“The Justice Department on Friday sued Roger Stone, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, accusing Stone and his wife of owing nearly $2 million in unpaid income taxes,” NBC News reports.
Video evidence shows that six members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia who guarded Roger Stone on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 later stormed the Capitol, the New York Times reports.
“Career prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Justice Department leadership intervened in the sentencing of former Trump adviser Roger Stone for political purposes,” Axios reports.
From Zelinksy’s opening statement: “What I heard — repeatedly — was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president.”
Zelinsky will also say that a supervisor working on the case told him there were “political reasons” to shorten prosecutors’ initial sentencing guidelines and that the supervisor agreed that doing so “was unethical and wrong.”
“I keep wondering how one survives jail with a Nixon tattoo on your back.”
— Former Ambassador Patrick Gaspard, on Twitter.
Trump denounced federal prosecutors’ recommendation of a 7 to 9-year prison sentence for Roger Stone.
Said Trump: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”
Jonathan Chait: “Trump’s coy promise to take care of Stone is the latest step in a public communication between the two longtime partners.”
President Trump tweeted about Roger Stone’s conviction today:
So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?
A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?
“Roger Stone, a former aide and longtime friend of President Trump, was found guilty on Friday of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election in what prosecutors said was an effort to protect Mr. Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“Stone was charged with lying to the House Intelligence Committee, trying to block the testimony of another potential witness and concealing reams of evidence from investigators.”
NBC News: “He is the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part of Mueller’s probe.”
“Stone’s sentencing was set for Feb. 6 and he could face up to 20 years in prison.”
NBC News: “Jury selection in the trial of Roger Stone, the longtime confidant and adviser to President Trump, got off to a bizarre start on Tuesday as Stone left the proceedings due to what he said was food poisoning.”
“Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone, accused of lying to Congress and pressuring another person to do the same thing,” NBC News reports.
“A Trump friend for more than 30 years who served as an adviser to his 2016 campaign, Stone has called himself the victim of a political prosecution. During the months leading up to the trial, he was repeatedly admonished by the judge to stop making public comments about the case that could influence the potential jury pool.”
“A federal judge on Tuesday issued an order prohibiting Roger Stone, a longtime ally and adviser of President Trump, from posting anything on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter after finding he violated her previous order limiting what he could say publicly about his case,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Federal prosecutors in a new court filing Thursday allege that longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone has violated his gag order in his criminal case with recent social media posts,” CNN reports.
“A violation of his bail terms, which allow him to live at home in Florida, could mean Stone could await his November trial from jail, depending on how Jackson responds to the prosecutors’ request Thursday.”
Roger Stone posted and then deleted an inflammatory online call that former CIA Director John Brennan be “hung” for treason, the HuffPost reports.
Stone is under a gag order as he awaits federal trial on charges related to his work on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“A federal appeals court refused to block a grand jury subpoena for testimony by Roger Stone associate Andrew Miller in an investigation launched by special counsel Robert Mueller, clearing the way for a final appeal to the Supreme Court in the long-running legal dispute,” the Washington Post reports.
“Roger Stone is connected to investigations Robert Mueller sent to other prosecutors and that continue despite the special counsel having finished his work,” CNN reports.
Things are not going well for Roger Stone, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.
In a wide ranging interview, Stone said his living situation has plummeted, his savings are gone and his car was impounded.
Said Stone: “The worst part of this is being broke… I’ve lost my home, my insurance, what little savings I had, my ability to make a living because people pay me to write and talk, and of course the things they want me to write and talk about are the very things I’m not allowed to talk and write about. In the blink of an eye you can lose everything.”
Los Angeles Times: “Stone is due back in federal court on Thursday to face U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing his case and appears to be running out of patience with him.”
“He first angered the judge last month with an inflammatory Instagram post that included a crosshairs symbol next to her head. In response, Jackson tightened her gag order and barred Stone from saying almost anything in public about the case.”
“But Stone is in hot water again because he failed to tell Jackson about the imminent publication of a book called The Myth of Russian Collusion, an updated version of a tome that was first released shortly after the 2016 election.”
CNBC: “One, stonezone.com, was operating as of late Sunday, according to data from the internet archival service the Wayback Machine… The other site, whoframedrogerstone.com, was operating as of Feb. 6, according to the Wayback Machine.”
“Another Stone website, stonecoldtruth.com, remained online Tuesday, as does stonedefensefund.com. Both of those active sites contain links for visitors to donate to his legal defense, as does Stone’s active Facebook page. However, Stone has significantly changed the language on one of his remaining legal fundraising sites, apparently to comply with the gag order.”
“A federal judge warned Roger Stone, the flamboyant political operative under indictment as part of the Russia investigation, that his latest book could violate an order prohibiting him from talking about the case,” USA Today reports.
“She gave him until Monday to explain himself.”
Said U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson: “It does not matter when the defendant may have first formulated the opinions expressed, or when he first put them into words: he may no longer share his views on these particular subjects with the world.”
☑️ Sick of biased news? Check out a newsletter loved by millions, called 1440. You'll save time and start your day smarter. And it's free.
☑️ Subscribe to Political Wire's new companion newsletter Politics Extra. It's free.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.