I recently discussed Stone’s recent posting on Instagram where he warned against anyone “taking him seriously” (in reference to his former protege Sam Nunberg) obviously could apply with equal, if not greater, force to Stone. A long-time associate of President Donald Trump, Stone appears perfectly unhinged at times. Stone appears to relish notoriety to the point that he maintains a notorious persona. That was evident this weekend where Stone first told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his earlier claims of having prior work of WikiLeaks disclosures were untrue and then, with another reporter, seemed to contradict the contradiction in saying that he did have prior disclosure. I wrote a recently column on why Stone makes for a dubious basis for criminal allegations despite the recent press coverage.
Stone told CNN “I had no advanced notice of the content source or exact timing of the WikiLeaks disclosures including the allegedly hacked emails. I never received anything whatsoever from WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, anyone associated with them, or anyone else, including allegedly hacked emails, and passed them onto Donald Trump.”
That, of course, is different from his claim in August 2016 when he claimed to have had dinner with Julian Assange. It is also in conflict with his comments on the October 2, 2016, episode of InfoWars’ radio show that WikiLeaks was about to release damaging information on Hillary Clinton. In the show, he claimed that “an intermediary met with him (Assange) in London recently — who is a friend of mine and a friend of his, a believer in freedom. I am assured that the motherlode is coming Wednesday. It wouldn’t be an October surprise if I told you what it was, but I have reason to believe that it is devastating because people with political judgment who are aware of the subject matter tell me this. So right now, you see a terrible scrambling by the Clintonites to attempt to discredit Assange, to try to soften the blow.”
They were not released on October 5th but two days later.
Stone denied the earlier claims of advance knowledge with Cooper.
Then on Saturday he told CNN that he got the release date wrong because, “My source changed his prediction.” Huh? Now he is back to claiming to have had a source and advanced knowledge.
For a guy being pursued by a Special Counsel, Stone is showing no greater ability of self-control or the avoidance of self-contradiction. This is why I wrote recently that Roger Stone is the Martha Mitchell of the Trump controversies.
The subject of this thread gives yet another meaning to “stoned”.
Julian Assange should have been granted immunity in exchange for testimony and evidence long ago.
The “deep state” Coups “R” Us does not want anything resembling the truth to come out.
To wit,
Christopher Wray’s Stonewall against the release of DOJ/FBI documents to Congress, the representative of the “Sovereign,” the People.
Mr. Wray, if you’re not guilty, act like it.
Release the unredacted documents to Congress immediately.
Mr. Wrary must be found in Contempt of Congress and impeached.
The DOJ/FBI is infected with corruption.
There is a cancer growing on the DOJ/FBI “deep state.”
The malignant cancer must be excised.
We have a President who lies, contradicts himself, openly presents an idiot well out of his element. Is it any wonder that his pals like Stone are similar. Trump has been replacing semi normal people in his cabinet with this sort of idiot recently. Get ready for the ultimate nonsense. Create the arena, then the agenda, and then the results.
Turley wrote, “For a guy being pursued by a Special Counsel, Stone is showing no greater ability of self-control or the avoidance of self-contradiction. This is why I wrote recently that Roger Stone is the Martha Mitchell of the Trump controversies.”
Thanks for the memories, Professor. But Martha Mitchell was far more entertaining than Roger Stone. And she probably made a small contribution to the demise of her husband, the Attorney General.
And now for the truly shocking part: William Bayer may be on to something in his downstream posts. Only I wouldn’t call it psychological operations. Instead, I suspect that Roger Stone is, in effect, impeaching his own credibility as a potential witness just in case it comes to that someday.
If Stone had some form of telecommunications with Assange, then the real problem for Stone would be whether there might be signal intelligence against him. Stone knows the answer to the antecedent question. If the answer is yes, then Mueller knows it, too. Of course, the problem for Mueller would be whether he can convince the NSA to declassify the presumed signal intelligence against Stone. The NSA still has plenty of axes to grind against Assange. They might not be ready to tip their cards yet. Worse still, Stone could avail himself of the Classified Information Procedures Act during discovery. Won’t that be fun?
Actually, information recently learned by the aptly named Late4Dinner suggests that the questions ought to be whether Randy Credico had any telecommunications with Julian Assange and whether Roger Stone might know about any telecommunications between Credico and Assange. He who will not be deterred, Robert Swan Mueller The Third, already knows–as did most people besides L4D–that Randy Credico is the mutual friend of Roger Stone and Julian Assange whom Stone said, in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, acted as a go-between for Stone’s communications with Assange. Credico asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in order to be released from the subpoena the House Intelligence Committee served on him.
