The Deep State v Roger J. Stone, Jr: A Cautionary Tale

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My friend and sometime colleague Roger Stone’s sentencing is set for next week in Washington, D.C., and the circus surrounding it is already in full force. This case, or railroading as it is more aptly called, was over before it began. There was no way he was going to get a proper hearing in this venue, with this jury and especially with Obama Judge Amy Berman Jackson and the nasty crew of Deep-State prosecutors on the case (well, formerly on the case since they all quit this week; butthurt because Roger actually caught a break when the President rightfully stood up for him). It is something that should bother all Americans terribly, regardless of how they might view Roger. Anyway. I figured now would be a good time to revisit the narrative and highlight the ugly, vindictive and indeed unconstitutional manner in which this thing has played out.



As a result of the ‘fake news” media blackout regarding Stone’s prosecution by Robert Mueller and the Department of Justice (DOJ), few Americans understand how and why the long-time Trump political advisor and loyalist was convicted for lying to Congress, how flimsy the case against him is and how he was railroaded in a Soviet-style show trial in Washington, D.C. in which the judge barred every powerful line of defense and carefully stacked an anti-Trump jury comprised completely of liberal Democrats.

Roger Stone is, of course, the veteran Republican Strategist, New York Times bestselling author, pundit and longtime consultant to the Trump Organization. He is a former aide to Senator Bob Dole as well as Presidents Nixon and Reagan. Stone, 67, is a veteran of 10 Republican Presidential campaigns. His seminal role in Donald Trump’s political emergence is detailed in the recent PBS Documentary series on Donald Trump as well as in the award-winning Netflix Documentary “Get Me Roger Stone.” He served as Chairman of Donald Trump’s Presidential Exploratory Committee on 2000 and 2012, and lives in Fort Lauderdale with his charming wife of 29 years, Nydia Bertran Stone. President Trump was an honored guest at their wedding in Washington, D.C.

An intensive two-year multi-million dollar investigation into Roger Stone by Special Counsel Robert Mueller which began in 2017 turned up no evidence of Russian Collusion, no collaboration with Wikileaks, and no evidence that Roger Stone had advance notice of the source or content of any of the Wikileaks disclosures, including the e-mails of John Podesta before their release, so Robert Mueller indicted Roger Stone for “lying to Congress.” (By the way, when do we get to indict Congress for lying to us every day?)

The month prior to Roger Stone’s jack-booted, over-the- top arrest President Trump tweeted: “I will never testify against Trump” This statement was recently by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about ‘President Trump” Nice to know some people still have guts” (December 3, 2018)

On January 25th, 2019 the FBI staged a stunning pre-dawn paramilitary raid in which 29 SWAT uniformed FBI agents stormed the 67-year-old Trump advisor’s Fort Lauderdale home, arriving in 17 armored vehicles and utilizing a K-9 unit, a helicopter over-head and two amphibious units on the canal behind Stone’s home to arrest him. Prosecutors knew Stone was represented by counsel and had spoken with Stone’s lawyer the previous day. The prosecutors’ subsequent claim that Stone had to be arrested in this manner because he was considered a “flight risk” was disproven hours later when the government did not oppose his release without a cash bond. Stone had neither a valid passport or a firearm when arrested. Judge Jackson prohibited his lawyers from questioning the FBI’s actions in court. Naturally.

Although the street on which Stone lived was sealed to all by the FBI, CNN was out front filming Stone’s pre-dawn arrest. Stone’s home security video shows a CNN crew arriving and setting up just 25 feet from his front door 11 minutes before the FBI arrived with their assault weapons drawn. Josh Campbell, former Special Assistant to FBI Director James Comey now with CNN, was the first news correspondent to report Stone’s arrest. Stone’s own lawyers learned of their client’s arrest in a phone call from a CNN producer. The FBI has denied a FOIA request for all e-mail between the FBI and CNN in the days before the FBI raid on Stone’s home, which is now the subject of a separate lawsuit. Senator Lindsay Graham released a letter to the Department of Justice and FBI demanding to know who approved the raid on Stone’s home. There is no public record of a response. Special Counsel Robert Mueller refused to comment on whether the Special Counsel’s office or the FBI tipped off CNN prior to Stone’s made-for-TV arrest during his Congressional testimony. After Stone’s arrest, President Trump himself tweeted “Who alerted CNN to be there?”

