It probably wasn't the best idea for the GOP to have just one go-to bagman for the last 30 years. https://t.co/TrSAfeAmDO
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 31, 2019
it hasn't gotten as much play but you have to understand that Roger Stone is to the entire GOP what Michael Cohen was to Trump. THE guy to handle all shady dirty low down jobs. Those search warrants could end up sparking all manner of criminal referrals and new investigations.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 31, 2019
Stone is now subject to a protective order. He can't talk about what the government shows him in terms of evidence prior to the trial. https://t.co/j2kfxDmC4T
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) January 31, 2019
FBI Agent: You have the right to remain silent…
Stone (Twitter Law '72): You can't make me. https://t.co/cmjHRshxkj
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) January 31, 2019
Stone has the right to remain silent, just not the ability. (With apologies to Ron White.)
— Kevin Reichard (@kreichard) January 31, 2019
Roger confuses "job" with "nature"https://t.co/hr2LDcVVea
— AccomplishedTheHat (@Popehat) February 1, 2019
Terabytes of Rat-Fucker Data Trailhttps://t.co/9ZxsmgyXDZ
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 31, 2019
So two things about this complex case designation:
1) Mueller had tons of this (multiple cell phones, hard drives, financial records) from before Friday's raid.
2) Some of this is pertinent to other crimes, not obstruction.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 31, 2019
One more thing: I noted that the Wolfe sentencing documents suggest FBI has more ability to get to Signal texts than most people assume. So FBI may already have Stone's encrypted chats, including possibly those he has since deleted.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 31, 2019
I hope none of that material relates to his personal life, or prosecutorial staff are going to need PTSD treatment
— Christian Sporleder (@CASporleder) January 31, 2019
Imagine what he’d find if Mueller got Stone’s electronic communications back to 1999. Probably evidence of his central role in installing not one but _two_ presidents illegitimately
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 31, 2019
Once again, it's a case of a persistent white guy with a long, long history of borderline criminal activity who probably would've gotten away with it if the ringleader hadn't won.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 31, 2019
They just don’t make Repub thugs like they used to…
You p*ssy. G. Gordon Liddy would have made the Feds drag him out of his house. https://t.co/86I6uaBJR3
— ConservativeNotCrazy (@IAMMGraham) January 31, 2019
The Midnight Lurker
“…and the attempted murder of Batman.”
Still makes me giggle.
Sebastian
Let me be the first:
Tick Tock Motherfuckers.
MattF
It’s the self-pity that’s really, really appalling.
Oh, poor Roger. He’s just serving his country. In his own inimitable way. Har de har.
Mowgli
Couldn’t happen to a nicer den of thieves, bandits and cut-throats. May Stone be their (literal) anchor.
Raven
When does a judge get to jump his ass for all this bullshit mouth runnin? What about the Feds, do they just have to take it?
hueyplong
This “Stone is going down and who knows who might accompany him” stuff is my kind of topic. Would love to see a shell-inhabiting reptile join him in the barrel at some point.
I could definitely see Stone squealing. He’s already moved from bragging bully to whining victim. Just a short step to snitch.
Raven
@MattF: Scooter.
marklar
Zeddy- “it hasn’t gotten as much play but you have to understand that Roger Stone is to the entire GOP what Michael Cohen was to Trump.”
Rainy Day Republicans Individual #1 and #35…..Everybody must get Stoned.
Sebastian
That explains why all those GOPers on TV are so concerned about Roger’s civil rights all of a sudden.
Booger
…worse than OBL? Is his skull still intact?
Ruckus
Treated worse than OBL?
Roger is still alive isn’t he?
OBL is still dead isn’t he?
neldob
But her emails!!! Hope I’m the first one for that. Also, I was recently told “she bribed the judge!”. yes, indeedy.
Raven
@Ruckus: He was more afraid than OBL.
dmsilev
So, Twitler sat down with his favorite FTNYT mouthpiece. Word-like sounds ensued:
Geoduck
@Booger: ..Or at the bottom of the ocean?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
PIGL
@Ruckus: A body can hope.
