The are numerous attempts to make the election closer, few credible. Trump’s accelerationism is like Emilio LIzardo hitting a wall with a faulty overthruster in...
One of the many oddities of the now-terminated Robert Mueller probe into Russian election interference and its links to various members of the Trump...
The Trump crime spree continues and the carnage cannot be commuted because Roger Stone remains a convicted felon.
Trump’s minions have all but declared victory...
Robert Mueller is an American classic. He’s the man of high moral principle and few words that the likes of Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart used to immortalize on the silver screen. He and his investigation have been discounted, disrespected, blamed, and lied about by the right-wing media to exculpate both Donald Trump and his cronies, such as Michael Flynn, and now Roger Stone, whose 40 month prison sentence was commuted by Donald Trump yesterday. Apparently, Mr. Mueller has heard enough about how victimized Roger Stone was by himself and his investigation, because he penned an op/ed setting the record straight. Washington Post: …I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so. […] Following FBI Director James B. Comey’s termination in May 2017, the acting attorney general named me as special counsel and directed the special counsel’s office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The order specified lines of investigation for us to pursue, including any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign. One of our cases involved Stone, an official on the campaign until mid-2015 and a supporter of the campaign throughout 2016. Stone became a central figure in our investigation for two key reasons: He communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers. […] We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts. […] Congress also investigated and sought information from Stone. A jury later determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall Congress. The jury ultimately convicted Stone of obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress and tampering with a witness. Because his sentence has been commuted, he will not go to prison. But his conviction stands. That says it all. Read this entire opinion piece. It’s not that long and it lays out the framework of the investigation and how it proceeded, step by step. Special Counsel Mueller concludes that the men and women who worked on this investigation “made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law…[and acted]with the […]
