Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

How stupid are these people?

Bark louder, little dog.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Indictments Open Thread: Roger Stone Has Been Arrested

Friday Indictments Open Thread: Roger Stone Has Been Arrested

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And here we were just talking about the Goddess of Consequences. Per the AP:

… Stone is charged in a seven-count indictment with witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to the release by WikiLeaks of hacked emails during the 2016 presidential election. Some of those false statements were made to the House intelligence committee, according to the indictment.

The indictment brought by special counsel Robert Mueller does not accuse Stone of coordinating with the Russian government’s election interference in 2016, the key matter under investigation in the probe. But the indictment lays out in detail Stone’s conversations about stolen Democratic emails posted by WikiLeaks in the weeks before the Republican beat Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Mueller’s office has said those emails, belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, were hacked by Russian intelligence officers.

Stone is scheduled to appear in court in Florida later Friday. The indictment had been expected. Stone has said for months he was prepared to be charged, though he has denied any wrongdoing. A grand jury for months had heard from witnesses connected to Stone. And the intelligence committee last year voted to release a transcript of Stone’s testimony to Mueller as a precursor to an indictment…

Reader Interactions

261Comments

  1. 1.

    Msb

    Well, I’ll be. Roger Stone told the truth about something.
    Has anyone checked to see if Jesus has come back?

  4. 4.

    Derelict

    Roger Stone has spent his lifetime lying to everyone and anyone if he felt doing so could advance his immediate interests. Guess that didn’t quite work this time!

  5. 5.

    SFAW

    The best part of waking up is NOT Folger’s in your cup. It’s reading that Roger Stone has been indicted. (An unintended/unexpected benefit to sleeping in, I guess.)

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    Check the news for 5 minutes as I wait for my flight to El Calafate and find this delightful item. I guess this will be a good day.

  8. 8.

    Cermet

    Well, hoping the orange fart cloud realizes that any pardon of the asswipe stone will further proof of his own obstruction efforts so he won’t help that piece of shit. Here’s to the orange fart cloud’s own sense of self preservation so that he lets that floating piece of shit rot in jail.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    Anne Laurie, you have to love this. I know from your posts and comments Stone has been on your radar for a long time.

    My daughter wants Don Jr. arrested- specifically- him. We all have our favorite Trump criminals!

  18. 18.

    MJS

    I expect multiple tweet versions of whistling past the graveyard. “Nothing to do with Trump”, “No collusion”, “Exonerated,” and the inevitable, “Don’t know him, not affiliated with the campaign.”

  21. 21.

    germy

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I don’t know what they were expecting, but the FBI wasn’t taking any chances.

    In the past, he has boasted about his collection of guns.

    Gorka’s another one like that. If you check his twitter acct, there’s lots of firearms on display.

  25. 25.

    CarolDuhart2

    Poor Roger. And he’s going to face a Grand-and later a Regular Jury-full of furloughed Feds who haven’t been paid due to the administration he put into place. Hope you like prison food, Roger. And I just forgot-a Judge who hasn’t been paid either.

    I’ve been hoping for something like this since his days as one of Nixon’s dirty tricksters. Karma, babb.

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Kay:

    My daughter wants Don Jr. arrested- specifically- him.

    Damn, I’m still six indictments away from a cover-all on my Trump Bingo card.

  28. 28.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Mueller is moving exactly as I expected. First establish what the Russians were doing. With Stone, he is establishing that someone pretty high up in Trump’s campaign was working with them. Next step is to establish who else in the campaign knew what Stone was doing, who instructed him to do it.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @MJS:

    I expect multiple tweet versions of whistling past the graveyard. “Nothing to do with Trump”, “No collusion”, “Exonerated,” and the inevitable, “Don’t know him, not affiliated with the campaign.”

    This has been the most deliberately minimized presidential scandal of my lifetime.

    I’m convinced it’s because they all dismissed it as a “nothingburger” during the campaign and they can’t admit it’s big now without having egg on their faces. There was some kind of editorial decision made and to admit it now means they made the wrong call. And they will fucking DIE before they admit that.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    “After the July 22, 2016, release of stolen (Democratic National Committee) emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign. STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1,” prosecutors wrote.

    Which senior campaign official? Manafort, who has a long history with Stone? Trump Jr.? Please let it be Trump Jr. Manafort is already going to die in jail. I’m longing to see the smirking hair-gel boy do the perp walk.

    ETA: Also, that “was directed” is a pretty interesting passive construction. So, it’s at least two people in addition to Stone.

  31. 31.

    Mandarama

    I was getting surly teens up for school on this dreary winter morning, and just picked up my phone to see the NYT blurb. And lo, the sun has burst forth, trailing rays of schadenfreude!

  37. 37.

    JPL

    Has anyone ventured over to Fox and Friends? I assume they are replaying videos of scary men at the southern border. Fox news blocks most streaming.

  40. 40.

    SRW1

    No Trump tweets yet? Is he still working out how claiming to not know that Stone dude might play?

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    They chose professional malpractice during 2016.
    And, no, we will never let them forget it.
    It’s part of the reason why they go after BuzzFeed. Never forget….they ALL had the Steele Dossier, and chose NOT to publish it. Because the Dossier is proof of their own malpractice.??