Afterthought: of the two men, Stone has done much more damage; probably PBL could be laid at his door if the truth of the past 40 years were only known in full.
Ian G.
That last Zeddy tweet is something I’ve been saying for a while, that nobody currently indicted and/or imprisoned who was in Trump’s circle would be if he had just lost the election. This truly is “The Producers” presidency. They picked the wrong candidate, the wrong message, the wrong campaign people….where did they go right? And everyone will end up in jail.
jl
@Booger: ” Is his skull still intact? ”
The skull itself or what’s inside? What’s inside hasn’t been intact for a long time. Not that he has anyone but himself to blame for that.
Another Scott
Report: Mueller Investigation Nearly Done With First Day Of Trump Campaign. Investigating all of Stone’s stuff could probably be interminable as well.
In other news, Adam bait: <a href="https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/Jan-Feb-2019/Delgado-Venezuela/"ArmyUPress:
Somehow, I don’t think that Maduro would be thinking about invading Guyana now, but it’s an interesting read. Note the context and the caveats.
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@PIGL:
Project-based learning?
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
Truly a heinous crime, in my opinion!
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Bah, sorry about the mangled link. I tried to edit it once and am worried about it being thrown in the dungeon if I try again.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
The Mound of Sound has a post up on “Roger Stone and the Geezer Factor”.
Basically none of these morons understand modern communications technology or that the internet is forever.
There the guys who send their angry rant, by hitting the “send all” feature.
Ken
Oh, it’ll probably turn out to be all p*rn.
Kiddie p*rn.
Filmed at a custom site in Central America.
Starring many prominent Republican politicians, staffers, pundits, and hangers-on.
RSA
@dmsilev:
I wonder if Mr. Trump has ever set the table in his entire life?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Should be noted that the poll gives no evidence– that my cold-addled eyes could see– of the percentage of Republicans, but Gallup’s tracking shows between 25 and 28% for the last year.
Wag
@Ruckus:
But Roger wishes he were dead
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: “I think I’ve set the table very nicely”?
What the actual fuck?
Duane
@Raven: In fairness to Roger Stone, people will piss on his grave.
Miss Bianca
@Ian G.:
“Hit it!”
Prisoners of love/Blue skies above…
MattF
@Miss Bianca: It’s the four Bs. Bullshit, Bluster, Bullying, and being an asshole.
dmsilev
@Miss Bianca: Guessing, one of his minions used the phrase and it stuck in his brain.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@dmsilev: Next he’ll be telling us he made it up. What was the phrase he did that with? Some cliché that he claimed he made up?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “prime the pump”, IIRC. And I think there are others
Jay
@Another Scott:
Neo-Con’s have been flogging this forever.
dmsilev
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Speaking of making stuff up, here’s another excerpt:
I suppose it’s possible that the intel chiefs nodded and told Trump that yes, yes, it totally was Fake News that they had called him a moron by implication.
Ruckus
@Raven:
He has good reason to be afraid. OBL only got less than 4000 people killed by himself, Roger has helped asswipes get elected for 40 yrs and that has caused a lot more people to get dead than OBL ever dreamed of.
Mary G
Cory Booker is getting ready to announce. He wanted to wait for Black History Month. It’s nice to have so many great choices to pick from.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
SIR ALERT! Daniel Dale says it’s his biggest tell. I’m surprised he didn’t say they had tears in their eyes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes! Prime the pump.
@dmsilev: I saw that. Who ya gonna believe? Trump or your lying eyes.
Ruckus
@RSA:
drumpf has set at the table plenty.
Ruckus
@Wag:
There are vays to make such things happen……..
ETA, that’s not a spelling error, say it out loud.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard also referred to one of his projects as being “very cool and very legal”. Nobody normal talks like that.
