Welcome To aBlackWeb

The Official World Politics Thread

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/steve-bannon-roger-stone-indictment-wikileaks

Steve Bannon Is High-Ranking Trump Campaign Official In Stone Indictment

Former Trump campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon appears in the indictment of GOP operative Roger Stone as a key campaign official with whom Stone communicated in the days before Wikileaks began releasing the hacked of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

An unnamed “high-ranking Trump Campaign official” emailed Stone in early October 2016, days before Wikileaks began to publish the emails, “asking about the status of future releases,” the indictment alleges.

Stone replied that Assange had a “erious security concern” but that Wikileaks would release “a load every week going forward.”

A person familiar with the matter confirmed to TPM that the indictment is referring to Bannon.

The messages also correspond to a November 2018 New York Times article that first published the exchange.

Bannon joined the Trump campaign as chairman in August 2016, after the departure of the now-convicted Paul Manafort.

Wikileaks began publishing the emails, stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s account, on Oct. 7.

“Shortly after Organization 1’s release, an associate of the high-ranking Trump Campaign official sent a text message to STONE that read ‘well done,'” prosecutors allege. “In subsequent conversations with senior Trump Campaign officials, STONE claimed credit for having correctly predicted the October 7, 2016 release.”


giphy.gif
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/stone-no-circumstance-plead-guilty-bogus-charges

Stone Speaks: ‘No Circumstances I Would Plead Guilty’ To ‘Bogus Charges’


Shortly after his court appearance Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Roger Stone spoke to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on “The Alex Jones Show”about the pre-dawn FBI raid and indictment, and his intention to fight the charges.

“These charges are thin to say the least, they’re trying to destroy me,” Stone said. “They have attempted to destroy me financially prior to this, and want me to plead guilty to bogus charges.”


“I contest all of them: in my testimony I made honest mistakes from my memory, or immaterial and inconsequential [misstatements],” he continued. “As long as I have breath in my body and a dollar to spend for a lawyer, I will not give up will fight. There are no circumstances I would plead guilty, no circumstances I would bear false witness against the President.”

“Once again, there is no evidence of Russia collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration,” he said. “I am not charged with doing anything inappropriate or illegal to assist in [Trump’s] election. I am being persecuted for being a 40-year friend and associate.”

Stone then shared the details of his day, starting with the FBI’s pre-dawn raid.

“At approximately the crack of dawn, around 6 AM, 29 FBI agents with 17 vehicles with all their lights flashing pounded on the door, woke my wife and I up and came to the door pointing weapons at me,” Stone said. “They took me outside where I was handcuffed.”

“They allowed me to dress and I was taken to an FBI processing facility in Miami-Dade county where I was fingerprinted,” he continued. “The FBI was exceedingly courteous and they treated me very well.”

“I was taken from there to the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale where I went to bond hearing wearing shackles on my hands and feet. A representative from the Special Counsel and U.S. Attorney and my attorneys jointly agreed to a $250,000 bond on which I will be released,” he said. “I had to wait in a holding cell for processing and I have now just come out.”

He then advertised his legal defense fund, asking for donations to help him defray his legal costs.
 
Back
Top