The Trump Presidency
Roger Stone

Roger Stone’s arrest and indictment, explained ... The longtime Trump adviser has been in Mueller’s crosshairs for some time.

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Roger Stone’s arrest and indictment, explained The longtime Trump adviser has been in Mueller’s crosshairs for some time.


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Part of The Vox guide to Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation

Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was arrested in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation early Friday morning at his home in Florida. He was indicted for obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering. You can read the full indictment at this link.

The charges focus on Stone’s alleged lies to the House Intelligence Committee during 2017 about his statements about and efforts to get in touch with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. The indictment also conspicuously mentions that “a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone” about what WikiLeaks might have on Hillary Clinton.

The indictment does not, however, attempt to explain why Stone would lie about this or lay out a definitive story about what did happen between Stone and WikiLeaks back then. Stone also has not been charged with any criminal activity occurring during the campaign.

The hacking and leaking of Democrats’ emails has long been a central part of the Mueller investigation. Mueller has charged several Russian intelligence officers with the hacking. Eventually, WikiLeaks posted many of these emails publicly — the Democratic National Committee’s in July 2016, and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s in October 2016.

See the moment Roger Stone was arrested by the FBI

Various statements by Stone, including many public ones, raised questions about whether he had some sort of inside knowledge about WikiLeaks or its plans. He has denied having any such knowledge — and claimed that anything he knew about WikiLeaks came through an intermediary, radio host Randy Credico.

Now Stone has been accused of lying about this to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017, and trying to tamper with a witness — Credico — so that he would stick to that false story.

The background

Roger Stone at his office in Florida in 2014. (He’s really into Nixon.) 

Roger Stone at his office in Florida in 2014. (He’s really into Nixon.) Carl Juste/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty

A longtime GOP operative whose reputation for dirty tricks reaches all the way back to Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, Stone has been an on-and-off adviser to Trump since the mid-1980s. That same decade, Stone also co-founded a famous lobbying firm with Paul Manafort.

When Trump finally did end up running for president in 2015, Stone was part of his initial campaign team. He only lasted a little over a month, though — Stone departed the operation in early August after clashing with other staffers. However, he remained in Trump’s orbit and, to some extent, in communication with the candidate himself afterward. In fact, he helped engineer Manafort’s hiring on the campaign.

As the 2016 general election neared, Stone frequently spoke about the hacks and leaks of Democratic emails and other documents. In August, he praised “Guccifer 2.0,” the online persona taking responsibility for hacking the DNC (Russian intelligence officers reportedly run the account). He also claimed that he had “communicated” with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which had posted the DNC emails. And he repeatedly hinted over the next two months that more damaging Clinton material was coming.

Only after the election, though, did we start learning more details about his private communication with both entities.

Roger Stone surreptitiously communicated with both Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks

The new indictment claims that after July 22, 2016, “a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks “had regarding the Clinton Campaign.”

Around this time — in late July and early August 2016 — Stone also had a set of communications with conservative author Jerome Corsi, regarding getting in contact with Assange.

On July 25, 2016, Stone emailed Corsi, telling him to “get to” Assange in the “Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending” WikiLeaks “emails.” Corsi forwarded this email to an “overseas individual.”

On July 31, 2016, Stone wrote to Corsi that Ted Malloch, a Trump campaign adviser, “should see” Assange.

On August 2, 2016, Corsi emailed Stone claiming knowledge of Assange’s plans. “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back [from a trip in Europe]. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging..” Corsi continued: “Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke — neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for [Clinton] Foundation debacle.”

Not long afterward, on August 4, Stone emailed fellow ex-Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, “I dined with Julian Assange last night.” (When the email became public long afterward, Stone said this was just a joke.)

The day after that email, on August 5, Stone penned a Breitbart article in which he took Guccifer’s story about being a lone hacker who stole the DNC emails at face value and argued that Russia probably wasn’t responsible. He also tweeted that “Julian Assange is a hero.”

Three days later, on August 8, Stone started publicly claiming to have inside information. “I actually have communicated with Assange,” he said. “I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.”

A few days after that, Stone began tweeting at, and eventually DMing with, Guccifer 2.0 (who, again, has reportedly been identified as a Russian intelligence officer). Some of these DMs later leaked, leading Stone to post what he claimed was their full exchange. But the posted messages were mainly friendly chitchat and not particularly substantive. (They are not mentioned in the new indictment.)

On August 21, Stone tweeted an odd prediction: “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary.”

Many would later point to this — which came months before the Podesta emails became public — and ask whether Stone had advance knowledge of the Podesta email leak. (Stone himself would later claim that since this came in the midst of a scandal surrounding Stone’s old friend Paul Manafort’s Ukraine work, he was merely predicting “Podesta’s business dealings would be exposed.”)

As October began, Stone took on a new role — as WikiLeaks’ hype man. He again claimed inside knowledge, saying a “friend” of his met with Assange and learned “the mother lode is coming Wednesday.” He tweeted: “Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.” And when nothing came on Wednesday, Stone tweeted, “Libs thinking Assange will stand down are wishful thinking. Payload coming. #Lockthemup.” Assange published the Podesta emails two days later.

Immediately, there were questions about whether the garrulous operative had been involved, which eventually spurred WikiLeaks to tweet that the group “has never communicated with Roger Stone.” The Atlantic later reported that Stone DMed the WikiLeaks Twitter account afterward, complaining that they were “attacking” him. “The false claims of association are being used by the democrats to undermine the impact of our publications,” WikiLeaks responded. “Don’t go there if you don’t want us to correct you.” Stone shot back: “Ha! The more you ‘correct’ me the more people think you’re lying. Your operation leaks like a sieve. You need to figure out who your friends are.”

Stone is actually being charged for his alleged efforts to obstruct the investigation

The actual charges against Stone, however, don’t allege that he committed any crimes during the 2016 campaign. They allege, instead, that he attempted to obstruct investigations into what happened afterward.

By 2017, Stone was putting forward an apparent cover story for whatever actually did happen in 2016. He was insisting that everything he heard about Assange and WikiLeaks came from just one person — talk radio host Randy Credico, whom he called his “intermediary.”

So when Stone went to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in closed session in September 2017, he stuck to that story. Mueller has indicted Stone on five counts of false statements during that testimony.

Stone was also charged with witness tampering for his efforts to get Credico to stick to his false story. “‘Stonewall it. Plead the fifth. Anything to save the plan’ ... Richard Nixon,” Stone texted Credico at one point. “If you turned over anything to the FBI you’re a fool,” he later said.

And eventually, when Credico wouldn’t stick to the story, Stone got angrier. “You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends,” he wrote to Credico in April 2018.

The indictment doesn’t answer what happened in 2016

Overall, the indictment makes the case that Stone was lying about the topic of WikiLeaks, but it does not seem to tell a full story about did happen between Stone, WikiLeaks, and the various intermediaries in 2016.

There’s ample documentary evidence presented to make the case that Stone’s story about Credico being his only contact with Assange was indeed false. And there are allusions to what Stone was allegedly telling top members of the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks’ plans.

But it does not read as any sort of final effort from prosecutors to sum up what did happen back then. That could still come later — or perhaps they don’t have sufficient evidence to show it.