Amir Khalid
There was a time not so long ago when even giant corporations didn’t have terabytes of data, let alone individual mob bagmen. I suspect investigating Stone’s data might take up the careers of quite a few FBI agents.
Amir Khalid
Oh, and greetings to all from a sunny February in tropical KL.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
checked Dale’s twitter feed to see if he put up a Sir! Alert, but i found this
Amir Khalid
@Mike in NC:
Which must mean the project is sordid beyond imagining, and at least a little hinky legality-wise.
lgerard
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
he was also the first person to discover that Lincoln was a republican
Aleta
PIGL
@Ken: It would come as no surprise. These people are creepy as fuck. See also “it’s always projection”
Frankensteinbeck
@hueyplong:
We have heard absolutely nothing suggesting that Mueller has sights on McConnell, and everyone else so far has been an expected target. I personally think McConnell is smart enough to have not left enough evidence lying around of prosecutable crimes for him to be in trouble.
But I would love to be wrong, because nothing would help our democracy more than throwing McConnell in jail.
Mike in Pasadena
Wonder how many Republican politicians are wetting their pants right now?
Aleta
My dog, just the names and the seating charts at the inaugural dinners and luncheons … and those were the people out in the open.
scav
Ah, he’s thrown tepid chain hamburders all over that flat thing. Table set once again!
Jeffro
I’m heading to bed after I take the dog for one last walk in the Arctic tundra, BUT: I just wanna say, Marc Thiessen has written the most dishonest, most hack-o-riffic column that he’s ever written in his life for tomorrow’s Post. Utter scum. Did you all know that the Dems have swung SO FAR LEFT that Howard Schultz is doing them a favor by running as a blessed centrist and jeebus I sure hope he helps the dirty hippies see the error of their ways before it’s too late?
Where. Is. My Bat?
plato
The rapid normalization of totus thug’s dose of daily lies by the corrupt and complicit media is the reason why his cabal of these traitors are still mouthing off on the same media outlets.
Aleta
A reply:
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Why weren’t the FBI agents required to read Stone his Miranda rights?
plato
@Mike in Pasadena: None. Going by their open arrogance and defiance so far.
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro:
I haven’t been keeping up with his writing of late. Is there some other kind of column that Thiessen writes?
hueyplong
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I think the point being made is that reading rights only relates to use of statements made while in custody. To my knowledge, no one has said Stone made any statements to the FBI during or after his arrest.
rikyrah
@Mary G:
What is his base?
rikyrah
The tweets in this post are hilarious ?
Steeplejack
@Frankensteinbeck:
As Kingsley Amis wrote in The Anti-Death League, “Effective concealment conceals the fact of concealment.”
McConnell is such a big fish, and so competent in his villainy, unlike the bumbling Trump mob, that it would seem crucial not to give him any warning or a chance to take countermeasures. Hence silence from the Mueller camp.
Because McConnell is not dumb, he probably has taken steps to protect himself anyway, but it is to be hoped that he can’t erase or hide all the evidence. And there is probably some body of evidence, perhaps mostly electronic, that Mueller or the intelligence agencies already hoovered up before McConnell took action.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@dmsilev:
Will he actually declare a national emergency? I know my people like my father (he hates Trump) will see that as Trump outmaneuvering Pelosi.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
inventing nutty conspiracy theories about members of the family…. tomorrow’s Friday, right? Anybody think DJTJ is packing his go bag tonight?
John Revolta
@Frankensteinbeck: We have heard absolutely nothing period. Compared to a clam, this guy’s an erster.
The reason Yertle, and Stone, aren’t booking flights for parts unknown right now is that they really believe that they aren’t gonna pay any consequences for all the crap they’ve done. (And they may well be right. Look at all the past instances they can point to.)
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: When I was at an event in my office building lobby this afternoon, CNN was on (no sound.) Their headline under Trump speaking was pretty snarky:
“After speaking with intelligence chiefs, Trump now says they were misquoted in their public testimony”
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Miranda rights are only applicable to protect testimony produced under in custody interrogations,
Stone was arrested on a Grand Jury warrant and was not interrogated by the FBI, he had a custody hearing infront of a judge.