  47. 47.

    germy

    @Cheryl Rofer: The dog is relieved Stone has been apprehended:

    “On or about April 9, 2018, STONE wrote in an email to Person 2, “You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds.” STONE also said he would “take that dog away from you,” referring to Person 2’s dog. On or about the same day, STONE wrote to Person 2, “I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die [expletive].” “

  49. 49.

    GregB

    The symphony playongbthe tunes if poetic justice has begun to play their glorious first number.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: That must be the dog mentioned in this snippet of the indictment:

    This is the type of person the POTUS surrounds himself with — a long-time operative of one of our two major political parties. The party that needs to be burned to the ground so something better can arise from its ashes.

  53. 53.

    GregB

    Sorry for the misspellings. Coffee hasn’t kicked in. Congrats to Robert Mueller for getting Roger Stone.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I really wonder about it- this is just me, but it’s like they had a source who told them “this is nothing”. Based on the little I know I feel like it’s possible that the source was the FBI, the infamous “NY field office” – because why else would they so uniformly minimize it? Bob Woodward minimized it in his book. The conventional wisdom was “nothingburger” – I wonder how that came to be the conventional wisdom. It had to be prestigious and influential journalists- it’s like follow the leader.

  59. 59.

    Alien Radio

    @Cheryl Rofer: That was my take as well, he’s just charging the counts that don’t tip his hand, and that are quite frankly provable based on what’s already in the public domain. He’s still got plenty of leverage.

  60. 60.

    germy

    Here’s what I don’t understand about Randy Credico:

    He’s always described as a “comedian” but I find no evidence of him doing comedy, other than his behavior in this mess. Usually, when someone is referred to as a comedian, one can visit youtube and find footage of the comedian at comedy clubs doing actual… comedy in front of laughing audiences. Is this guy only “funny” on podcasts or something?

  61. 61.

    Baud

    Some random Redditor said this.

    There were 8 different sealed criminal cases filed in DC district court yesterday. EIGHT.

    More indictments are coming soon.

    Anyone know anything about this?

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    Also, those who speculated that Giuliani’s babbling last weekend wasn’t just the product of an addled mind but was instead meant to prep the field for conspiracy revelations against top Trump campaign officials, step up and claim your prize.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Stone will be really pale in a matter of days. They have to let him out for tanning. We might not recognize him in a week.

  68. 68.

    germy

    “The head of Organization 1 was located at all relevant times at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, United Kingdom.”

  71. 71.

    SRW1

    Prediction:

    Yesterday was ‘Let-them-eat-cake-Thursday’, today’s gonna be ‘It’s-just-a-flesh-wound-Friday’.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Giuliani

    What’s been shocking about him is he’s such a bad LAWYER. Didn’t see that coming. I assumed he would be minimally competent at that one thing. We promote such bad people. It’s like the ranking system is broken.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    @Cheryl Rofer: Have pity on an old man who can’t keep the cast of characters straight. Is that a joke about Trump’s pre-teen kid, or is there another Bannon involved?

  75. 75.

    plato

    John Brennan: "To me, all these indictments are going to be basically the compendium of the Robert Mueller investigation … I expect there to be a significant number, and a significant number of names that are going to be quite familiar to the average American." @MSNBC

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 25, 2019

  79. 79.

    danielx

    I’m still too creaky to do a Snoopy-style happy dance, still working on first cup – but I may do a celebratory jig once my synapses start firing.

  81. 81.

    Ken

    @germy: Is it just me, or are there a surprisingly large number of “Organization X” in this investigation? Does a typical RICO case involve more than one O?

  82. 82.

    Sebastian

    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    AHAHAHAH
    *breathe*
    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    AHAHAHAHAHAH

    TICK TOCK MOTHERFUCKERS!
    *raises glass to Yarrow and sips with gleefull satisfaction*

  83. 83.

    Joe Falco

    I hope he shares a cell with Corsi. The whole lot of these treasonous bastards deserve each other.

    Better watch your back, Junior! Mueller’s going to getcha!

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thanks – I think. “Looks like he just got up from a subway grate” describes a ridiculously large number of WH staff and Trump associates.

  85. 85.

    Alien Radio

    @Cheryl Rofer: And I think that the “friend in london” who wasn’t Randy Credico was Nigel Farage and Bannon was his contact in the trump campaign.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Roger Stone is the man who created the anti-Hillary organization “Citizens United Not Timid” (not to be confused with the other Citizens United; he was deliberately trying to sow that confusion on top of everything else).

    He’s one of the worst human beings in the United States, and has been for decades in public life. His close association with Trump should not be surprising to anyone.

  90. 90.

    Betty Cracker

    In case anyone is wondering how this is playing on FOX News:

    Looks like “process crime” is the centerpiece of the messaging strategy — I believe Giuliani rolled that one out last weekend.

    I wonder who’s running the PR campaign? Huckabee Sanders isn’t savvy enough to develop and implement a national media strategy. Bill Shine maybe?

    I take comfort in the fact that Trump and the folks he hires are all D-listers. The shitty Beltway press could be manipulated into burying this by more skilled folks.

