1/25/19: Day 35 of the Temper Tantrum Shutdown starts with a bang when F.B.I. agents raid the home of former Trump adviser Roger Stone.
____________________
“F.B.I.
Open the door!”
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At 6:00 a.m. a caravan of law enforcement vehicles pulls up at the suspect’s Fort Lauderdale address. It’s dark and dozens of officers, some heavily armed and wearing tactical vests, fan out to cover the exits, guns drawn.
An officer knocks at the front door. “F.B.I.,” he shouts. “Open the door.” (Too bad he didn’t add, “You dirty rat!”)
Still no light inside. And the agent shouts again, “F.B.I. Warrant!”
Moments later, Stone opens the door, lets the agents in, is
placed under arrest, and led off in cuffs.
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Sorry, my image is a bit cockeyed. |
*
A THOUSAND MILES to the north, in Washington D.C., the president is either sleeping late or hiding under his bed, because when we check his Twitter feed at 8:07 a.m. he still hasn’t posted. This is a rarity for a man who typically tweets before the sun has peeked over the horizon.
Once the president does catch up to the story, he’s going to lose his sh*t. First, Stone has been indicted on seven felony counts. You have obstruction of justice for an appetizer, five counts of making false statements for the main course, and witness tampering for a tasty dessert.
Even worse for Trump and his pals, the indictment makes clear that while Stone was allegedly breaking the law, senior officials in the 2016 campaign were alleged to have urged him to continue. If you dive into the indictment, which “Fake News” CNN was kind enough to provide for your reading pleasure, you realize that this is bad news for Twitter Thumbs. From page 2, forward, we see land mines that could explode as he and his shady crew try to tiptoe through a legal minefield without blowing themselves to tiny Team Trump bits. A senior campaign official, for instance, “was directed” by an unnamed person to contact Stone and find out if WikiLeaks (“Organization 1”) was planning to dump more stolen emails to harm the Clinton campaign.
Press Secretary Pinocchio will claim later in the day that, “The charges brought against Mr. Stone have nothing to do with this president [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].” But with that, Sanders’ nose grows half-a-foot.
Reading between the lines, the entire filing is likely aimed at the president.
Candidate Trump called on the Russians.
Who in his 2016 campaign, for example, could have directed a senior official, save a more senior individual?
Suspicion falls immediately on Trump, himself. (There’s also a chance Stone could have been directed by Don Jr. or Jared Kushner or some other disreputable character, like Steve Bannon.) For whom was Stone doing all his dirty work? Everything described was done in furtherance of the campaign.
In the summer of 2016, for example, the indictment notes, “Stone was contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases [of stolen emails] by Organization 1.”
Note: “officials.”
Those emails were hacked (as we know now) by Russians and
passed on to various media sources to harm the Clinton campaign.
We know today how a great deal of the story unfolded. In those days, Stone could claim he had no idea the Russians were behind the hack. Yet, days after the first dump of damaging emails, Trump could go on stage and say, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” a reference to Mrs. Clinton’s now closed private email account.
Trump didn’t call for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to find the emails, which would have made sense if he didn’t know the Russians were at work.
He called on the Russians.
Soon after Trump took office, the story of Russian interference broke. Yet the president insisted for more than a year that there was no evidence the Russians interfered. Now, this indictment piles up even more proof that Trump and his aides knew all along who was helping them out.
We know both houses of Congress eventually went to work. The
Senate conducted a serious, bipartisan investigation.
Mr. Stone was also called to appear before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), at the time chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). Stone was asked about any contacts he had had with WikiLeaks or Russian hackers. He “made multiple false statements,” all aimed at obstructing justice. He “denied possessing records that contained evidence” of interactions involving WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign – and those records he still possessed.
Stone asks for specific emails damaging to Clinton.
The indictment is damning in multiple ways:
After the July 22, 2016, release
of stolen (Democratic National Committee) emails by Organization 1 [again:
WikiLeaks], 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.
In other words, people close to Trump, possibly Trump himself, knew what Stone was up to and urged him to keep up the good work.
“On or about August 2, 2016,” prosecutors allege,
Person 1 emailed STONE. Person 1
wrote that he was in Europe and planned to return about mid-August. Person 1
stated in part, “Word is friend in embassy [Julian Assange of WikiLeaks] plans
2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very
damaging.”
(Jerome Corsi, a right-wing conspiracy theorist has admitted he is “Person 1” and says that the information contained in the indictment is substantially correct as far as his role is concerned.)
At one point, according to the indictment, Stone went so far as to request “Person 2” to contact the head of “Organization 1” and ask him to provide “any State [Department] or HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] e-mail from August 10 to August 30, particularly on August 20, 2011,” to support a damaging narrative related to the Democratic presidential candidate.
Stone was putting in an order for specific stolen emails. He and “Person 2,” known to be Randy Credico, exchanged a series of emails and text messages and sometimes spoke by phone. According to the indictment, on or about October 2, 2016, Person 2 assured Stone, “big news Wednesday…now pretend u don’t know me.” Assange was about to drop another load of emails.
Two days later, Stone is communicating with a “supporter involved in the Trump campaign.” That supporter wants to know about other damaging info that might be coming. Stone replies, “Yes - want to talk on a secure line - got Whatsapp?”
