Roger Stone trial set to begin (Update: Stone found guilty on all 7 counts)(Update: Trump commutes sentence) (4 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]

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.

I don’t see how pardons are admissions of guilt. Pardons are relief from convictions (or potential convictions).

 

[CoolBrees]

I will certainly bow to your opinion, Chuck but I thought that part of accepting a pardon was admitting guilt for what you are being pardoned for.

 

[superchuck500]

I will certainly bow to your opinion, Chuck but I thought that part of accepting a pardon was admitting guilt for what you are being pardoned for.

See myth 4:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-presidential-pardons/2018/06/06/18447f84-69ba-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html

 

[CoolBrees]

Thanks Chuck! I had been under the wrong impression my whole adult life.

 

[superchuck500]

Thanks Chuck! I had been under the wrong impression my whole adult life.

My pleasure!

 

[superchuck500]

Thanks Chuck! I had been under the wrong impression my whole adult life.

By the way, @BadLegalTakes is a great twitter follow - there are lots of misconceptions out there

Bad Legal Takes (@BadLegalTakes) | Twitter

The latest Tweets from Bad Legal Takes (@BadLegalTakes). Posting the worst legal takes on Twitter. Have a submission? DM or @ me

twitter.com

 

[crosswatt]

Just another solid citizen caught up in this hoax of a witch hunt. Sad.

 

[CoolBrees]

Thanks again Chuck,

I don’t have the Twitters. Or the Facebooks or the MySpaces. This is literally my only social account.

 

[TaylorB]

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.

The purpose of my post was not to suggest that democratic system is perfect -- it isn't now, and it never has been. But in the last 3-4 years it has been tested by an unprecedented attack from home and abroad, and thus far, it has remained intact. While the current battle is not over by a long shot, we should take the time to appreciate moments when the rule of law prevails, because democracy only works if we have confidence in the institutions upon which it relies. It may be naive of me, but I still have confidence our imperfect system will survive this era just as it has survived prior attacks. We just need to continue to recognize the rot for what it is.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

The purpose of my post was not to suggest that democratic system is perfect -- it isn't now, and it never has been. But in the last 3-4 years it has been tested by an unprecedented attack from home and abroad, and thus far, it has remained intact. While the current battle is not over by a long shot, we should take the time to appreciate moments when the rule of law prevails, because democracy only works if we have confidence in the institutions upon which it relies. It may be naive of me, but I still have confidence our imperfect system will survive this era just as it has survived prior attacks. We just need to continue to recognize the rot for what it is.

Make no mistake, I am ecstatic when the slivers of light emerge, and I wholeheartedly agree with the need to maintain confidence in our institutions, for me personally, I just think the cracks continue to outpace the repairs and it is increasingly worrying, and for me, increasingly demoralizing.

Even with Ukraine, there is a good chance none of this comes to light if not for the WB. By all accounts had he not come forward a number of these witnesses would have simply stayed silent. The bureaucracy, it turns out, was pretty powerless in pushing back. That to me is one of the more frightening revelations of this most recent saga.

By all accounts, the rot informing the voting population this system rests upon is so pervasive it likely will not remove from office someone committing an unprecedented abuse of power and will very realistically give him a strong shot at a second term. I'm worried, and I don't know what the solution to this downward spiral honestly is? I want to have your confidence, I just can't right now.

 

[TaylorB]

Make no mistake, I am ecstatic when the slivers of light emerge, and I wholeheartedly agree with the need to maintain confidence in our institutions, for me personally, I just think the cracks continue to outpace the repairs and it is increasingly worrying, and for me, increasingly demoralizing.

Even with Ukraine, there is a good chance none of this comes to light if not for the WB. By all accounts had he not come forward a number of these witnesses would have simply stayed silent. The bureaucracy, it turns out, was pretty powerless in pushing back. That to me is one of the more frightening revelations of this most recent saga.

By all accounts, the rot informing the voting population this system rests upon is so pervasive it likely will not remove from office someone committing an unprecedented abuse of power and will very realistically give him a strong shot at a second term. I'm worried, and I don't know what the solution to this downward spiral honestly is? I want to have your confidence, I just can't right now.

Your point about the bureaucracy failing to push back but for the whistleblower coming forward had not occurred to me, and is a good one. I'm not sure the goals of the Giuliani influence campaign were as obvious to those in regular channels of the State Department as they are now that the cat's out the bag, but it is disheartening that only one person came forward, and that they waited as long as they did.

Still, I'm hopeful that institutions are able to keep pace in the long term because I remain confident that there will always be more people working to maintain them than those working to destroy them (Yovanovitch's standing ovation today was because of that, right?). Fox News and its die hards refused to embrace a changing demographic and instead chose to consolidate power for its minority base (~35%) with radical leadership whose goal is destruction of the institutions that would otherwise eventually destroy them. It has worked to a great extent, and the institutional damage will be long-lasting when it's over, but democracy is built to survive this whether or not impeachment is successful. Keep your eye on these court battles as Trump and his circle continues to lose them, slowly but surely.

The moment people like us lose confidence would be the moment the destruction campaign wins for good. I hope my naivete can inspire you even if just a little bit.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Considering the conversation moved into whether or not Trump would pardon Manafort/Rudy, and whether he is using pardons to coerce silence:



The timing and signal seems pretty easy to deduce

 

[superchuck500]

 

[Saintamaniac]

It just occurred to me that that man's teenage son or daughter will get ridiculed unmercifully over the weekend and monday at school for this video. Hell, they might be getting ripped right now on facebook or instagram

 

[SaintForLife]

 

[SaintForLife]

Bannon Tells of Campaign Willing to Try ‘Dirty Tricks’ to Win in 2016 (Published 2019)

The former Trump campaign chairman testified at the trial of a longtime Trump adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr.

www.nytimes.com

 

[superchuck500]

 

[wardorican]

So, obstructing Congress is a crime? j.k.