The First, Full First hand report of the trial of Roger Stone
reported to National File reporter Kari Donovan by sources who were placed at the trial of Roger Stone, “every day,” this is a summary of comments by a first-hand source of what happened.
HOW ROGER STONE WAS RAILROADED BY THE DEEP STATE
Because of the “fake news” media black-out regarding Roger Stone’s vindictive prosecution by Robert Mueller and the Department of Justice, few Americans understand how and why this long-time Trump political advisor and loyalist was convicted of making false statements to Congress, how flimsy the case against him is and how he was railroaded in a Soviet-style show trial in Washington, DC, in which the judge barred every powerful line of defense and carefully stacked an anti-Trump jury comprised completely of left-wing Democrats.
Stone is, of course, the veteran Republican Strategist, New York Times Bestselling author, pundit and longtime consultant to the Trump Organization. His lineage in the GOP includes work as an aide to Senator Bob Dole, a high-level campaign advisor to both presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and the youngest staff member on President Nixon’s re-election campaign in 1972. Now 67, Stone stands alone in history as someone who has worked on no less than 10 Republican presidential campaigns over the last half century.
The seminal role Stone played in Donald Trump’s political emergence, beginning in 1988 and running through his work as chairman of Donald Trump’s Presidential Exploratory Committees in both on 2000 and 2012, is detailed in the recent PBS Documentary series on President Trump, as well as in the award-winning Netflix documentary “Get Me Roger Stone.”
The veteran politico now lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife of 29 years Nydia Bertran Stone. At their wedding, which was fittingly held in the nation’s capital, President Trump was an honored guest. CUT THIS: [Stone has served as the Men’s Style Correspondent for the Daily Caller.]
Even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s intensive two-year multi-million dollar investigation into Stone, beginning in 2017, the investigators turned up no evidence of Russian collusion or any collaboration with Wikileaks, and no evidence that Stone knew anything in advance about where the shocking disclosures of DNC material by Julian Assange and Wikileaks (including John Podesta’s e-mails) came from or when they were to be released. In other words, Mueller and his investigators effectively debunked the mainstream media’s and the Democrat party’s central narrative about Roger Stone. Having struck out in his quest to prove the false claims repeatedly advanced about Stone by the manic array of anti-Trump forces, Robert Mueller and his cohorts crafted a case to indict Roger Stone for lying to Congress.
The month prior to Roger Stone’s SWAT-raid style arrest, conveniently covered by CNN cameras, President Trump tweeted praise for Stone:
“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!’”
On January 25, 2019 the FBI staged a stunning pre-dawn paramilitary raid in which 29 SWAT uniformed FBI agents arrived in 17 armored vehicles, with a K-9 unit, a helicopter circling overhead and even two amphibious units on the canal behind Stone’s Florida homes to arrest the 67-year-old former Trump advisor and cart him off to be arraigned, while they rummaged through his house and seized all of his personal electronics, along with anything else they deemed of interest.
Mueller’s prosecutors knew Stone was represented by counsel and had even spoken with Stone’s lawyer just one day before the astonishing armed raid and arrest. Prosecutors claimed that Stone had to be arrested with such force because they considered him a “flight risk.” This claim was shown to be false just hours later when the government entered no opposition to Stone’s immediate release from custody without having to post a cash bond.
Notably, Stone had no firearms or weapons and didn’t even have a valid passport when the FBI’s or a firearm when arrested. The judge in Stone’s prohibited his lawyers from questioning the FBI’s actions, clearly designed to portray Stone negatively in the court of public opinion prior to trial.
Although the street on which Stone lived was sealed by the FBI, CNN was permitted to film Stone’s pre-dawn arrest – in fact home Stone’s Home Security video show’s a CNN film arriving and setting up just 25 feet from their front door 11 minutes before the FBI arrived.
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 clients arrest in a phone call from a CNN producer.
The FBI has denied a FOIA request from Judicial Watch 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 lawsuit.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) 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 FBI tipped 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-mail, text messages and phone calls as well as Stone’s home and office in Florida as well as 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. Their 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.
The office of Special Counsel argued that Stone’s case would be before Judge Amy Berman Jackson because they said Stone’s case was related to the still untried case in which Mueller charged 75 Russian’s for the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee because prosecutors claimed 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 has access to “stolen documents”. Mueller was allowed to “Judge Shop.”
Judge Jackson is an Obama appointee and 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.
A motion for a different Judge and a different venue by Stone’s lawyers was denied.
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 smirk and roll her eyes at the jury whenever 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 all Democrat DC Jury on all seven counts against him and now faces the potential of 25 years in prison. Stone is scheduled to be sentenced February 20, 2020.
President Trump tweeted minutes after Stone’s conviction, “So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come.”
“Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all the others, including even Mueller himself, didn’t they lie?”
