Roger Stone can add an indictment from the Special Counsel’s office to his highly-checkered resume.
Roger Stone has been indicted by a grand jury on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, who alleges that the longtime Donald Trump associate sought stolen emails from WikiLeaks that could damage Trump’s opponents at the direction of “a senior Trump Campaign official.”
The indictment’s wording does not say who on the campaign knew about Stone’s quest, but makes clear it was multiple people. This is the first time prosecutors have alleged they know of additional people close to the President who worked with Stone as he sought out WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“After the July 22, 2016, release of stolen (Democratic National Committee) emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign. STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1,” prosecutors wrote.
Stone was arrested by the FBI Friday morning at his home in Florida, his lawyer tells CNN. He was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering.
The special counsel’s office said he will appear before a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 11 a.m. ET.<
We will see how far Stone’s “I’ll never testify against Donald Trump,” proclamations will go. Also of note, while the indictment details many activities of Stone’s during the campaign, Mueller is only charging offenses that occurred during the investigation. As we have learned, probably best to let this latest blaring headline breathe a bit before making wide-sweeping proclamations of its importance.
Like that’s going to happen.
Obligatory: “Lock Him Up! Lock Him Up!”Report
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This whole thing is turning into a massive shit show.Report
Ah, yes, GG’s sticks his foot in his mouth again. Conspiracies are so much more fun than the boring, banal truth, but you’d think a journalist would know better.
Nobody tipped off CNN — not directly. Multiple news organizations noted the changes in Mueller’s schedule and the Grand Jury activity yesterday, which has previously preceded an arrest.
Since Mueller prefers dawn raids, they just staked out some of the likely suspects homes. Stringers are pretty cheap and the payoff is pretty high.
And Roger Stone was pretty much the top of the list for “next arrest”.
In fact, the literal top reply of the tweet you posted says as much. A Florida based stringer for CNN was staking out his house.
I know certain people wish it was turning into a shitshow, but sadly Stone dug his own grave. Perjury, witness tampering, obstruction of justice..Report
Yeah but he is “on the left” and likes to own the libs on Tucker Carlson so he is better than facts and stuff. He is good for feel facts. The things that you really want to be true.
The amount of people who decided hating the Democrats is the most important thing above all is quite astonishing. Damn you incremental reformists!!!Report
Hey, got to give Aaron credit. I believe he made Trump’s own spin on it before Trump did. (Yes, Trump did darkly speculate on how CNN could possibly have been there as Mueller catches another witch).
Oh, but the supporting documents for those charges must be catnip to prosecutors — and heartburn to Roger “I’ll never back down, never give in” Stone.
They not only have his attempt at witness tampering, the guy he was trying to convince to perjure himself flat-out told Stone he was going to tell the truth, that Stone should amend his own testimony before it happened, and tried to convince Stone do to the smart thing.
Pretty sure that guy has no problems testifying, and his own electronic and paper trail will make throwing doubt on his testimony….difficult.Report
Glenn long ago shred any credibility he had as far as I’m concerned, but he he seems determined to pile the shreds up, pour gas on them and set them on fire.
This from one of the replies further down struck me as spot on:
“This would usually be the point where if someone else wrote something like this and was proven wrong you’d be tweeting daily for 3 weeks that you’re still waiting for the mea culpa”Report
In looking through some of the documents generated where Stone is accused of bullying his associates by threatening them with personal consequences for their professional activities, I’m left feeling more sad than outraged.
There was a time, early in my career, that I worked for a person who often said, and actually did, things very much like what I see Stone doing. Most profoundly, threatening to take a man’s dog from him if the man did something that displeased Stone.
In my case, I’ll admit to having been very young and naïve, not knowledgeable about the actual limits of someone’s power, and left wondering whether those kinds of threats had any actual substance. I had no doubt that the person making them around me was sufficiently ruthless to attempt them. Still don’t, though this fellow is much less powerful than he once was.
So it’s really easy for me to see Roger Stone as having a character carved out of that same block of malicious raw material.Report
So apparently he’s going to be interviewed on Tucker Carlson’s show now? Because that usually helps someone who’s being indicted, right? Making statements about the indictment, on the public record, off script, and without an attorney present?
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1088873809380204544Report
One of the conditions of his release are that he have no contact with witnesses. He’s about to go on live TV, which is very likely to be watched by some of those witnesses he’s not allowed to contact. (Remember, one of the charges was tampering with a witness).
Incautious words to an audience that might include those witnesses can land him right back in hot water. And Roger Stone does not seem to be a cautious speaker.
I mean I give it no more than a 10% chance he says something stupid enough to get him dragged back before the Judge to explain why his bail shouldn’t be revoked, but still…Report
“I had the right to remain silent.
But not the ability…”Report
Not only that, this is the Apex of Stone’s life. He has been relishing this, and has openly told people as much.Report
ITYM the ACME of his life.
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