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @Baud: Expanding on my comment at 84, “white nationalist” describes a ridiculously large etc. The combination of “white nationalist” and “subway grate” still leaves more candidates than any sane person would expect.

  92. 92.

    Sebastian

    @Kay:

    Oh yes, that’s going to be a special treat. I CANNOT WAIT to see his goddamn stupid visage in a mugshot.

  95. 95.

    Yarrow

    Well, well, well! What a cheery thing to see! This calls for a hearty Tick Tock, Motherfuckers!! If you think you’re getting out of this, Trump family, you’re not. Same goes for you Republican leadership. Your time is coming.

    A VERY good morning to everyone!

  97. 97.

    germy

    God
    ‏

    @TheTweetOfGod

    How does it feel?
    How does it feel?
    To be all alone?
    With your cover blown?
    Your collusion shown?
    A complete self-own?
    Like a Roger Stone.

  104. 104.

    Sebastian

    @Kay:

    And they will die because this is too big to be ignored. This is by far the biggest scandal in the history of the United States. No, World History.

    This is a corrupt system colapsing into itself and creating a Black Hole, that will suck them all in. Everything Trump Touches Dies.

    And another thought: we are all terribly worried and depressed but in moments like this, when Mueller makes his moves, when we see their comeuppance approaching, that’s when I am reminded how Obama’s opponents kept self-imolating by sheer ridiculousness.

    We seem to have forgotten that because of Trump’s election and McConnel’s fuckery but look at this magnificence!

  106. 106.

    Chyron HR

    @Betty Cracker:

    “The person who was actually literally serving as the link between Donald Trump and the GRU just got arrested? WHERE’S THE COLLISION LOL???”

  109. 109.

    Spanky

    @germy: Any word yet from Dick Nixon’s twitter account?

    Day #2 off from work with throat infection + raging head cold, so it’s good to curl up by the monitor and watch the Schadenfreude.

    (And yes, who wouldn’t have a raging head after all this administration’s crimes?)

  110. 110.

    Yarrow

    @Alien Radio:

    And I think that the “friend in london” who wasn’t Randy Credico was Nigel Farage and Bannon was his contact in the trump campaign.

    Yes. Let’s highlight Nigel Farage’s role. The UK could also use it so people there understand just how much Brexit was a Russian op. The same people, the same tactics.

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:
    What I think is interesting is the speed with which they arrested Stone. News says indictments were issued yesterday and yet, by Zero dark thirty, the feds in full gear were knock knock knocking on Roger’s door.

    That suggests that Mueller either wanted to get this indictment public today! For some particular reason, maybe Manafort’s hearing, to freak him right out…
    OR
    Mueller has some concerns that the secrecy of the Grand Jury or Court might be compromised if there was any delay.

    Of course it could be both or other things, but it does seem oddly fast from indictment to arrest.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    First establish what the Russians were doing. With Stone, he is establishing that someone pretty high up in Trump’s campaign was working with them. Next step is to establish who else in the campaign knew what Stone was doing, who instructed him to do it.

    Probably has to be Manafort.

    I think they’re sweating Corsi by doing the early-morning no-knock. Regardless, it’s awesome to see the circle shrink even tighter. Don Jr.’s next.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: My thinking is there are a considerable number of really pissed off unpaid G-men who are sending trump and company a little message.

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @Spanky: Tricky is saying Gates pointed the feds in all the right directions, the logic being that Gates knew everything Manafort knew, which would include Stone’s involvement. Gates is relatively young and has kids, so he’s been the one guiding the SC in hopes of getting off light (which by all accounts he has)

  120. 120.

    Sebastian

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Oh! If the campaign itself is the criminal organization … wait … Kelly-Anne Crowley was the last campaign manager

    Ahahahahaha tick tock motherfuckers!

    Jesus Christ I have to go to work, I can’t start drinking yet!

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Well that’s certainly true. But getting a high stakes (both chance for shooting and politically) raid together does not happen in minutes or even hours….

  123. 123.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I asked my FBI friend how CNN knew to be there for the arrest. Friend is not in Florida and had to rely on the CNN reporter’s claim they had a hunch based on the Mueller grand jury working yesterday. Friend knows people in Florida and may hear more today.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    Jamelle Bouie’s debut column in the NYT is a beauty: trumpov’s wall of shame

    …But the paramount reason for resisting this deal, and any other, is what it would mean symbolically to erect the wall or any portion of it. Like Trump himself, it would represent a repudiation of the pluralism and inclusivity that characterizes America at its best. It would stand as a lasting reminder of the white racial hostility surging through this moment in American history, a monument to this particular drive to preserve the United States as a white man’s country.

    In fact, you can almost think of the wall as a modern-day Confederate monument, akin to those erected during a similar but far more virulent period of racist aggression in the first decades of the 20th century. Built as shrines to white racial dominance as much as memorials for any particular soldier, they were part of a larger, national drive to uphold white supremacy against what one nativist thinker termed a “rising tide of color.”

    Damn straight. C’mon Dems, surely you can split the GOP just by calling the wall “a middle-finger monument to racism”?