After stoically accepting his prison sentence, John Mitchell said ” It could have been worse. They could have sentenced me to life with Martha”.
http://images.politico.com/global/2015/04/22/redone_1970_john_martha-mitchell_1160.jpg
Republicans marrying Republicans- expected.
“Stone told CNN “I had no advanced notice of the content source or exact timing of the WikiLeaks disclosures including the allegedly hacked emails.” Ugh, Linked DNC Emails! Ret. William Benney, NSA…
Hold on Prof Turley, I’m hearing next week numerous Truth Reports in the Infowars will blow the hell out of the anti;American Trash. We’ll see.
People like Prof Turley need to bank some time outside of the reliable Blue Cancer spots of Prog/Lib Commie/Nazis US cities like DC, NYC, LA, Chiraq. & get in touch with the real America.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel
Cool, linear legal analysis — totally missing from this piece. All that Turley is saying here is that he doesn’t get what Stone is doing.
Big surprise. No citation of any statute suggesting that it’s a crime to contradict oneself.
If Turley tried to do a little more reading, he might have read where earlier this week Stone specifically stated that it doesn’t matter what you say — it only matters what you DO.
Let me know when contradicting oneself to the media becomes a crime, because I’d love to see Mueller try to prosecute Stone for lying to the liars at CNN.
Not a single citation of law included in this piece. Just a gossip column at this point.
One might think that Turley is having a nervous breakdown after appearing on Hannity this last week. If so, I don’t blame him. There isn’t enough soap and hot water on Earth to wash away what I’d feel after appearing on Hannity. I hope the gig paid well.
And here’s a tip: What Stone is doing is a psy-op.
PS:
“For a guy being pursued by a Special Counsel, Stone is showing no greater ability of self-control or the avoidance of self-contradiction.” Jonathan Turley, 4-8-18
” ‘It is not what you said you did, but what you actually did that matters,’ Stone said in a statement to TheDC …” Roger Stone, 4-3-18
http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/03/exclusive-roger-stone-credit-card-flight-hotel-records/
Turley seems to think that Stone should live in fear and adjust his behavior because he’s “being pursued by a Special Counsel.” (no clue why “Special Counsel” is capitalized)
Stone appears to not give a rat’s rear end about whether he’s “being pursued by a” special counsel, and Turley appears not to understand that all people don’t think the same way as Turley thinks. This comes from having a very narrow field of experiences, and a very narrow group of associates.
Maybe — just maybe — Stone hasn’t broken any laws, knows he hasn’t broken any laws, and this is his way of telling CNN and Special Counsel Mueller to go take a flying leap? ? ? ?
“I. Laying Plans ***
18. All warfare is based on deception. ***
20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. ***
22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. ***”
___________________________________ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Admittedly, If Roger Stone already knows that he had no telecommunications with Assange, then Stone is probably enjoying his efforts at impeaching his own credibility as a witness. Otherwise, Stone would have good reason to believe that the NSA has signal intelligence against him and that Mueller would already know that as well. What would Sun Tzu do in that event?
O! Bother! Never mind about the NSA. Stone says he used a mutual friend, Randy Credico, as a go-between to communicate with Assange. IOW, Stone knew better than to run the risk of intercepted telecommunications between Stone and Assange. Well . . . I believe that goes to motive, which is, IIRC, still one of the elements of a crime–albeit it, still also circumstantial.
Come to think of it, add means and opportunity to the list–albeit still only circumstantial. But a fine reason to investigate further.
What additional circumstances are necessary for the ABA to initiate an investigation into an attorney who publicly claims that he authored damning texts that were from an account that the public assumed was the account of his client? The impression that attorneys cover up for their clients harms the reputation of the profession.
Stone’s lawyer could claim the e-mail exchanges attributed to Stone were written by him.
Linda, both of Turley’s most recent posts on the subject of Roger Stone are red herrings. The only question is whether Turley knows that his most recent posts on the subject of Roger Stone are red herrings. Stone is already on the record in his testimony before Congress that he used an intermediary, Randy Credico, who is a mutual friend of Stone and Assange, to relay communications back and forth between Stone and Assange. The entire topic of Stone’s emails is the red herring. Either somebody threw Turley off the scent or Turley’s trying to throw his blawg hounds off the scent. One wonders which it is.
The photo accompanying the 2nd post was from Fox- that answers the posited question.