President Trump concluded, “A double standard like never before in the history of 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 defense lawyers from arguing that Stone’s case was one of “selective prosecution.”
President Trump told Fox News on Christmas Eve 2019 that Stone was a “nice guy who many people like” and that he thought Roger 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, calling the prosecution of Stone and Flynn a “hoax by dirty cops.”
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.
Overseeing Stone’s case for the Office of Special Counsel was Jeannie Rhee, who represented Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation in the e-mail case and who 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 partisan political opponents. All would resign in protest after filing a fraudulent sentencing report accusing Stone of facilitating foreign interference in the 2016 election and being over-ruled by Senior DOJ Officials.
The prosecution by Rhee, Hillary Clinton’s lawyer is most likely related to the publication of Stone’s book ‘The Clintons’ War on Women” which not only detailed Bill Clinton’s serial sexual assaults on multiple women but Hillary’s role in intimidating, bullying and silencing them.
More importantly, Stone was the first person to expose the Epstein-Clinton connection in that book documenting Bill Clinton’s 28 flights to the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private Island and Epstein’s role in the founding of the Clinton Foundation.
Violation of the False Statement Act for which Stone was charged, requires not only that the statement be false but also that it be material and there was an intent to deceive.
The prosecution claim that Stone lied because “the truth wouldn’t look good for Donald Trump” is ludicrous in view of that fact that candidate Trump himself spoke openly about his campaign’s interest in the Wikileaks disclosure:
- October 10, 2016 in Wilkes-Barre, PA: “This just came out,” Trump said. “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”
- October 12, 2016 in Ocala, FL:“This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable,” Trump said. “It tells you the inner heart, you gotta read it.”
- October 13, 2016 in Cincinnati, OH:“It’s been amazing what’s coming out on WikiLeaks.”
- October 31, 2016 in Warren, MI:“Another one came in today,” Trump said. “This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.”
- November 4, 2016 in Wilmington, OH:“Getting off the plane, they were just announcing new WikiLeaks, and I wanted to stay there, but I didn’t want to keep you waiting,” said Trump. “Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks.”
In fact, candidate Trump mentioned WikiLeaks 141 times in the month before the 2016 election, according to MSNBC.
So, what was Stone “hiding?”
Stone, who appeared before the committee voluntarily and not under subpoena, had no motive to lie about what was a completely legal political activity. There was no testimony at Stone’s trial that he told any Trump campaign official anything about Wikileaks that they could not have read on Stone’s Twitter feed.
The House Intelligence Committee voted to turn over Stone’s classified testimony at Mueller’s request but did not refer Stone for prosecution. The Committee’s final report did not find that Stone had mislead the Committee.
One count that Stone engaged in “witness tampering” is also false.
Stone had already divulged to the House Intelligence Committee that progressive radio host and comic impressionist Randy Credico who Stone had worked with for criminal justice sentence reform was his source regarding the significance and timing of the Coming Wikileaks disclosures to the House Intelligence Committee.
Stone urged Credico to assert his fifth amendment rights not to testify before the House Intelligence Committee because Credico said he feared public exposure in the progressive community of the fact that he had “helped elect Trump.”
Credico admitted that his own lawyer advised him to assert his fifth amendment rights as did numerous reporters as well as the ACLU.
Hyped up charges by prosecutors that Stone had threatened to “steal Credico’s dog” to pressure him into silence were specifically denied by Credico at trial.
On January 20th, 2020, Credico wrote a letter to Judge Jackson saying that he “never felt threatened by Stone.” Nonetheless, Stone was convicted on the charge of witness tampering.
The prosecution insisted that Credico was not Stone’s source regarding the general significance and October release of the Wikileaks disclosures despite Stone’s release of a chain of e-mails which indisputably prove that he was.
Federal prosecutors insisted that Dr. Jerome Corsi was the source Stone’s limited knowledge of Wikileaks plans but produced no evidence whatsoever to prove this and pointedly did not call Corsi as a witness at Stone’s trial. An August 2nd e-mail exchange between Stone and Corsi produced by the government at trial showed Corsi’s prognostications that a major Wikileaks data dump would come in August and would pertain to the Clinton Foundation was incorrect.
A text exchange between Corsi and Stone on October 3 showed Corsi saying, “Assange has nothing and has made a fool of himself.”
Steve Bannon contradicted himself 14 times on the witness stand in Stone’s trial saying that Stone was the Trump campaign’s “access point to Wikileaks” under direct examination by Federal prosecutors, then denying that Stone was the Trump campaign’s “access point to Wikileaks” under cross examination and then finally admitting the campaign had no “access point to Wikileaks.”
Prosecutors objected when Stone’s lawyers sought to enter Bannon’s allegedly contradictory sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee insisting it was hearsay. Judge Jackson would not allow Bannon’s HPSI testimony to be entered as evidence.