  126. 126.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro:

    Renato Mariotti
    ‏Verified account @renato_mariotti

    5/ A “high-ranking Trump campaign official” is described later in the indictment having contact with Stone through intermediaries about the WikiLeaks hacked emails. One of those emails was previously published by @nytimes and they identified the official as Steve Bannon.
    5:26 AM – 25 Jan 2019

  129. 129.

    MattF

    For those keeping score, Dahlia Lithwick notes that the Mueller team has indicted 33 individuals. So far.

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I’m just kidding of course. Wouldn’t know how long it takes to set these things up or how many people have to be “in the know” beforehand.

  132. 132.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    You really may be on to something, though. You made me wonder whether this increases or decreases the chance Trump will allow his shutdown to end. Which would knock the Stone news off the TV quicker?

  133. 133.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Stone used to be a devious man. Stewing in his own hate has made him insane and stupid. Look for his defense strategy to be goofy as Hell, and probably not a plea bargain. Odds are good he’s convinced he can fight his way out by, maybe by blaming Hillary. He is seriously that nuts.

    @Kay:
    It became conventional wisdom because to properly cover Trump’s criminality would A) paint the entire Republican Party as bad people, and B) make Hillary Clinton not The Bad Guy. For all the top pundits and editors who set the Narrative, these are both unacceptable, unimaginable. It defies everything they know in their hearts. Several of those people have now been kicked out for sexual harassment.

    @Kay:
    Like Stone, Giuliani has been drinking his own Kool-Aid so long that he’s no longer fully functional. Like Trump, he just bullshits nonstop with no rhyme or reason or consistency. It happens.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Bouie is correct, but IMO it’s far more effective to make the case that the wall is Trump’s hair-brained, self-aggrandizing response to a made-up problem. To the Republicans, the fact that it’s a monument to white supremacy is a feature, not a bug.

  135. 135.

    Tazj

    @plato: That’s great. Aside from everything he has done,he seems like such a nasty piece of work. News of his arrest has certainly made my day. I was getting pretty frustrated with the Mueller investigation.

  136. 136.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    How many people are in Trump’s cabinet?

    Did you mean to say

    How many people are left in Trump’s cabinet?

  138. 138.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker:

    To the Republicans, the fact that it’s a monument to white supremacy is a feature, not a bug.

    And from the hundreds of reports from diners across the heartland this week, all Trump supporters see the Wall just like that.

  139. 139.

    Duane

    @Yarrow: When the RNC committees meet today it would be a fine time for the FBI to make multiple arrests. A bunch of crooks all in one place, like a self-directed sting operation. TICK-TOCK MOTHERFUCKERS. (Stone should have that tattooed on himself.)

  142. 142.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of Beltway media hacks who enabled this criminal cabal, here’s a trip down memory lane:

  143. 143.

    Immanentize

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    Perhaps Stone is a flight risk. We will learn that today.

    But what would he be fleeing from exactly? Indictments are not public documents until the Court makes them so. They are supposed to be secrets, until served. Stone hadn’t run yet, and there was no reason for him to do so now, was there?

  144. 144.

    ET

    Roger Stone knew he was going to get arrested because he clearly knew what he had done was something he was going to get arrested for. To me that says he knew he was guilty of something. Just glad the law may finally be catching up to him. He deserves it.

  145. 145.

    Amir Khalid

    Der Müller Gottes mahlt langsam, aber mahlt außerordentlich fein. Und heute hat er einen Stein gemahlen.

  147. 147.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker: CNN had her on the panel when I turned on the TV. She looked SO uncomfortable. I haven’t seen her on TV much so maybe she’s always that way but she looked nervous. Wonder why….

  148. 148.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Immanentize:
    Note that CNN was there. The fewer hours rumor has time to reach those who listen to it professionally, the fewer hours Stone has to run or destroy evidence.

    “Fuck this asshole, let’s drag him out of bed to jail” IS a possibility.

  149. 149.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Frankensteinbeck: @Immanentize: That is what I was thinking. In that same vein, I’ll speculate that Mueller’s undercutting of the BuzzFeed story had to do with tamping down expectations and thus not raising Stone’s (and others’?) guard. I have no doubt that the precise words were precisely true, but the overall BuzzFeed account may be mostly accurate.

    ETA: That’s Mueller’s precise words that were precisely true.

  150. 150.

    plato

    A source confirms that the FBI has also raided Roger Stone’s apartment in Manhattan on 117th street.

    — Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) January 25, 2019

    What is the over/under the NY FBI magats were kept out of loop for this one?

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF:

    One name I don’t think I’ve seen in any of the speculation is that of Corey Lewandowski. Where is he in all this?

  154. 154.

    Duane

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sean Hannity, a Great American traitor, should be arrested for his involvement in spreading the stolen e-mails. During his TV show would be perfect.

  155. 155.

    Scots Git

    @Kay:

    And they will fucking DIE before they admit that.

    Well, then, here’s hoping they fucking die. And soon.

  158. 158.

