Attorney's file on Roger Stone, LaRouche and Russia influencing the 2016 presidential election

[Cory Santos]

And magically CNN was there to get it on tape.  

[James DiEugenio]

But Cory that was just very smart reporting, right? 

The other things is, as I read the indictment, it does not say that the whole Wikileaks alleged association was part of the actual indictment, it says that was something Stone was not forthcoming about.

 

[Cory Santos]

Just thinking... Clinton made it clear she wanted Assange.  I recall Obama did too.  What if this is show to make a deal on Assange while trying to embarrass the President, at least, to incite a coup at worst?  Just thinking out loud, does not mean I support it 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Cory Santos

[Andrew Prutsok]

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

I really don't fully comprehend this.

I mean to send a SWAT team to arrest a guy who is a 66 year old writer?

And they already had his email communications.

The only way I see this being relevant to what Mueller is supposed to be after is that he will contend that Assange got the e mail communications from the Russians and then Bannon wanted Stone to get them from Assange.  Is that it?

I think the point is that they have all lied about it to anyone who would listen, even Congress, repeatedly, for more than two years.

[Joe Bauer]

James Di, it seems the raid on Michael Cohen's (residence/office?) was less dramatic and more civil.

Just a thought however.

Roger Stone is a super aggressive guy.

He sometimes expresses himself in this tone and manner.

He consciously projects a tough and intimidating in your face image. 

Stone sometimes says things that have a violence bent. 

We've all heard or read about his violence threatening phone messages.

I saw Stone in an impromptu airport arriving interview a few months ago where when asked about a possible Trump impeachment he seemed to get instantly red faced angry and predicted ( threatened? ) violence in the streets if Trump is impeached and pondered something dark happening to the Senator who first initiated such an action!

The guy helped organize the physically aggressive Brooks Brothers and election door pounding protests down in Dade County Florida back in 2,000. Wouldn't doubt him probably having a hand in other borderline violent dirty trick incidents.

Stone is a super aggressive and unpredictable person.  Maybe this was taken into account regards the more aggressive raid on his home?

Edited January 31, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Paul Brancato]

So just in case the arrest was leaked and Stone was prepared and defended? 

[Joe Bauer]

Stone definitely seems like the kind of person who carries a gun or some other self-defense weapon on him at all times.

 

[Andrew Prutsok]

If nothing else, we can credit Stone  for the end of the government shutdown. Trump’s MO is to come up with some dramatic gesture to get bad news off the top of the websites quickly.

[James DiEugenio]

According to Stone, he did not have one gun at his home nor does he have a permit to carry one.   Which would have been pretty easy for the FBI to check on.

The idea that they needed the huge surprise raid is also undermined by the fact that he has been under electronic surveillance for two years.

 When I read the indictment I think of FBI agent Strzok's testimony before congress, the most valuable five words to come from that circus:

Collusion is not a crime.

This is why I think almost all the charges in the bill come from after the election and from Stone's testimony before congress.

I should add one last point.  And I am not  saying this is relevant to the case, because I do not think it is.  Both Corsi and Stone wrote books advocating conspiracy in the JFK case.

Edited January 26, 2019 by James DiEugenio

[Douglas Caddy]

From the article: For many, Friday’s arrest of Roger Stone, the veteran political trickster and longtime adviser to Donald Trump, was a sign that the special counsel investigation into Russian electoral interference is entering its final phase. Yet there were also several indications that the probe may not be as near its conclusion as many observers assume — and that the true target of Friday’s F.B.I. actions was not Mr. Stone himself, but his electronic devices.

Mr. Stone’s early-morning arrest at his Florida home unsurprisingly dominated coverage, but reports also noted that federal agents were “seen carting hard drives and other evidence from Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem, and his recording studio in South Florida was also raided.” The F.B.I., in other words, was executing search warrants, not just arrest warrants. Even the timing and manner of Mr. Stone’s arrest — at the absolute earliest moment allowed under federal rules of criminal procedure without persuading a judge to authorize an exceptional nighttime raid — suggests a concern with preventing destruction of evidence: Otherwise it would make little sense to send a dozen agents to arrest a man in his 60s before sunrise.

The indictment itself — which charges Mr. Stone with witness tampering, obstruction of justice and false statements to Congress — takes little imagination to translate into a search warrant application, and also hints at what Robert Mueller might be looking for. In describing the lies it alleges Mr. Stone told a House committee, the document places great emphasis on Mr. Stone’s denial that he had any written communications with two associates — associates with whom he had, in fact, regularly exchanged emails and text messages. That’s precisely the sort of behavior one might focus on in seeking to convince a recalcitrant judge that an investigative target could not be trusted to turn over documents in response to a subpoena, requiring the more intrusive step of seizing Mr. Stone’s devices directly.

Of course, as the indictment also makes clear, the special counsel has already managed to get its hands on plenty of Mr. Stone’s communications by other means — but one seeming exception jumps out. In a text exchange between Mr. Stone and a “supporter involved with the Trump Campaign,” Mr. Mueller pointedly quotes Mr. Stone’s request to “talk on a secure line — got WhatsApp?” There the direct quotes abruptly end, and the indictment instead paraphrases what Mr. Stone “subsequently told the supporter.” Though it’s not directly relevant to his alleged false statements, the special counsel is taking pains to establish that Mr. Stone made a habit of moving sensitive conversations to encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp — meaning that, unlike ordinary emails, the messages could not be obtained directly from the service provider.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/opinion/roger-stone-indictment-mueller-investigation.html

[Douglas Caddy]

Stone may or may not have a gun in his home but according to an article in The New York Times Trump carries one on his person:

Trump and Cohen Received Gun Licenses in Exchange for Favors, Former Police Official Alleges

By Ashley Southall
Jan. 24, 2019
The New York Times

President Trump, his eldest son, and his former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, were among a roster of rich and powerful people who received gun licenses from the New York Police Department in return for special favors, a former lieutenant has claimed in court papers.

The former lieutenant, Paul Dean, said the men received permits to carry guns in New York City without the proper paperwork after donating to two charities with close ties to the department. They were among a list of other well-connected people who Mr. Dean said benefited from a “systematic culture of corruption” that stretched from the department’s gun licensing division to the upper echelons of the department.

 

 

[Andrew Prutsok]

Someone who’s providing good analysis of Stone and entire Trump-Russia thing is Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel.net. She’s a national security reporter/blogger (sorry if that’s not the right term). I believe she joined The Intercept briefly but left over Glenn Greenwald’s contempt of the investigation.

https://www.emptywheel.net/

Scroll down. I love the headline, “How Roger Stone ratxxxxed himself.”

 

[Cory Santos]

Jim D. you left off Cyril Wecht, M.D.  Also prosecuted, twice.  Oh and as you and I both know Jim Garrison in the 1970s.  Arguably also Abraham Bolden.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Cory Santos

[Bob Ness]

Who says they're done charging him? It's not uncommon for the feds to charge someone to see what they do and then pile on more charges. The fact that they came calling early is no surprise to me. I think it would be stupid not to. Stone would destroy anything he could if they allowed him to report IMO.

[Douglas Caddy]

Well written and informative article even it one is not a fan of Roger Stone:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article2766816.html?fbclid=IwAR2B9SxU1wfNeoX7B_NdWYON3H63gaUSC7fWoNY8c7Kf8S2ZxnxkE4tDB9w