January 25, 2019
TIME FOR YOUR PERP WALK:
Trump Associate Roger Stone Arrested in Florida as Part of Special Counsel Probe (Andrew M Harris , David Kocieniewski , and David Voreacos, January 25, 2019, Bloomberg)
Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist and sometime confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested in Florida on Friday after being indicted for obstructing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia before the 2016 U.S. election.The indictment goes to the heart of Mueller's investigation and could pose serious risk to Trump. It lays out how Stone, after leaving Trump's campaign in 2015, continued communicating regularly with unnamed senior campaign officials about an organization matching the description of WikiLeaks -- and how a "senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone."Those exchanges occurred in the summer of 2016, when WikiLeaks began publishing Democratic emails that Mueller has previously alleged were obtained by Russian government hackers in an effort to interfere with the presidential election. [...]Mueller's indictment describes how a "high-ranking Trump campaign official" was in touch with Stone in October 2016 ahead of the release of additional damaging information about Clinton's campaign by WikiLeaks. That official was Stephen Bannon, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bannon, who later served as Trump's top strategist, texted Stone after the release to say, "Well done."
Well Done': Stone indictment details his contacts with Trump camp about Wikileaks (Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann, 1/25/19, NBC First Read)
[I]nside of Mueller's indictment is an even bigger story: a list of the times when Stone was communicating with the Trump campaign and its associates about the WikiLeaks email releases that ended up rocking Hillary Clinton's campaign in the final month of the 2016 presidential election."During the summer of 2016, STONE spoke to senior Trump Campaign officials about Organization 1" -- WikiLeaks -- "and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign. STONE was contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases by Organization 1." (Page 2)"STONE also continued to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign about Organization 1 and its intended future releases." (Page 2)"After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign." (Page 4)"On or about October 3, 2016, STONE wrote to a supporter involved with the Trump Campaign, "Spoke to my friend in London last night. The payload is still coming." (Page 8)"Also on or about October 3, 2016, STONE received an email from a reporter who had connections to a high-ranking Trump Campaign official that asked, '[the head of Organization 1] -- what's he got? Hope it's good.' STONE responded in part, 'It is. I'd tell [the high-ranking Trump Campaign official] but he doesn't call me back.'" (Page 9)"On or about October 4, 2016, the head of Organization 1 held a press conference but did not release any new materials pertaining to the Clinton Campaign. Shortly afterwards, STONE received an email from the high-ranking Trump Campaign official asking about the status of future releases by Organization 1. STONE answered that the head of Organization 1 had a '[s]erious security concern' but that Organization 1 would release 'a load every week going forward.'" (Page 9)"Shortly after Organization 1's release, an associate of the high-ranking Trump Campaign official sent a text message to STONE that read 'well done.'" (Page 9).
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 25, 2019 9:15 AM