    The Pale Scot

    Can I haz RICO plzzzzz?
    Dismember the whole money laundering op, repeatedly adding charges that keepv all the Trumps in the news, preferably including repeated Gotti family perp walks

  159. 159.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s the opposite of Watergate. Law enforcement uncovered the crime(s) and media still don’t believe any were committed. They’re arresting and indicting people and the editors of newspapers are meeting and saying “I don’t know- is there anything THERE, though?” Mustn’t be too hasty! Let’s wait for convictions. On “collusion” even though that isn’t the legal term.

    There’s still no real reporting on it, unless you count “linking to indictments” which, while convenient for readers, isn’t really adding a whole lot of value. I feel like they missed a lot if they’re just showing up in time for the arrest. Maybe that’s too high a standard and they’re more like local tv news- “look at this car crash”

  160. 160.

    The Pale Scot

    Eventually, Mueller is going to investigate the NYC FBI office. Insisting that you didn’t know the guy you were surreptitiously helping was a Russian asset isn’t really a defense. Say good bye to the pension, bucko

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    IMO it’s far more effective to make the case that the wall is Trump’s hair-brained, self-aggrandizing response to a made-up problem. To the Republicans, the fact that it’s a monument to white supremacy is a feature, not a bug

    True…also in today’s NYT, though, is a piece on why trumpov won’t win in 2020*, best summed up as “the Dem base is both bigger than, and more riled-up than, the hardcore trumpov base”. So, pointing out that the wall is a monument to white supremacy riles up both bases and ours is bigger.

    *this piece will need to be updated in about a week, methinks, with “why trumpov won’t even be in office in 2020”, but I digress

  164. 164.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I agree with you. They have been MIA in covering Republican malfeasance. The mainstream political media acts like a loosely affiliated propaganda arm of the Republican party.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    A week later with Trump continuing to take heavy fire over his birtherism and questions about his finances, this gem appears in Politico by Maggie Haberman.
    “Trump: The $7 Billion dollar man”.

    Oh, God.

    The latest Trump hire tell-all says that TRUMP is the source when they quote unnamed Trump Administration people, which makes perfect sense, but just blew me away. They don’t even tell us! I mean, if we knew it was all Trump we would know it’s all lies. There’s actually more Donald Trump’s than we knew. They fucking MULTIPLIED him! We get the public lies we can attribute to him and dismiss, and then a whole pack of aka lies.

  170. 170.

    CarolDuhart2

    Stone has foreign contacts and no doubt a passport. And contacts overseas. Anyone question that if given a heads up, he would run?

  172. 172.

    MattF

    @Kay: Actually explains a lot– no more ‘how does ‘Mr. X’ get away with saying things like that’, I guess.

  173. 173.

    JR

    @Sebastian: Just off the top of my head, the French East India Company Scandal causes the collapse of the French Revolutionary Government and kicked the Terror into high gear. So, I think “World History” is out.

  175. 175.

    NonyNony

    @Kay:

    It’s the opposite of Watergate. Law enforcement uncovered the crime(s) and media still don’t believe any were committed.

    Well, kinda? In Watergate law enforcement actually also knew all about the crimes – Felt just leaked them to the press to damage Nixon politically as retaliation for how the FBI had been treated instead of openly investigating the president.

    What’s happening now is that conservatives learned the lesson of Nixon and realized they needed their own media infrastructure to push back and help with the cover up. For a long time they also worked hard to kowtow to the FBI instead of trying to bigfoot them like Nixon did, but Trump blew that up good.

  178. 178.

    Tony Jay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think you’ll find that while Mo-G did have a rocking band, they never quite managed to break through in America.

    Though their back catalogue would be a heavy influence on breakthrough acts like MLK and the Freedom Riders.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I watched All the President’s Men with my youngest the other night because I thought he would love it (he did) and because I’ve seen it before I was able to imagine what it would look like now. The Washington Post would be at the B and E arraignment of the Cuban operatives, but they would wonder only “why are these fine men being arrested?”

    They’ve seized on “collusion” like it’s a real thing, like that’s the standard. They’re a defense attorney’s dream. It’s not a real crime! It’s a description of an act. Trump will never be convicted of it because it has to be a real thing to be in an indictment.

    I loathe Comey but I do give him credit for sniffing out the “collusion” bullshit early. He said it’s the wrong term in congressional testimony. Trump defined the terms of his own scandal. Unless it’s “collusion” it isn’t one.

  180. 180.

    Yarrow

    @The Pale Scot: That’s what’s happening. RICO the RNC. Paul Ryan, who chaired the convention, Reince Priebus who was head of the RNC, we’re looking at you. Tick tock, motherfuckers.

  181. 181.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: It’s Trump administration official John Barron!

    Or possibly his secretary Carolin Gallego, who assures us as a woman who works for Donald Trump that Donald Trump treats women with great respect and that the best, the most beautiful, the most successful women all love and admire and want to date Donald Trump.

  182. 182.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker:

    Fox and Friends reacts to Stone indictment: “Where’s the collusion?”

    Um…in the indictment. It must be fun to run a media organization knowing your audience consists of mouthbreathing goobers who won’t actually bother to read the charges or understand what words mean.