Convicted felon Rick Gates testified at Stone’s trial that he overheard a cell phone conversation between Stone and Trump while in a SUV on the way to LaGuardia Airport in August 2016.
Gates admitted that he could not hear the actual conversation and Federal prosecutors produced no phone record or additional witness to corroborate this claim, although Gates said there were two Secret Service Agents in the SUV.
Both Trump and Stone have denied this conversation ever took place. In written responses to questions from Mueller President Trump specifically denied ever discussing the Wikileaks disclosures.
Gates, who was convicted of conspiracy and lying to the FBI received a 45 day sentence in return for his testimony against Stone, and federal prosecutors declined to prosecute Gates for not paying taxes on millions of dollars of income he admitted he embezzled from his partner Paul Manafort.
Nonetheless a DC Jury found Stone guilty on all charges. While one juror, a Beto O’Rourke contributor, told the Washington Post that the jury was “diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, education and occupation” his claim is misleading to say the least.
The jury included no Republicans, no military veterans, no Roman Catholics, no Black men and no one with less than a College education but did include a former Democratic candidate for Congress, two lawyers who worked in Democratic Administrations, three jurors with ties to the FBI, three jurors with ties to the Department of Justice and two jurors with ties to the CIA as well as an Obama appointee to the position of Communications Director of a Federal Department.
It is questionable whether any Republican can get a fair trial in the District of Columbia.
The underlying premise of the federal indictment of Roger Stone contained in the first two pages of his indictment is that the Russians hacked the DNC and provided this allegedly hacked data to Wikileaks.
All of the questions Stone allegedly lied about relate to this alleged action, yet Judge Amy Berman Jackson would not allow Stone’s lawyers to disprove this by calling forensic witnesses like for NSA Bill Binney.
Having based their prosecution of Stone on this premise federal prosecutors now insisted it was irrelevant.
When the government admitted in discovery that the FBI had never inspected the DNC computer servers and had instead relied on a redacted draft memo from Crowdstrike, an IT firm closely tied to Hillary Clinton, the admission got broad media coverage.
The government then filed an additional sur-reply with the court claiming to have other sources of confirmation that the DNC had been hacked by the Russian but declining to produce any proof of this claim.
Judge Jackson barred Stone’s attorneys from raising any questions regarding the misconduct of the Special Prosecutor, the DOJ, the FBI or Members of Congress.
“There will be no investigating of the investigators in my courtroom,” she said, despite the appointment of Special Counsel John Durham by Attorney General Bill Barr to do exactly that.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) admitted his coordination with the office of the Special Counsel in violation of House Rules in a letter to Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes but Judge Jackson prohibited Stone’s lawyers from pursuing this evidence of a “set-up” by Schiff.
The Washington Post reported that Mueller had an advance copy of Stone’s classified testimony, another violation of House Rules, prior to the full committee voting to release the testimony to the Special Counsel at Mueller’s request but did so with no referral for prosecution for perjury.
Schiff, Rep. Eric Swallwell (D-CA) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) all predicted immediately after Stone’s testimony that he would be indicted for perjury – impossible for them to know without having seen the fruits of surveillance on Stone.
Stone has been gagged during this entire process and not allowed to defend himself. Stone remains, even post-conviction under a constitutionally questionable gag order imposed by Judge Jackson, but Stone’s wife, Nydia Stone, has said publicly that her husband was prosecuted because he refused a deal to falsely against the President regarding the content of more than 25 phone calls between candidate Trump and Stone in 2016 proposed by prosecutors just prior to the transmittal of the Special Counsel’s Report to Attorney General Bill Barr.
While Stone has been gagged by the judge based on the claim that his public defense of himself would “taint the jury pool,” the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, the Daily Beast, Vox, Vice and others orchestrated a 18 month drumbeat of leaks from Mueller claiming that Stone would be prosecuted for treason and conspiracy against the United States and would prove to be the link between the Trump Campaign and Russia.
None of this would prove true.
Roger Stone was the last victim of Mueller’s Witch Hunt. He was railroaded in a vindictive, politically motivated prosecution by a biased Judge and a stacked jury.
He now faces 25 years in prison. He and his family have been bankrupted, having lost their home, their savings, their insurance and Stone’s ability to make a living.
Roger Stone wife, Nydia Stone, 71 is deaf and has no means to support herself if he husband is incarcerated for what amounts to a life sentence.
On February 10, Federal Prosecutors asked for a 7 to 9 years sentence for Stone.
President Trump himself said this was “disgraceful” and a “miscarriage of justice.”
Indeed, it must not.
150,000 Americans have now signed a petition urging President Trump to “Free Roger Stone”. President Trump having called Stone’s prosecution a hoax, should pardon Roger Stone as an act of both mercy and justice now. Tags: President TrumpRoger Stone
Kari Donovan
Kari Donovan is a journalist and proud mother as well as host of a popular YouTube show.