Redshift
@Frankensteinbeck: We may have to settle for McConnell getting hit the same way as the NRA – by having his laundered Russian campaign cash cut off, damaging a big reason for people to stay loyal.
Jay
@John Revolta:
The reason that they arn’t packing bags for parts unknown is that the non-extradition countries that would take them would either bury them, or burn them.
None of the places filled with gullible rich white men will take them.
They have no place to run to.
Jeffro
@Amir Khalid: But…but…this is the MOSTEST! Hack-o-riffic, that is…
Omnes Omnibus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Police are only required to mirandize a suspect if they intend to interrogate that person while s/he is in custody.
lgerard
@Steeplejack:
i finally found someone else who read that book!
Sebastian
@Frankensteinbeck:
You might be right about him not being a target or in the sights but who knows who gets caught in the dragnet. McConnel has definitely Russian exposure. And then there is hia wife …
Mai Naem mobile
Wonder if Stone is going to end up being a victim of Putin. I don’t really care so you?
PaulWartenberg
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s not a requirement for the Miranda rights to be read during the arrest proper. Law enforcement offers up the Miranda stuff right before the interrogation part back at their offices, usually in the form of a signed document.
We’ve developed the myth that you are read your rights right at the moment the cops nab you because the TV shows and movies would have them do the reading right then and there for story pacing (SEE Law and Order episodes especially the ones with Lenny Briscoe). Audiences don’t get the satisfaction of arrests if the suspect has to get dragged back to the station and required to sign a sheet of paper.
PaulWartenberg
@Mai Naem mobile:
Stone may have more on Republicans than he has on Putin. If Stone has to worry about anybody it’s gonna be Mitch McConnell.
sdhays
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: There’s a reason he hasn’t done it yet, despite it seeming very attractive to a lazy man with delusions of dictatorship like him – it’s because the likelihood of success isn’t very good and would likely split his supporters in Congress. With Democrats controlling the House, any declaration of a national emergency at the border will face an immediate resolution vetoing the declaration, and Senate Republicans will have to go on record as supporting it or vetoing it. That is NOT a vote they want to take, and I don’t think it’s a vote the ASSet would win.
And having Congress veto the President would be an extraordinarily pathetic look for Trumpov.
Aleta
(WaPo) How Trump defenders try to play down charges against his associates
StringOnAStick
@PaulWartenberg: reminds me of when my dad told me that the way to thaw frozen digits is to rub snow on them, based of course on an old Ronnie Reagan B movie scene. Exactly why would rubbing snow on frostbitten fingers and toes warm them up? It doesn’t but it looks on screen like something aggressive is being done, thus problem is heroically solved.
plato
@Aleta: Shorter rethugs: When we do it, nothing is a crime and none is a criminal.
Mai Naem mobile
@PaulWartenberg: Putin just comes across as a ‘ kill you with a neurotoxin drug’ guy. The GOP come across more like a ‘STFU and we’ll give you a pardon and golden parachute’ group
frosty
@Jay:
Hell, I’m the same age as some of these losers and I understand that. My rule of thumb is “Don’t email anything that you don’t want somebody in Taiwan to read.”
Or better, Mafia rules:
Don’t email if you can write.
Don’t write if you can phone.
Don’t phone if you can talk.
Don’t talk if you can nod.
Don’t nod if you can wink.
Aleta
@dmsilev: Is the administration (JD or WH lawyers?) often told a day or so in advance of an indictment? If so, they ought to put Trump and handlers under a gag order from the time they’re informed until it’s handed down. I’m tired of what seem like preemptive statements, if that’s what they are.
zhena gogolia
@lgerard:
Strangely enough, I read it too, but I do not remember a single thing about it. Lucky Jim, on the other hand, I have memorized.
satby
@Amir Khalid: at 10:30 at night it was the warmest it’s been in two days: -2°F.