  184. 184.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jonas:
    Twitter is flooded with goobers demanding why Hillary hasn’t been arrested for her lies and crowing that collusion wasn’t in the indictments. They live in a fantasy world, because only a fantasy world makes them Good and us Evil.

  185. 185.

    germy

    GG (who is NOT a trump supporter) zeroes in on the most important aspect of today’s news:

    CNN cameras were at the raid of Roger Stone…so FBI obviously tipped off CNN…even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN instead of trying to quietly arrest Stone; quiet arrests are more likely to be safe to the FBI and the person arrested
    — Greta Van Susteren (@greta) January 25, 2019

    It's possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller's office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone's arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it's Roger Stone, so few will care. https://t.co/H7VvltkoCE— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 25, 2019

  186. 186.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: That’s because a lot of people in the media, and especially those at the top, are compromised. They do not report on it because if they do they may have to pay a price. That’s how kompromat works.

  187. 187.

    Tony Jay

    @Alien Radio:

    It’s just been pointed out to me by a friend that if you expand that infamous post-Election shot of Trump and Farage smirking in front of the gold-painted elevators of Trump Tower, you’ll find Aaron Banks was also right there, come to celebrate the success of another impossible dream with the US branch of the “Can you believe how much money we’re going to loot, now?” chorus.

    That’s one thread I want to see tugged hard so that even the BBC has to admit out loud that the Leave Campaign was a Russo-American conspiracy against the UK. Shove that up your patriot-hole and smoke it, Quitters!

  188. 188.

    Kay

    @NonyNony:

    I feel like there’s a NYC nexus to this that was essential to Trump’s rise. “Donald Trump, Arkansas shopping mall developer” doesn’t get us here. NY media, the former NYC mayor, the NY FBI field office. It was a perfect storm of powerful people within a specific (and essential) geography and parochial focus. He had to happen in their backyard, or he wouldn’t have gotten this far. They know him, and that’s why they aren’t able to cover him like a normal president. They simply do not accept that he could do serious harm. He’s their delightful con man- not a bad guy! Just zany!

  190. 190.

    Aleta

    @Betty Cracker: That’s a nice head start for someone’s poli sci term paper or thesis chapter.

    I skipped five years as I did not want to write a 100-tweet-thread, so skipped to election year for brevity.

    Burn

  192. 192.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay:

    They’ve seized on “collusion” like it’s a real thing, like that’s the standard. They’re a defense attorney’s dream. It’s not a real crime! It’s a description of an act. Trump will never be convicted of it because it has to be a real thing to be in an indictment.

    That’s so that if you argue that there was collusion, they can then come right back and say it’s not a crime.

    “Mueller’s report reveals no evidence of counterclockwise splungery, and even if it did, counterclockwise splungery is not a crime!”

  193. 193.

    Nicole

    @Gin & Tonic: El Calafate! Have a wonderful time. My husband and I honeymooned in Argentina and seeing the Perito Moreno glacier was just wonderful.

  195. 195.

    Nicole

    @rikyrah: Oh, the Palmer Report was a balm on my soul in the first several months after the election. I took everything with several shakers of salt, but I needed so desperately back then to read something that let me believe they’d all end up being held responsible for what they did.

  197. 197.

    Punchy

    It’s possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller’s office

    WOW is this a bad take. Or, being that there was a rare GJ meeting yesterday, AND everyone and their Yorkie knew this shitbag was living on borrowed time, CNN decided to park a camera crew within shooting distance of the Stone compound, playing the very good odds he was next.

    CNN does have, after all, more than one camera crew, and hanging out all night in Ft. Lauderdale isn’t exactly tough sledding. But instead GG sets it up as only one of 2 options, both (of course) unacceptable to him.

  198. 198.

    Searcher

    Every single member of Trump’s campaign arrested, no big deal.

    Random DNC employee murdered, Hillary probably did it personally.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    From a responding tweet in your link.

    Apparently the #TrumpShutdown didn’t shut down the indictment, warrant, and arrest of Trump associate Roger Stone. The dedicated FBI agents showed up at Stone’s home in Florida and took him into custody. Indicted. Arrested. Seven counts. Thank you for your dedicated service, FBI.

    Stone is Florida man!
    Can’t say this is getting to be fun but it is starting to get far more interesting.

  200. 200.

    Dork

    counterclockwise splungery is not a crime!”

    When did they repeal this? I had a friend back in Aught-Six busted for this; got probation and 3 points on his DL.

  207. 207.

    The Pale Scot

    @Yarrow: Having had police knock on my door and break down my door. I can truthfully say one resulted in far more anxiety than the other. like a velociraptor popping out of the bush

  209. 209.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I actually do this- “it is NOT a murder-suicide, if THAT’S what you’re implying!” It works too. I know! You would think it wouldn’t work, but it does. You have to set the bar REALLY low, so the criminals can clamber over it.

  211. 211.

    Ohio Mom

    I’m skipping ahead, maybe this has already been linked.

    The shallow, petty, catty person I am wants to see the mug shot of hairpiece-less Roger.

    I can’t find it on google. Anybody know where it is?

  213. 213.

    Sebastian

    @JR:

    Ah my friend, I mean no disrespect when I say you might be suffering from a momentary lack of imagination. This is not over by a long shot.

