January 30, 2019
Roger Stone is the latest Trump associate to have the vice of the Mueller probe strangle his financial well-being as well as imperil his freedom for a process crime, a crime that resulted from the investigation, and has nothing to do with Russian collusion.
Stone’s arrest included a predawn raid with 29 armed federal agents. Days later on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Stone described how he was frightened that his hearing-impaired wife wouldn’t be able to comply with the agents and be accidentally shot.
Stone is a 66- year-old man indicted for a white collar crime, with no history of aggression. Further, the notion that the raid was necessary to ensure that evidence wasn’t destroyed is preposterous. Stone has known that he’s been under investigation for two years, and has spoken publicly about the possibility of his being indicted. If he was going to destroy evidence it would have been done long ago.
Any clear- thinking unbiased person should admit that the manner in which Stone was arrested is shocking and un-American. This over-the-top show of force indicates the aggression and ruthlessness of those running the Mueller probe in their pursuit of finding collusion between Trump and Russia.
Never-Trump media and lawmakers often cite the six Trump associates who have been indicted as a result of the Russia probe as evidence that collusion existed between Russia and the Trump campaign. However, this is a gross mischaracterization, as not a single American has been charged with a crime related to colluding with Russians to sway the 2016 presidential election.
Trump Associates Indicted
George Papadopoulos– Papadopoulos, a low-level aid, was with the campaign for less than a month when he was approach by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor with alleged ties to British intelligence. Mifsud informed him that the Russians had thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Pappadopolous plead guilty to lying to the FBI about the timing of this meeting.
Paul Manafort- Trump’s short-lived campaign manager was indicted and found guilty of bank and tax fraud predating his time working for Trump. Interestingly the judge presiding over his trial, T.S. Ellis observed that Mueller and his team were only looking to find crimes committed by Trump associates so they could use the indictments as leverage to coerce them into cooperating with their probe. Ellis stated, “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud. What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.”
Rick Gates- A minor Trump campaign aid and business associate of Manafort was found guilty of financial crimes, predating the campaign related to his work with Manafort.
Michael Flynn – The former National Security Advisor in the Trump administration plead guilty to lying to agents about his conversation with the Russian ambassador. It has still never been explained why Flynn was ever charged with lying when evidence has shown that the interviewing agents believed that he was being truthful.
Michael Cohen– part time attorney for Trump was found guilty of bank and tax fraud unrelated to his work for Trump, and campaign finance violations, (which are rarely prosecuted). He also plead guilty to lying to congress about the timing of negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Roger Stone- An advisor to the Trump campaign indicted for lying to Congress, and witness tampering. As with the other Trump aides charged as a result of the Mueller probe, Stone’s indictment has nothing to do with the core mission of the Special Counsel investigation – Russian collusion.
Evidence Belies Probe Impetus
The official narrative is that the investigation of Trump/Russian collusion was sparked when it was discovered that a low-level Trump aid, George Papadopolous was informed, before they were publicly released, that Russians had thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The evidence belies the claim that Trump or anyone associated with his campaign had anything to do with the hacking and dissemination of the stolen emails.
It has long been speculated by the media that someone connected to Trump, Stone in particular, coordinated with WikiLeaks, and perhaps Russia, in the hacking and distribution of the Democrat National Convention’s and the chairman of Clinton’s campaign, John Podesta’s emails. This indictment helps to prove that neither Stone nor anyone in the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia or WikiLeaks in the hacking or dissemination of the emails.
According to the indictment after the first release of stolen DNC emails someone in the Trump campaign reached out to Stone asking him what information he had about additional emails, or any other damaging information he could obtain on Clinton. Clearly, if Trump or anyone in his campaign were working with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary they would not have had to turn to Roger Stone for information about the purloined emails.
Using his contacts, Stone, along with practically every news organization in the world, tried to get additional information on emails not released yet. However, proving that he was not involved with the actual crime, Stone seemingly didn’t even know WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as he never communicated with him. There is also zero evidence that Stone ever had contact with Russians regarding the emails, or that he even knew that Russians were behind the break-in of the email server. In fact after Assange announced publicly that he would be releasing damaging emails Stone wrongly predicted that the emails would pertain to the Clinton Foundation.
Incredibly, media pundits are accusing the Trump campaign of committing a grievous wrong, and claiming that the fact that a Trump aide asked Stone to obtain further information about the stolen emails is proof that they played dirty as they were willing to use material obtained by Russia against Hillary. It doesn’t appear to matter to the Never Trump faction that no one from the Trump camp, had any role in the cyber crime nor did they even have first-hand knowledge that the Russians were behind the hacking.
The bias of the media is on full display when they constantly implicate Trump and associates in colluding with Russians, in spite of the lack of evidence; all while ignoring the indisputable fact that Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid a foreign national to dig up Russian dirt on candidate Trump to destroy his reputation and pave the way for Clinton’s victory. Why is this not considered collusion? Further, unlike the discredited “Trump dossier” authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, the stolen emails were not phony. They were actual electronic communications sent by and to officials in the Democrat party.
Apparently the willingness of Trump’s team to incorporate information gleaned from the email hacking is worthy of four exhaustive investigations into Trump and everyone associated with him, along with spending over $40,000,000 of taxpayer dollars. But, Clinton and her campaign spending millions procuring Russian -sourced false information on her opponent is just ordinary “opposition research”.
To further the desired narrative that Trump has been compromised by Russia, Never- Trump pundits and lawmakers often ignore the numerous harsh actions the Trump administration has taken against Russia. The administration has imposed some of the toughest financial weapons in its sanctions arsenal, among them cutting off major Russian businesses from the global financial system, along with the expulsion of over 60 Russian diplomats from the U.S. , the largest number since the Soviet era.
The Trump administration has also approved the sale of lethal weapons to the Ukraine military to aid them in their fight against the Russian invasion, a move former President Obama refused to make. Additionally, last year U.S. led airstrikes in Syria killed hundreds of Russian fighters. If Trump is “Putin’s cat’s paw” he’s failing miserably.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has recently stated that he believed that the Mueller probe is winding down and is “close to being completed”. Based on released/ leaked information, along with the indictments to-date, the Russian/Trump collusion investigations have produce no evidence justifying the opening of a probe into a presidential candidate and now President. In spite of the best efforts of years of investigations its looking like those banking on the results of the Special Counsel to help remove Trump from office will once again be left bereft as they grapple with the fact that Trump is still their president.