If it wasn’t night I’d be tempted to look for a bikini and catch some rays.
frosty
@RSA:
Probably at least once at that military school his father dumped him at (IIRC).
Vhh
@Jeffro: I checked on Thiessen via Wikipedia. He was employed by Manafort’s and Stone’s ratf**king firm, back under W, was a HUGE supporter of FBI and CIA investigations, including torture.
Millard Filmore
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Over at emptywheel.net there were a few comments along the lines of “they don’t need anything he might have to say.”
lgerard
@zhena gogolia:
Lucky Jim is certainly a classic, with one of the best descriptions of a hangover ever. After not reading much fiction for the last 20 years or so i recently had the desire to reread a few of his older books and was nonplussed to discover that the Boston Public Library has neither Girl, 20 nor I Want It Now.
zhena gogolia
@lgerard:
“the fluttering mantelpiece”
Aleta
@plato: It’s been said that it was Cheney who leaked of the identity of a covert CIA agent and he made Libby take the fall. “Nothing is a crime and none is a criminal” was Cheney’s sacred text.
lgerard
@zhena gogolia:
a small animal had used his mouth for a urinal, and then its mausoleum
Keith P.
@Aleta: Dershowitz….last case I recall him doing was a bang up job defending Mike Tyson of rape. Trump is gonna have to dig up Matlock to add to his legal dream team
Dmbeaster
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The warning has to be given in order to make use of anything the accused then says in response to questions. If you are not asking questions, you do not have to give the warning. If the accused runs his mouth because like Stone, he cannot shut his trap, those statements are admissible even though no warning was given, although its a fact question whether or not questions were asked. And the warning can be given later – not at the time of arrest, because the arresting officers may have no role in asking questions.
Bill Arnold
That’s a lot of devices and data, and what looks like some obfuscation (with possible intent to mislead) by Mueller & team about what they have (and when they obtained it). If they’re fishing for specific items of information, unless they get lucky they will require a lot of effort and time to find them. Also, if Stone had any competent comsec tech advice and followed it, they might be facing a wall[1] of encryption and secure deletions. If he was disciplined about it (hah!) then it would be harder. He’s had time to deal with his own devices at least.
I’d missed this emptywheel piece in December. Some moderately informed speculation, that the investigators were perhaps able to do data recovery on seized, then hacked phones(?), to recover deleted (including auto-delete) Signal[2] texts.
The Significance of the James Wolfe Sentence for Mike Flynn, Leak Investigations, and the Signal Application
This doesn’t speak to encrypted voice calls, though. (Note this is about Wolfe, not Stone. And more at the link.)
[1] A real (metaphorical) wall, not a DJT god-emperor’s-new-wall :-)
[2] I’m a Signal fan, FWIW. Would take additional measures though if deeply concerned about surveillance. e.g. encrypted voice calls, perhaps fork the open source code and set up a private server for establishing connections e.g. in some place that genuinely cares about privacy, perhaps other measures.
CatFacts
Luckily for the FBI, it’s not nearly as hard as it used to be to sift through mountains of electronic documents to find specific pieces of information. I don’t do corpus linguistics myself, but I know people who do, and there’s a lot of software out there that’s specifically made to scan through lots of documents and flag selected words or phrases. And a lot of people who know how to use it very efficiently.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay: @Omnes Omnibus:
@Dmbeaster: @PaulWartenberg:
Thanks!
The Pale Scot
Comments in Natasha Bertrand’s tweet has a link to an article I missed,
The story of those two and C.Black starting a lobbying firm after working in Reagan’s campaign
J R in WV
@ Goku :
They have to do that before they can interrogate or interview him, if they plan to use any of his statements in court/grand jury. So, not until they’re ready.
David Evans
@zhena gogolia: I’ve read those two, and most of his novels, but the one that sticks with me is The Green Man.