Roger Stone trial set to begin (Update: Stone found guilty on all 7 counts)(Update: Trump commutes sentence) (5 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

Jury selection will begin Tuesday morning. Note that Steve Bannon intends to testify for the prosecution.

Roger Stone will go on trial starting Nov. 5 in Washington, the federal judge presiding over the high-profile case said Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson set out a calendar for a two-week trial that will pit the longtime Trump associate against special counsel Robert Mueller on charges Stone lied to Congress and obstructed lawmakers’ Russia investigations.

Stone entered the D.C. courthouse for Thursday’s status hearing uncertain whether he’d face any penalties — including jail — for violating the terms of a gag order restricting his ability to talk about any aspect of the case.

But Stone was spared any punishment after Jackson opened the proceedings saying she didn’t “intend to dwell” on the dispute, which centers on discrepancies over whether Stone mislead the court about plans to rerelease a recent book with a new introduction bashing Mueller’s investigation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/14/roger-stone-trial-1221289


https://www.law.com/nationallawjour...n-roger-stones-trial/?slreturn=20190931143946

 

[superchuck500]

Guilty on all seven counts.

 

[superchuck500]

Count 1: Obstruction of Proceeding. Stone failed to turn over responsive records and lied about responsive records. Guilty.

Count 2 - 6: False Testimony about contacts with WikiLeaks (Assange) and communication with individuals including Jerome Corsi, Randy Credico, and Steve Bannon regarding WikiLeaks. Guilty.

Count 7: Illegal tampering with witness (Randy Credico). Guilty.

 

[CoolBrees]

Alex Jones will save him. He’ll finally release the tape of W. sacrificing virgins at a satanic alter. Or donate some of the profits from his water filters whichever costs less.

Or Q!!! Yeah, here comes Q to get him out by finally releasing the evidence to the Clinton Soros pedophile ring. That was what this all was right? A set up? Right?

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Guilty on all seven counts.

I wrote in response to someone in the other thread, but important to this and the recently unredacted parts of the Mueller Report, part of these crimes and unredacted/accompanying but not included material touch on Trump's awareness and knowledge of these activities. To covering up the steps the campaign took to coordinate their campaign with the Wikileaks releases to maximize impact.

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

Lock him up!

Louder please

 

[MT15]

Good! Shame it took this long.

 

[EmBeeFiveOhFour]

Welp, this is another victory for Donald Trump and his Department of Justice in Trump's crusade to end corruption. Hiring so many criminals as campaign advisors and attorneys really helps.

 

[insidejob]

Roger is counting on that pardon.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Welp, this is another victory for Donald Trump and his Department of Justice in Trump's crusade to end corruption. Hiring so many criminals as campaign advisors and attorneys really helps.

The real Q-Anon conspiracy has apparently been unearthed: collect some of the most corrupt political figures and operatives of the last 30 years into the same campaign/administration and let them do what they do best and convict them.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

But seriously, the question now turns to whether, or perhaps just when, Trump offers him a pardon.

Three scenarios:

On the way out the door after losing in 2020, on the way out the door in 2024, or sometime shortly after walking back through the WH door in 2020 with the hubristic mindset(at that point, rightly so) that he is above the law and will never pay a price for his corruption, abuse of power, and criminality.

My money is on 1 and 3 respectively. The motivation for 2 is largely dependent on wanting to shepherd goodwill to work through a set of core agenda items, but Trump has shown he really is just there for the victory laps, power, grifting opportunities, and pageantry.

 

[superchuck500]

But seriously, the question now turns to whether, or perhaps just when, Trump offers him a pardon.

People keep saying that but I'm not convinced. Donald Trump has children he wouldn't pardon (Tiffany), so why would Stone be so deserving? I wouldn't be surprised if Trump did - but I sure wouldn't be surprised if Trump didn't.

He crapped on McCain for getting captured. What's to prompt Trump to pardon Stone? Certainly not loyalty - Donald Trump isn't loyal to anyone.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

People keep saying that but I'm not convinced. Donald Trump has children he wouldn't pardon (Tiffany), so why would Stone be so deserving? I wouldn't be surprised if Trump did - but I sure wouldn't be surprised if Trump didn't.

He crapped on McCain for getting captured. What's to prompt Trump to pardon Stone? Certainly not loyalty - Donald Trump isn't loyal to anyone.