  214. 214.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The best thing about the “collusion” bullshit is it works in all situations:

    Mr. Gowdy: Some of our friends in the media use the word “collusion” from time to time. What is the crime of collusion?
    Mr. Comey: What is the crime of collusion? I do not know. I’ve never heard the term “collusion” used in the way it’s been used in our world over the last couple years before that. I don’t know of a crime that involves collusion. I think in terms of conspiracy or aiding and abetting.

    Here, Gowdy took the “it can’t be a crime because there is no crime of collusion” approach. They also use it as a minimum- “it can’t be a crime UNLESS it’s collusion”

    They’re really, really good at this. They invented a scandal at the IRS by seizing on “targeting” and just fucking RUNNING with it. That one word.

  216. 216.

    Sebastian

    @Tony Jay:

    Miss Bianca is going to accuse of bloodlust again but here is my dream scenario:

    Due to technicalities UK leaves EU (legally) for very short time. During that time EU death penalty moratorium is not in effect.

    Farage and all other conspirators and traitors are sentenced and beheaded as traitors to the crown, joining an infamous list and remembered as such in the history of the monarchy.

    Fat chance, I know.

  217. 217.

    Joy in FL

    I think that when any article refers to the 2016 presidential election, for example, in the NYT article, “the Republican beat Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton….” it should state it like this: “ ‘the Republican beat Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton…’ in the Electoral College, but not in the popular vote.”

    I remember that when I learned about the Electoral College maybe in 6th grade, I thought the teacher was joking, trying to see how gullible we were. I found out it was a real thing, and the joke is on us.

    May Roger Stone experience Justice.

  218. 218.

    The Dangerman

    OK, who is up to bat next and who is in the hole (typed carefully on first Joe; who is “in the hole”, singular, as compared to who “is a hole”, which is a damn long list)? Junior or Jared would make my day.

    I hear rumblings of multiple indictments, but is that multiple people or multiple charges against Stone?

  221. 221.

    Immanentize

    @Punchy: I dislike GG as much as anyone. But as I said before, the “great journamalism by CNN and: HUNCH” is not in my experience the most likely thing. The timing is really critical here —
    Indictment by GJ Thursday afternoon (under seal). Raid in the middle of the night on Friday a.m. That is VERY rare. And CNN just took the chance that the very rare thing would happen to a specific person the night of the indictments? Occam weeps.

  223. 223.

    dmsilev

    @plato: That’s going to get the attention of a lot of wealthy people who have the attention of GOP Senators. Wealthy people who fly their private planes into New York do not like “unnecessary” delays.

  224. 224.

    Gravenstone

    @Baud: A commenter over at TPM posted a tweet claiming there were 12 new sealed indictments placed yesterday. So the numbers seem to be somewhat variable.

  227. 227.

    plato

    @Dmbeaster:

    Repost since the blog eated the last one. I bet Mueller’s team picked up tons of incriminating evidence from this they-dare-not-touch-me arrogant thug’s houses at FL & NY.

  228. 228.

    Kay

    The “just some false statements” defense is just dumb. Okay, making false statements to the FBI doesn’t mean you committed any particular crime, but not everything involves a strict legal standard and it is perfectly rational and reasonable for the public to believe these people are lying to cover something up! That’s the ordinary conclusion. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about this scandal you could put “lying constantly” and “obstruction” and “telling witnesses to lie” together and get “there is a reason they are doing that”. That’s the most ordinary explanation. It’s looking for horses after hoofbeats, not zebras.

    They’re not writing a legal opinion, the public. It’s not ACTUALLY a jury verdict. They’re watching these people lie and obstruct and instruct others to lie and thinking “they’re hiding something”. Rational! That’s a good bet!

  229. 229.

    Mike in DC

    I think that this is the first of the next-to-last tranche of indictments prior to the report on Trump. This will be the outer circle of Trump associates and lesser campaign functionaries. The last tranche will be inner circle members like the large adult children, Jared, and Bannon. By the time the report is issued, it will be obvious that the president has been involved in a vast political and criminal conspiracy with a hostile foreign power, to steal an election and for personal enrichment, in exchange for lifting sanctions and other acts against the national security interests of the United States and its allies.

  230. 230.

    Bill Arnold

    This from the indictment is interesting:

    Later that day, on or about October 4, 2016, the supporter involved with the Trump Campaign asked STONE via text message if he had “hear[d] anymore from London.” STONE replied, “Yes – want to talk on a secure line – got Whatsapp ?” STONE subsequently told the supporter that more material would be released and that it would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign.

    Some attention to comsec. And a possible (but also possibly not) suggestion that WhatsApp voice security was broken in 2016.
    My impression is that this is in part fishing and that Mueller will try very hard [1] to squeeze blood from the Stone.
    [1] Very probably unsuccessfully; Stone worries about his life.

  231. 231.

    JR

    @Immanentize: People have been speculating that Stone would be next among the Trump guys forever. I mean, I don’t know how CNN found out but its not unreasonable. And it doesn’t fucking matter anyways.

  232. 232.

