By HARRY HURLEY, Political Columnist
Roger Stone has been unjustly criminally charged and the federal judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson slapped him with a highly restrictive gag order, so that he can longer defend himself.
There’s something very un-American about this whole thing. Stone has spent the past 50-plus years as a very effective communicator. It’s the very heart of his brand. And, now as the seriousness of his freedom potentially being taken away from him, he has been ordered to stand parked on the sidelines? That’s wrong.
Judge Jackson’s gag order is so rigid that it also prevents Stone from having a surrogate speak on his behalf. However, the crazy, unhinged Democrat media isn’t gagged and they have gotten away with regularly savaging Stone for the past several years.
These criminal charges have also taken Stone’s ability to earn a living for the past two-plus years. Think about it. Who will hire a national political consultant/strategist who is facing a multi-count federal criminal indictment?
Judge Jackson has set the Stone trial date of November 5, 2019; yes, it’s opening on General Election Day, which seems to be no coincidence, either. Jackson also presided over the Paul Manafort and Richard Gates trials.
Stone currently faces a seven-count federal indictment. Here is a link to the official indictment.
Stone stands charged with seven counts of lying to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee about his testimony regarding Wikileaks, who hacked the Democratic National Committee and released thousands of documents during the 2016 Presidential General Election campaign.
Stone has maintained his innocence from the beginning. In lengthy interviews that I have conducted with Stone, he has offered compelling explanations to counter the seven criminal counts that he currently faces.
Here is a link to my March 24, 2017 comprehensive on-air interview with Roger Stone. It’s 47 minutes and 39 seconds (uninterrupted) in length.
The federal government alleges that Stone lied to Congress and tried to tamper with a witness and that he tried to obstruct the Russia investigation. Yet, in the end, they never charged him with collusion or obstruction.
It’s important to note that no American was charged with collusion or obstruction … which was the whole stated purpose of the Special Counsel’s mission in the first place.
I don’t say this lightly. The criminal charges against Stone are completely bogus and they allegedly center around supposed inconsistencies regarding Stone’s sworn testimony from September 26, 2017 before the United States House Intelligence Committee.
Stone stands so ludicrously over-charged that the evidence collected by prosecutors, if printed on paper and stacked, would be twice as tall as the Washington Monument. Digitally, the evidence can be measured in terabytes.
I landed the first interview (September 27, 2019) with Stone the very next morning following his sworn testimony. Stone discussed at length how he had just hours before “shoved their words down their throats,” said Stone.
Stone is a proud man, who has worked on the Presidential campaigns of Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2 and Trump. He is the architect of former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean’s upset victory over the heavily-favored future Governor Jim Florio.
Despite the fact that Stone has been charged with series of non-violent, process crimes, he was treated beyond how the most heinous suspects would be treated. Stone was the subject of an over-the-top, Osama Bin Laden, El Chapo or Pablo Escobar (style) pre-dawn raid of his home.
Incredulously, “more men were sent to raid my home then were used to protect our compound In Benghazi,” said Stone. Let that sink-in for a moment. Despite being no flight risk whatsoever, Stone also had his travel restricted, despite the fact that he doesn’t even possess a Passport to leave the country.
In one of his last interviews before the gag order, Stone said on the WPG/Hurley in the Morning” program that the raid, “a pre-dawn raid stormed my house with greater force than was used to take down terrorists or drug lords and terrorized my wife and my dogs. It was unconscionable,” said Stone.
They federal government sent enough armed agents and fire power to overthrow a Central American country. They handled the Stone home raid with assault weapons, a tank, amphibious vessels and more. And, of course CNN cameras were allowed to set within the security parameter 35 minutes before the raid took place to memorialize it all during Mueller Time.
By any fair examination, this was excessive force and pure theatrics by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. It’s easy to believe to believe that this circus stunt was to prejudice any potential jury pool against Stone.
The only things that Stone is permitted to do under Judge Jackson’s gag order is to proclaim his innocence and raise money through his legal defense fund. Any other comment from Stone would be a violation; which if he committed such an offense would surely land Stone in jail immediately.
The criminal charges have cost Stone his home, savings, insurance coverage, and his ability to pay for basic necessities: rent, food, medical care, etc.
Stone estimates that it will cost him more than $ 2 million to mount his legal defense and win at trial this November, 2019. Also, Stone’s trial will be held in the District of Columbia, an extreme liberal bastion of Americana. You can just imagine the potential jury pools that there will be to choose from. There is no worse location for Stone, except perhaps sections of California and New York City.
Everyone deserves the right to a fair trial. Stone has faced the unimaginable stress and daily pressure of a runaway Special Prosecutor, who had possessed unlimited taxpayer funds at his disposal.
In the entire history of our country, you almost never see people charged with these kinds of “process crimes.” Much of the successful Mueller prosecutions to date have been their aggressive efforts to go after people, who know President Donald Trump and relentlessly employ a process of searching for a crime.
Mueller and his band of pro-Democrat Prosecutors wanted to take down President Trump in the worst way. To get to President Trump, they were willing to mow down anyone who wouldn’t cooperate with their agenda.
Stone has been unwilling to turn on the President and he’s currently paying a heavy price for it. It’s extremely rare to defeat the federal government at trial. They have a high 90 percentile success rate.
However, I strongly believe that Stone will be acquitted at trial. It’s very tough to run the table on seven different counts. That’s why the federal government always over-charges a defendant.
In the unjust event that Stone is convicted at trial, he is a “poster child” for the reason why the President is granted unlimited power to pardon an individual of such federal criminal convictions.
A potential Stone conviction would be much like Scooter Libby. Libby had committed no crime whatsoever. Yet, that didn’t stop an overzealous prosecution in succeeding to convict him of completely bogus charges.
President George W. Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, but he refused to pardon him. That was a sad mistake that Bush made.
I have decided that I will personally lend my support and help to organize an Atlantic City area fundraiser to benefit the Stone Legal Defense Fund later this summer. Details will follow in the very near future.
The Roger Stone Defense Fund can be accessed at: www.StoneDefenseFund.com
[BIO: Harry Hurley is the president of Harry Hurley Consulting and Communications, LLC. He hosts the daily talk radio program “Hurley in the Morning” 6-10 a.m., weekdays on Townsquare Media, WPG Talk Radio 104.1 FM & 1450 AM, where he also serves as the senior programming consultant. Harry was elected to both the Philadelphia (2013) and New Jersey (2015) Radio Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Harry Hurley has also been selected (2015-2018) as one of the Top 100 Most Important Talk Radio Hosts in America by Talkers Magazine. Hurley is also doing national fill-in, on-air talent work for FOX News Radio on their nationally syndicated platforms. He has hosted various programs for local television and is the editor and publisher of his news and information.]
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