In order to secure search warrants for Stone e-mails, text messages and phone calls, as well as Stone’s home and office in Florida and his New York City apartment, prosecutors told a Federal Judge that they had probable cause of money laundering of foreign money in campaign contributions, mail fraud, wire fraud, and various cyber-crimes including unauthorized access to a computer server. In fact, prosecutors had no such evidence other than Stone’s Twitter feed. Every one of Stone’s tweets were based on publicly available information. The search warrants found no evidence of any of these crimes and Stone was ultimately charged with lying to Congress and one count of witness tampering. Stone’s contrived indictment was crafted by Mueller deputy Andrew Weissman based on the meta-tags on the copy of the indictment blast e-mailed to the press at 7 a.m. the morning of his arrest (even though a Federal Magistrate did not unseal the indictment until 9:30 a.m. that same morning) where Weissman left his initials.

Next, the office of Special Counsel argued that Stone’s case would go before Judge Amy Berman Jackson because they said Stone’s case was related to the still untried case in which Mueller charged 75 Russians for the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee, claiming Stone’s e-mail address was found by a search warrant in that case. Mueller’s team said this case is related to Stone’s for two reasons: first, that certain “stolen documents” are a topic in both cases, and second, that warrants used in the Russian hacker case surfaced “certain evidence that is relevant” to Stone’s case. In fact, no evidence from the Russian hacking case was introduced at Stone’s trial. Nothing in Stone’s indictment alleged he had access to “stolen documents.” Mueller was essentially allowed to “Judge Shop,” which is widely considered to be an abuse of the Court.

Obama appointee Judge Jackson is a liberal activist judge who dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as dismissing the suit by the Catholic Church challenging Obamacare’s requirement that employers provide free coverage for contraception and abortion. Jackson’s decision was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Jackson also presided over the case of former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort in which Manafort was incarcerated prior to and during his trial despite the fact that he hadn’t been convicted of any crime. An early motion for a different judge and a different venue by Stone’s lawyers was denied. Naturally.

Jackson ruled for the prosecution and against Stone’s lawyers on every motion in the case save one. It was reported that the judge would often smirk and roll her eyes at the jury when Stone’s lawyers were speaking in court.

After a five day Soviet-style show trial in which Judge Jackson barred Stone from mounting any effective line of defense, Stone was convicted by an all-Democrat DC Jury on all seven counts against him and now faces the potential of many, many years in prison. Some say there will be a move to take him into custody at sentencing, which would be a highly unusual move in a case like this and simply underscores the Deep State spite Stone has been up against.

Minutes after Stone’s conviction, President Trump tweeted “Now they have convicted Roger Stone for lying to Congress and want to give him a long prison term. What about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Schiff, Ohr, Steele and Mueller himself all lied and not been prosecuted. This is double standard like never seen before in our country.”

Indeed, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Rosenstein, Ohr and Mueller all lied under oath to Congress on consequential matters, but Judge Jackson specifically prohibited Stone’s defense lawyers from arguing that Stone’s case was one of “selective prosecution.” Naturally.

President Trump told FOX News on Christmas Eve 2019 that Stone was a “nice guy who many people like,” and that he thought Stone “was a good person” who, along with General Michael Flynn, had been treated “very unfairly” in his prosecution by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump called the prosecution of Stone and Flynn a “hoax by dirty cops.”

Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress despite the failure of Mueller to find any underlying crime for Stone to lie about. At trial, prosecutors provided evidence that Stone tried (unsuccessfully) to learn the content of the announced Wikileaks disclosures (which is not a crime). Mueller criminalized perfectly legal political activities in the indictment and conviction of Stone. Naturally.

Overseeing Stone’s case for the Office of Special Counsel was Jeannie Rhee, who represented Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation in the big e-mail case. Rhee gave the maximum contribution to Hillary’s campaigns in 2008 and 2016 as well as Obama in 2008. Aaron Zelinsky, a former Huffington Post Columnist and Assistant US Attorney was recommended by Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to assist Rhee in Stone’s prosecution. Stone’s case would ultimately be prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Kravis who served as Associate White House Counsel for President Barack Obama. Adam Jed, an Obama DOJ official who successfully argued that the act of Congress outlawing gay marriage was unconstitutional, rounded out Mueller’s prosecution of Stone. Stone was prosecuted by his partisan political opponents. 

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Imagine the level of unconstitutional scumbaggery Democrats would stoop to if they had the White House and a Congressional majority. If you want more of a sense of what they would do, listen to what they falsely accuse Republicans of doing now. They are vindictive, fascist, unconstitutional, justice-hating thugs.

Yup its the system.