FBI in helmets and with sharpshooters raided Stone’s home in Florida and arrested him on Friday. Stone opened the door with his glasses and was in pajamas....
He’s been indicted on seven charges ranging from obstruction of justice to making false statements and witness tampering.
Stone was released on a $250,000 bond. He served as an adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in the indictment, “After the July 22, 2016, release of stolen DNC 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.”
One of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that “the indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress.”
Stone’s own lawyer, Grant Smith, said in a statement, “They found no Russian collusion or they would have charged him with it. Roger Stone is vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collusion.”
Smith also claimed that Stone did not receive any of the materials WikiLeaks released prior to their publication.
Dershowitz called the Stone indictment “a typical Mueller indictment” that is “very heavy on stories” — while the indictment itself is filled with crimes “that occurred as a result of the investigation.”
“This is typical of Mueller. He has found almost no crimes that occurred before he was appointed special counsel,” Dershowitz noted. “He was appointed to special counsel to uncover crimes that had already occurred. He has virtually failed in that respect in every regard.”
“Almost all of his crimes that he has indicted people for are crimes that resulted from his investigation — false statements, tampering with witnesses, obstruction of justice,” Dershowitz continued.
After reviewing the list of several individuals Mueller has indicted, Dershowitz said, “It was very hard to find any American who had been charged with any crime that occurred before Mueller was appointed special counsel.”
Dershowitz also said it is “very significant” that Mueller’s indictment of Stone isn’t based on collusion accusations, though they are mentioned.
“So what’s happened here is these are crimes that are generated by the investigation. It doesn’t make them any less criminal, but it really means that there has been a failure to uncover the basic crimes for which he was appointed, namely before he was appointed,” Dershowitz emphasized.
But when Fox News’ Sandra Smith asked Dershowitz if he believed Trump should be “in any way be nervous about this,” he said there is cause for concern.
“There are two reasons why somebody might be nervous. Number one, whether [Trump] is implicated in the indictment itself. The answer to that is clearly no,” Dershowitz said. “The second is whether or not Stone has been indicted in order to squeeze him into testifying” against Trump, who is “the real target here.”
“So the president should be worried every time somebody who he knew or had any acquaintance with is arrested … That’s the tactic Mueller has used from day one,” Dershowitz said.
“It’s all too common among prosecutors, but it’s very disturbing,” he added. “What prosecutors do all the time is they threaten people. They say, ‘If you don’t testify, we are going to put you in jail, your family in jail.'”
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