness in this theory is why now? this guy has been around a while and if he was a problem they would have gotten rid of him long ago.
Perhaps he was still serving a useful purpose or perhaps this was just a convenient opportunity.
We'll never the truth of course, but with Obama and Clinton you can bet there's always more to the story...much more.