Because, to me, in the case of Manafort explicitly(pardons were publicly held out before he flipped back) and Stone implicitly, they both are in jail(or going to jail) and remaining loyal while holding incriminating cards to their vest. Trump's loyalty is by all accounts wrapped up in personal self-interest.

At any point, Manafort could decide to retaliate and mention more about the Trump Tower meeting or shed light on the context of his passing off of polling information, about the conversations related to undermining the investigations into him.

Stone may be a Wee-bay, but by all accounts, Manafort is not and has never been one. I think Trump risks quite a lot by not pardoning him, but if re-elected(or not) risks little for doing so. So I wouldn't rule out he doesn't, but I would have no qualms putting money down on Predict-It that he ultimately does.

 

[TaylorB]

People like Stone have been treated as heroes in the information-laundered bubbles in which they exist. The justice system continues to serve as a periodic reality check for them and their supporters. The war these people have waged on truth and the rule of law has been an attack on the democratic system. Whatever damage they've been able to inflict has been outweighed by the system's ability to take them down, one by one.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

People like Stone have been treated as heroes in the information-laundered bubbles in which they exist. The justice system continues to serve as a periodic reality check for them and their supporters. The war these people have waged on truth and the rule of law has been an attack on the democratic system. Whatever damage they've been able to inflict has been outweighed by the system's ability to take them down, one by one.

Good post, but I am not sure I agree with the conclusion. There continues to be a steady erosion in our democratic norms and systems for the better part of several decades, accelerated by this period under Trump.

When justice does come, it is typically far below the level of harm they have induced into the system, and for the vast majority, they never go punished, worse, they get rewarded by that very same corrupting force that empowered them to begin with.

I mean how many CEO's or CDS peddlers went to jail? How many just ended up in ruin? Essentially none. Karly Rove is collecting six figures on Fox, Pat Buchannan became a pundit on MSNBC, William Barr was rewarded for covering up Iran-Contra by getting the vote of confidence by the Washington establishment to be a calming presence in the Justice Department, inducing even Democrats to confirm him. Even Pappadoupalas and Michael Flynn are in the process of rich book deals and getting their grift on. Even int eh best-case scenario of the current impeachment proceeding, countless figures that helped enable all of this are not even being considered points of investigation or sanction. They will walk and enjoy the same benefits that their corrupt predecessors did imo.

The rot continues to spread, and normalize behind it, and only when people spreading the rot get way out ahead of their skies do they even butt up against meaningful consequences, but the rot they got out in front of continues to spread. And next thing you know, a few cycles later, the rot is well past the place it was once only creeping to and the people we did prosecute look like petty thugs.

 

[CoolBrees]

Would anyone be surprised if he was promised a pardon that will “get lost in the mail?”

nobody will hear or believe him from inside a cell.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Would anyone be surprised if he was promised a pardon that will “get lost in the mail?”

nobody will hear or believe him from inside a cell.

If he has a song to sing, there will absolutely be people ready to listen to it.

And based on the conviction, he clearly does.

Are we forgetting this is the same president that pardoned Joe Arpaio half way into his first term while the Michael Flynn stuff was happening? I have a hard time wrapping my mind around a Trump that can be so sensitive to his personal interests that these two people sitting in a jail holding a potential sword of Damocles over his head would just be left to rot on the hope their loyalty will prevent it from dropping.

You can't rule it out completely, but my money is on a pardon at some point. That has likely been signaled clearly to these convicts.

 

[CoolBrees]

Pardons are an admission of guilt. Pardoning some of these people becomes problematic with the WH narrative.

I am certainly not saying he won’t, I just think it is harder to pardon people whose admission to guilt would be at odds with testimony.

My earlier point, or What I meant was, more that once you are in a cell, bad things can happen to you.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Pardons are an admission of guilt. Pardoning some of these people becomes problematic with the WH narrative.

I am certainly not saying he won’t, I just think it is harder to pardon people whose admission to guilt would be at odds with testimony.

My earlier point, or What I meant was, more that once you are in a cell, bad things can happen to you.

And my logic earlier is simply, what is it Trump is trying to preserve by not pardoning him? A successful second term that attacks a robust domestic agenda he has passion about? By all accounts he has none. A broad concern about favorability with the American people? Clearly not. Fear of impeachment for abuse of power? Well if he is re-elected and the charges dismissed by the Senate, that fear is gone. Upholding the norms and institutions as he leaves quietly after his term? Also clearly not.

From my perspective, I see little to lose on Trump's end issuing these pardons, and quite a lot he risks by not doing so.

But we will see in time.