Stone’s Turn in the Barrel
“Trust me, it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel” – Roger Stone tweet, August 21, 2016
Roger Stone, the shadowy first political advisor to Donald Trump, got his wish Friday morning. He was indicted by the Mueller Grand Jury, and arrested by the FBI. He now has reached the “pinnacle achievement” of his mentors, the Watergate operatives of the Nixon campaign. The whole nation was watching as he emerged from the courthouse – his arms spread wide in a Nixonian victory gesture.
Stone was there at the beginning of the Trump campaign, organizing the early moves as Trump entered the race. Soon though, he officially “left”, but continued to work to support Trump, preferring to function outside of the harsh light of publicity shined on the official campaign structure.
In the summer of 2016, Stone publicly announced that he had contact with the internet sites who had possession of stolen Democratic National Committee emails, Guccifer 2.0 and Wikileaks. His August 2016 tweet about Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta (see above) predicted the release of Podesta’s emails that were hacked from the DNC server, emails that proved to be embarrassing to the Chairman when they were revealed in the last two months of the campaign. While nothing illegal was found, the internal campaign discussions about a series of speeches Clinton gave to Wall Street groups proved to be difficult to explain.
Guccifer 2.0 was determined by US Intelligence to be a Russian source. Wikileaks, publisher of many of the DNC emails timed to influence events in the campaign, denies they got them from Russians, but US Intelligence sources have determined that Russia was the source. The political impact of particular email releases was clearly targeted, most notably with the first Podesta email “drop,” on October 7, 2016, thirty minutes after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape of Donald Trump discussing sexually imposing himself on women.
The legal questions for Stone was how he had knowledge of the emails, and whether he communicated with the internet sites as to the timing of their release. It is known that Stone was in communication with the Trump campaign, and Trump himself, throughout this period. It is alleged that Stone may be the “link” from the Trump campaign to Wikileaks, controlling the timing of the releases. This conspiracy could extend from the highest levels of the Trump campaign to those in possession of the stolen emails.
He is currently being charged with “process” charges: one count of obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering. The Special Counsel has not brought any charges regarding Stone’s actual conduct during the campaign, though those may come later. Mr. Mueller may be trying to gain cooperation from Stone in the investigation, though Stone has consistently claimed he won’t cooperate. And while the charges may be about violations during the “process” of the investigation, the question continues to haunt the Trump Campaign: if they weren’t doing anything wrong, why have they so consistently lied to investigators?
On December 3, 2018, Stone spoke on ABC news: “There’s no circumstance under which I would testify against the president because I’d have to bear false witness against him. I’d have to make things up. And I’m not going to do that.” The President, already shaken by the cooperation of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, tweeted in response:
“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”
Roger Stone began his political career working for the Committee to Re-Elect the President, the Nixon 1972 campaign. Stone was a young member of the “Rat F—kers,” the dirty tricks squad organized as part of the campaign structure. He was the youngest campaign operative called in to testify as part of the Watergate investigation, though he was never charged with any offenses.
Stone was so impacted by his Nixon experiences, that he had a life-sized image of Nixon’s face tatooed on his back. He continued his political career, working with former Trump campaign chairman and now convicted felon Paul Manafort and legendary Republican political operative Lee Atwater. Their company was successful, a campaign consultant firm working internationally with whoever had the money to pay, including dictators and despots.
Stone and Manafort broke apart, but Stone continued to be a “go-to” guy for the Republican party for “shady” actions. He was brought in by the 2000 Bush campaign during the Florida recount, and was in part responsible for the “Brooks Brothers Riot” that disrupted the counting process in Miami-Dade County.
Stone has modeled his whole political career after his Nixon campaign mentors, and it seems unlikely that he will cooperate with the Mueller investigation. However, like his compatriot Manafort, he may find a number of even more serious charges awaiting him should he decide to have the “guts” that President Trump so admires. Now it’s his “turn in the barrel.”