    Immanentize

    My addition to the ouvre:

    Well, they stoned him as soon as Mueller could,
    They stoned him just like they said they would
    They stoned him when he was in his home
    They stoned him and now he’s all alone

    But Roger would not feel so all alone
    If All the Trump kids just got Stoned

    Well, they stoned him and now he sings his song
    They stoned him just to see him get along
    Well they stoned him and he is acting brave, but
    Stone may end up in a Russian grave

    Old Roger would not feel so all alone
    If all the MAGAts just got Stoned

  238. 238.

    Immanentize

    @Mike in DC: Did you see the Deutsche Bank disclosure that they recently “discovered” hinky bank behavior by Kushner and family? They were “embarrassed” the report said, when they went to the regulators in Germany for not spotting it sooner. To me, that is Deutsche Bank being told to get straight with its creator before we let go all the info. we have gathered in our investigations about your role in money laundering. This would not be the first time D.B. was caught red handed, but this one just happens to implicate the US President and family.

  241. 241.

    West of the Rockies

    I hope Stone is in emotional, gastric, and existential agony. Beak Boy and his ugly Lennon specs will look like a bloated gourd in orange. A lonely, grubby, cockroachy death in prison awaits him.

  242. 242.

    trollhattan

    Here’s wishing Roger Stone spends the rest of his days in prison, with his Nixon tattoo, and that the thing on Roger Stone’s head is exonerated and set free to live its days without Roger Stone.

  245. 245.

    Chris Johnson

    @Kay:

    What’s been shocking about him is he’s such a bad LAWYER. Didn’t see that coming. I assumed he would be minimally competent at that one thing. We promote such bad people. It’s like the ranking system is broken.

    That’s a whole separate thing. Our country is run by obvious traitors who are beginning to come to justice for their obvious crimes, AND meritocratic capitalism doesn’t fucking work at all.

    I mean, the latter makes it easier for the former criminals to get into and hold power. The ranking system is broken in such a way that criminals and sociopathic monsters have a serious advantage to winning under it. It helps them do their crimes and stay in power.

    But right now the point is outing the criminals. Calling out the system that put them there is a story for another day, I think.

    For today, any failings of the system in NO WAY justify what has been done. Fuck ’em. Jail ’em. (possibly shoot ’em, before Putin can)

  246. 246.

    randy khan

    I’m wading through a lot of stuff this morning, but had to stop by to say:

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

  247. 247.

    germy

    Wow. PEETUS is on the same page as Greenwald:

    Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2019

    Here’s what GG said earlier:

    It's possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller's office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone's arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it's Roger Stone, so few will care. https://t.co/H7VvltkoCE— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 25, 2019

  248. 248.

    germy

    associated press:

    A judge has set a $250,000 bond for former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone.

    Stone appeared in court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday. He did not enter a plea.

    Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow told Stone he could not travel outside of South Florida, Washington, D.C. and New York City. Stone was also told he could not have any contact with any witnesses.

    Prosecutors also asked that Stone undergo a drug test and his attorney did not object.

  249. 249.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller’s office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone’s arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it’s Roger Stone, so few will care.

    @germy: Glenn’s wrong. If they taken him outside and shot him in the head right on the sidewalk in front of his house, then I wouldn’t care. Oh, I’d watch it about 20 or 30 times to make sure the crook was stone cold dead and then call in sick to work and have a small party, but I wouldn’t care.

    Leaving him alive, that I care about, a lot, because he may yet escape justice. I want to him to pay for both Nixon and Trump.

  250. 250.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay:

    What’s been shocking about him is he’s such a bad LAWYER.

    A toast to Giuliani and Cohen and these other clowns compared to whom I’m not such a bad lawyer after all!

  256. 256.

    randy khan

    @germy:

    Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country!

    For once he speaks the truth – it’s the greatest, the best, the *most fantastic* witch hunt ever. Who knew there would be so many actual witches?

  259. 259.

    BArry

    @Kay: “What’s been shocking about him is he’s such a bad LAWYER. Didn’t see that coming. I assumed he would be minimally competent at that one thing. We promote such bad people. It’s like the ranking system is broken.”

    Somebody put it this way, ‘Giuliani last practiced law 20 years ago. Think of something which you last did 20 years ago. How skillful would you be now?’

    In addition, of course, he’s a white, mail, rich, right-winger. He might have had to work his way up at some point, but that point was a while back. If nothing else, he’s been a Fox News talking head for the last decade, which is like doing nothing but (really bad) stage combat for a decade. Even if you started out as a fifth dan black belt, you’ve degraded.

  260. 260.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: I think the thing I loved the most about this was the phrase, “FBI agents volunteered” to take Roger Stone in. Somehow, I like to think there was a line of them going, “me, me, noo, pick meee!” : )

  261. 261.

    Barry

    @Sebastian: “Farage and all other conspirators and traitors are sentenced and beheaded as traitors to the crown, joining an infamous list and remembered as such in the history of the monarchy.”

    I strenuously object – beheading is a death for nobility (it was quick and merciful).
    Since they don’t like EU squishiness and pine for the Good Old Days, they should be hanged, drawn and quartered, with their estates forfeited and full attainting of the blood.

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