These guys know they’re up to no good, and from what we can
tell, worry they’re breaking the law.
On May 22, 2017, Mr. Stone notifies Nunes and HPSCI that he has “no documents, records, or electronically stored information, regardless of form” that might help in any investigation. Delighted to hear this news, Chairman Nunes – who has zero interest in uncovering any info damaging to Trump or his band – wishes Stone a good day and prepares to send him on his way.
“You have no emails, no texts, no documents whatsoever?”
Before the witness can make a dash for the exit, a Democratic member of the panel asks if Stone has any information about WikiLeaks, the timing of the email dumps, or the stolen Clinton emails. “You have no emails, no texts, no documents whatsoever, any kind of that nature?” his questioner asks.
“That is correct,” Stone responds. “Not to my recollection.”
The indictment alleges that Stone was lying at that point and would continue to do so for months:
In truth and in fact, STONE had sent
and received numerous emails and text messages during the campaign, in
which he discussed Organization 1, its head, and its possession of hacked
emails. At the time of his false testimony, STONE was in possession of many of
these emails and text messages…
Stone didn’t lie once or twice. He was asked if he had ever communicated by email or text with Person 2. “He’s not an email guy,” Stone explained. “No,” he added, there were no texts.
Mueller’s team includes a raft of emails and texts between Stone and “Person 2” in the indictment.
Stone was asked by investigators if he had discussed his conversations with “an intermediary” to Organization 1 “with anyone involved in the Trump campaign?”
The indictment notes: “Stone falsely and misleadingly
answered, ‘I did not.’ In truth and in fact…STONE spoke to multiple
individuals in the Trump campaign about what he claimed to have learned
from his intermediary to Organization 1[.]”
Stone knew when he testified before Congress that there were witnesses who might reveal his trail. On or about October 19, 2017, he began “urging Person 2 [Credico]…to falsely confirm” parts of his testimony. Person 2 “repeatedly told STONE that his testimony was false and told him to correct his testimony to HPSCI. STONE did not do so. STONE then engaged in a prolonged effort to prevent Person 2 from contradicting STONE’s false statements to HPSCI.”
In November, “Person 2” was invited to testify. Stone and Credico talked and emailed frequently. Stone suggested that Credico say he “could not remember what he had told STONE,” or, “alternatively, invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination” when called before the panel. On November 19, Credico notified Stone that his lawyer wanted to talk.
“Stonewall it. Plead the Fifth.”
According to the indictment, Stone made it clear he wanted his friend to cover their tracks. Stone responded by quoting that pillar of rectitude, Richard Nixon, from the worst days of the Watergate Affair. “Stonewall it.” Stone suggested. “Plead the Fifth. Anything to save the plan.”
As if citing Nixon wasn’t bad enough, in December 2017, Stone
and Credico repeatedly discussed the latter’s coming testimony. Stone channeled
a character from The Godfather: Part II.
Credico, he said, should pull a “Frank Pentangeli.” That is, like the film
character, he should tell the House panel he did not know “critical information
that he does in fact know.”
Stone was clear. If Credico turned anything over to the
F.B.I., he was “a fool.” Credico again advised Stone to correct his own
testimony before it was too late. Stone responded, “Because of tromp [Trump?] I
could never get away with a certain [sic] my Fifth Amendment rights but you
can. I guarantee you are the one who gets indicted for perjury if you’re stupid
enough to testify.”
As events transpire, when called before Congress, “Person 2” did assert a Fifth Amendment right. Still, Stone and Credico realized they remained in danger and continued to discuss how to deal with ongoing investigations.
On December 24, Stone writes again to Credico, “I’m not talking to the FBI and if your [sic] smart you won’t either.”
By the spring of 2018, Credico had weakened. When he finally began opening up to investigators, Stone went bonkers. “You are a rat. A stoolie. You back-stab your friends,” Stone howled. He threatened “to take that dog away from you,” a threat to Credico’s furry best friend.
“Prepare to die [expletive],” Stone added to hammer home the point.
This latest indictment alleges that from May 2017 at least
through December 2017, “the defendant, ROGER JASON STONE JR., corruptly
influenced, obstructed, impeded, and endeavored to influence, obstruct, and
impede the due and proper exercise of the power of the inquiry” of
congressional oversight panels.
*
MEANWHILE, THE PRESIDENT has trotted out a new, tall tale to justify the government shutdown and pump up support for building the Great Wall of Trump. He keeps trying to scare us all with stories about poor women, smuggled across our border, by human traffickers. “Women are tied up, they’re bound, duct tape put around their faces, around their mouths, in many cases they can’t even breathe,” he said during a Rose Garden briefing today. “They’re put in the backs of cars or vans or trucks” and dragged here, to face a life of prostitution or worse.”
Trump doesn’t want to help these victims, of course, he just wants to keep them out of the United States.
The problem: No one from Customs and Border Patrol seems to know what the boss is talking about. Experts tell the Washington Post that the president’s claims are “divorced from reality.”
Vox soon reports that a source inside Customs and Border Patrol has provided a copy of an email sent to all border offices, asking for “any information (in any format)” to support Mr. Trump’s claims.
Good luck with that.
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