Kelleigh Nelson
The U.S. prosecution service is eating at the soul of the American republic. It is an absolute danger to everyone. —Conrad Black
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. —Thomas Jefferson
Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them, the ends always seem to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag. —Margaret Thatcher
Roger Stone is a veteran Republican Strategist, New York Times Bestselling author, pundit and longtime consultant to the Trump Organization. Mr. Stone is the grandmaster of 10 Republican Presidential campaigns including his seminal role in Donald Trump’s political emergence. This 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 also served as chairman of Donald Trump’s Presidential Exploratory Committee in 2000 and 2012.
Roger and his wife of 29 years, Nydia, live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. President Trump was an honored guest at their wedding in Washington, D.C. The Stones have two grown children and five grandchildren. They are parishioners at Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale.
An intensive two-year multi-million-dollar investigation into Stone by the Special Counsel began in 2017. They 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. Mueller indicted Roger Stone for lying to Congress.
The Gestapo
Gestapo tactics were obvious when on Friday, January 25, 2019, twenty-nine FBI agents in bullet proof protective gear and armed with submachine guns showed up pre-dawn at Roger Stone’s home. There were seventeen vehicles, two of which were armored, two boats behind Roger’s home and one helicopter was circling overhead. Link
Prosecutors knew Stone was represented by counsel and had spoken with Stone’s lawyer the previous day. Yet, their 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 nor a firearm when arrested.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson prohibited Stone’s lawyers from questioning the FBI’s actions, clearly designed to portray Stone negatively in the court of public opinion prior to trial.
FBI raids are not broadcast to the media, but one of Mueller’s FBI boys saw to it that this one was widely shown. Beirut-born Assyrian-American George Piro, Special Agent in Charge Miami, most likely authorized the raid and leaked the information to CNN.The same thing was done to Paul Manafort who is dying in prison and is culpable for wrong doings, but so are many others on the left with ties to Russia and the Ukraine, many of whom were never charged including the Podesta brothers.
This was the start of the nightmare for the Stone family, all of which was begun by the Mueller Russia investigation and none of the people charged had anything to do with Russia.
The month prior to Stone’s Gestapo style arrest,on December 3, 2018, 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.
Vindictive Prosecution
In order to secure search warrants on all Stone properties and possessions, 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. They found no evidence of these crimes.
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 7am the morning of his arrest (even though a Federal Magistrate did not unseal the indictment until 9:30am that same morning) where Weissman left his initials.
Because of the “fake news” media black-out regarding Roger Stone’s vindictive prosecution by Mueller and the 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 was, and how he was railroaded in a Soviet-style show trial in Washington, DC. Obama appointee, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, barred every powerful line of defense and carefully stacked an anti-Trump jury comprised totally of liberal Democrats.
The Jury Foreperson was former Democratic congressional candidate Tomeka Hart. Her anti-Trump tweets were uncovered, including a March post about the Mueller investigation, which led to the charges against Stone and the pre-dawn raid. Judge Andrew Napolitano has publicly stated that Stone deserves a new trial.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson
Robert Mueller was allowed to “Judge Shop.” Amy Berman Jackson also presided over the case of former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. She had him incarcerated prior to and during his trial, even in solitary confinement for nine months, 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.
Special Counsel argued that Stone’s case should be before Judge Amy Berman Jackson.They claimed his case was related to the still untried case in which Mueller charged 75 Russians for the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Prosecutors asserted that Stone’s e-mail address was found by a search warrant in that case, and that this case is related to Stone’s. Where’s the proof?
They asserted 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.”
Obama appointee, Judge Jackson is a liberal activist Judge who dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit in Benghazi against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the suit by the Catholic Church challenging Obamacare’s requirement that employers provide free coverage for contraception and abortion. Jackson’s decision on the Catholic Church was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
The Prosecutors
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. She gave the maximum contribution to Hillary’s campaigns in 2008 and 2016 as well as Obama’s in 2008.
Aaron Zelinsky, a former Huffington Post Columnist and Assistant U.S. Attorney worked under and was recommended by Acting AG Rod Rosenstein to assist Rhee in Stone’s prosecution.
Stone’s case would ultimately be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis who worked in the White House Counsel’s office during the Obama administration as associate counsel to the President.
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.
The Charges
Stone was charged with Violation of the False Statement Act, which requires not only that the statement be false but also that it be material and there was an intent to deceive. The prosecution claimed 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, 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 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 because 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.
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.
Testimony
Prosecutors insisted Dr. Jerry Corsi was the source of 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. A text exchange between Corsi and Stone on October 3rd showed Corsi saying, “Assange has nothing and has made a fool of himself.”
Judge Jackson would not allow Steve Bannon’s sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee saying it was hearsay when Bannon stated that Trump’s campaign had no “access point to Wikileaks.”
Convicted felon Rick Gates testified at Stone’s trial that he overheard a cell phone conversation between Stone and Trump while in an 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.
Guilty on All Charges
The jury found Stone guilty of 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 DOJ, 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 as they had for whistleblower Bill Binney of the National Security Agency. Having based their prosecution of Stone on this premise federal prosecutors insisted it was irrelevant.
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 AG Bill Barr to do exactly that.
Deep State
Congressman Adam Schiff 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, Congressman Eric Swalwell and Congressman Joaquin Castro 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.
The Gag Order
I do not believe gag orders are constitutional. General Flynn suffered under the same order for years. This unconstitutional order disallows public defense of charges when one is innocent until proven guilty. Yet, the prosecution is allowed to join with their Deep State mainstream media friends to destroy the innocent victims before trial.
Even after conviction, Stone is still under a gag order imposed by Judge Jackson. 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 an 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’s wife, Nydia Stone has said publicly that her husband was prosecuted because he refused a deal to falsely testify against the president regarding the content of more than 25 phone calls between candidate Trump and Stone in 2016, which was proposed by prosecutors just prior to the transmittal of the Special Counsel’s Report to AG Bill Barr.
Conclusion
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.
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 years in prison. He and his family have been bankrupted, they’ve lost their home, their savings, their insurance and Stone’s ability to make a living. Roger wife, Nydia Stone, is deaf and has no means to support herself if Roger is incarcerated for what amounts to a life sentence.
Over 150,000 Americans have now signed a petition urging President Trump to “Free Roger Stone.” President Trump has called Stone’s prosecution a hoax, he should pardon Roger Stone as an act of both mercy and justice now. At a minimum President Trump should commute Roger Stone’s sentence immediately after sentencing as prosecutors are demanding instant remand of Roger Stone into custody. Please urge the President to do so.
Obvious to many is the Deep State targeting and prosecution of those who supported Donald J. Trump for U.S. President. The real criminals still walk free.
Stone is scheduled to be sentenced February 20th, 2020.
Part 2 shortly.
