Tag: Roger Stone

Mueller went out of his way to not bring conspiracy charges while simultaneously describing the conspiracy Edit: PASTING my previous comments here again, because I want people who have not read the report themselves to do so and to come away with what seems like the only real explanation for Mueller's decision: Mueller chose not to bring conspiracy charges against Trump or his family because he did not want to single-handed torpedo the presidency and destroy the Republican Party. Yet Mueller basically said he can't PROVE an agreement with agents who were related TO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT which is why no one was charged with criminal conspiracy. Yet Mueller in the next breath says "the report did not ESTABLISH that Trump himself wanted the change." Regarding Kusher and Don Jr, the report itself states the Kushner and Don Jr were not indicted because Mueller claimed "they could have claimed ignorance, so that would make it difficult to prove intent." Mueller says he "did not identify evidence" that Kushner or Sessions—who had contact with Simes—passed info to the Kremlin. So we can't therefore know that Dimitri Simes is part of the "russian government" THAT is what Mueller is saying in the report. Sure seems like Mueller, once again, is giving Kushner (and Simes) such unbelievable benefit of the doubt, because you can't PROVE that Simes was a direct agent of the Kremlin, so he's not technically part of the conspiracy. I mean, seriously, Mueller? What we're being told from the report: Don Jr. speaks of Clinton dirt to: (1) Manafort (2) Kushner (3) Ivanka (4) Hope Hicks (5) Eric Trump (6) Donald J. Trump—his dad, the man who's going to leave him billions, and the GOP president candidate So all three Trump kids knew the campaign was getting Clinton dirt; Trump's campaign manager knew; his communications director knew; his son-in-law knew; his lawyer says Trump knew... yet the report concludes there's insufficient evidence that Trump himself was told. Mind you, all this despite the fact that, on the day Don Jr. told everyone, his father went out and made a public statement saying he'd {checks notes} shortly be giving a "very interesting" speech on Clinton dirt.

Our Political Fights Are Intense Because We No Longer Agree on the Rules Matthew Walther, writing about Julian Assange in The Week, lists how many Democrats and Republicans changed their minds about Assange depending upon whose secrets he was exposing and concludes: [if Assange exposes Trump’s secrets], we can expect to see both sides revert once more to their circa 2010 defaults. One of the reasons our politics is so contentious and angry is that we can’t agree on what the rules are. But a vocal chunk of Americans don’t really care about what the policies are; they would much rather argue that their side is right. For many people, it depends upon the partisan status of the person accused. For many Americans, when the side they like uses heated rhetoric, it’s speaking truth to power. Is the desire to make more money inherently greedy? For years, the mantra of Bernie Sanders was that the wealthy were driven by an intensely selfish desire: “How many yachts do billionaires need? Boy, Joe Biden’s efforts in the fight about forced busing and desegregation sure are getting a lot of attention these days, aren’t they? At the time, the motivation for spotlighting the teens was clear: to disagree with their often-heated and sometimes factually wrong assertions about gun violence amounted to “attacking children” in the eyes of their pro-gun control allies. Say, who’s the president married to again?

Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump nominating Jessie Liu for the number three spot in the DOJ, allowing him to name her replacement as the U.S. attorney for D.C., overseeing such cases as Paul Manafort, Maria Butina, Roger Stone, and…

One is already in jail, another is headed there and Stone narrowly escaped with his liberty Thursday but was gagged by a judge he had threatened on Instagram. The White House line, whenever one of the President's men goes down, is that none of it has anything to do with Trump. That Roger Stone was nowhere to be seen in a Washington courtroom. Stone has been walking the line, and crossing over it, for decades. "They say I'm Mr. Trump's pit bull, that I'm his right-hand man," Cohen once said. Trump." Before he was snared by Mueller, Manafort was an uber-lobbyist and the epitome of Washington's swamp culture, exporting the dark arts he learned as a GOP operative to several unsavory political characters abroad. He worked for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, in just one of the contacts that have drawn the interest of Mueller. He will be sentenced in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and broke a plea deal with Mueller, on March 13. In his most recent court appearance last month, he had to ask the judge for permission to wear a suit instead of his dark green prison duds.

His swagger gone and his humiliation complete, political operative Roger Stone took the witness stand on Thursday to deliver an abject apology for attacking the judge in his case on social media only to be told it “rings quite hollow” and warned he could have incited violence by his supporters. The courtroom rebuke was a humbling moment for the self-proclaimed dirty trickster, notorious for his love of cigars, shades and tailor-made suits, and whose public appearances usually consist of bravado and Richard Nixon-style victory salutes. Roger Stone: a master of the political dirty trick Read more On Instagram he had posted a picture of Jackson next to an image that appeared to show the crosshairs of a gun, with a caption that described her as an “Obama-appointed judge who dismissed the Benghazi charges against Hillary Clinton”. Stone, 66, was found to have abused a previous gag order imposed following charges against him in the justice department’s investigation into Russian election interference. Wearing a grey suit with handkerchief in the top left pocket and a blue tie, Stone walked steadily to the witness stand in the packed courtroom at the United States district court for the District of Columbia in Washington. “I believe I abused the order, for which I am heartfully sorry,” he said. “I am kicking myself for my own stupidity, but not more than my wife is kicking me.” Stone suggested the rash act was “an outgrowth” of extreme stress, saying he was struggling to pay rent and, while he was seasoned in “political combat”, this was the first time in his life he had faced criminal charges. “I now have television commentators talking about the likelihood I will be raped in prison,” he said, in an apparent play for sympathy that fell on deaf ears. Unmoved, Judge Jackson demanded: “How hard was it to come up with a photo that didn’t have the crosshairs in the corner?” Stone claimed the image had been sent to him by one of his volunteers and he posted it on Instagram without thinking. “I didn’t even notice it until it was brought to my attention by a reporter.” He did not believe the symbol shows crosshairs, he insisted.

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone appears in court again after posting a photo of Judge Amy Berman Jackson with a target. FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Radio, FOX News Headlines 24/7,…

Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday claimed in a new court filing that prosecutors have evidence that former Trump adviser Roger Stone communicated with WikiLeaks, the organization that released hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign. Stone -- who was indicted last month on charges of obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering -- denied to Fox News that evidence of such communications exists. “There is no such evidence,” Stone said in a text message. In a Friday motion, Mueller’s team said that “search warrants were executed on accounts that contained Stone’s communications” with an organization widely believed to be WikiLeaks. Last month’s indictment does not charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published the emails, or with the Russian officers Mueller says hacked them. Instead, it accuses him of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to WikiLeaks' release. The indictment says Stone spoke to Trump campaign officials during the summer of 2016 about WikiLeaks and information the organization had that might be damaging to the Clinton campaign. It also says Stone was contacted by “senior Trump campaign officials” to inquire about future WikiLeaks releases of hacked Democratic emails. Stone has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Earlier Friday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the federal court for the District of Columbia instituted a partial gag order, ordering that Stone “refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.” Jackson further ordered that any participants in the case, including witnesses and counsel, “refrain” from making any statements to the media or public when they are near the courthouse that could “influence any juror, potential juror, judge, witness or court officer or interfere with the administration of justice.” Fox News’ Eben Brown, Brooke Singman and Bill Mears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Home security footage of the FBI raiding Roger Stone's home in Florida on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number…

In a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said he found it "deeply concerning" that CNN was outside of Roger Stone's house the morning of his arrest.

As Trump continues to battle with Democrats over the wall, a federal judge considers saddling longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone with a gag order. Daniel Dale, Barbara McQuade, and Manuel Roig-Franzia join to discuss. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC…