Dripping with Irony, Another Of “The Best People” Bites the Dust
So Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s long-time friend and political advisor, found guilty of all seven counts in the indictment against him, is going off for a long stretch in prison.
There are people close to Trump who say he’s innocent of all the allegations against him, but did you know that precisely zero of them are willing to say that under oath?
Isn’t that remarkable?
Craig,
Roger Stone was convicted of telling told five lies under oath, including about his conversations with Trump campaign officials and a supposed “intermediary” with WikiLeaks in early August 2016.
He was also convicted of “witness” tampering, based solely on the testimony of a witness who stated he only testified to avoid being prosecuted himself. The witness is certainly a highly unstable and untrustworthy individual.
Prosecutors said, knew that if he truthfully testified about his efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks and pass information along to the campaign, it would at the very least be embarrassing for all involved.
It must be emphasized that nothing he did was in itself illegal, but according to the prosecutors he lied about doing something embarrassing.
Stone had also tipped off the Trump campaign about new batches of damaging emails emanating from Hillary Clinton.
These emails were later revealed to be true and her denial which is illegal wasn’t followed up, but Roger Stone who revealed the existence of her illegal acts was charged!
The only evidence against Roger Stone were witnesses of the “jail house confession” types. All the witnesses against Stone were convicted perjurers, procured by prosecutors to testify against Stone to avid persecution or gain sentence reductions.
The presiding Judge, Judge Jackson, seemed to struggle at times to keep control of proceedings. She allowed a 20-foot-tall inflatable rat with Trump hair to remain stationed at the front entrance of the courthouse.
She also alowed the prosecution to repeatedly read aloud alleged explicative-laden communications between Stone and Credico.
Credico gave highly dramatic “impersonations” of various witnesses until when he attempted a Bernie Sanders impression while testifying, Judge Jackson finally admonished him.
The is no question that Roger Stone is a pretty hard nosed political operative, and not a very pleasant guy, but the evidence against him was hardly strong. And the idea of convicting someone for lying without an underlying illegal act is very unusual and open to abuse.
Roger Stone is entitled to the benefit of the appeal process.