Roger Stone trial closings arguments were today - jury deliberations start on Thursday 11/14

[iluvtennis]

What Roger Stone's trial revealed about Donald Trump and WikiLeaks
Trump and his aides apparently knew more about WikiLeaks’ plans than they have let on, raising questions about the president's claims to Robert Mueller.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/12/roger-stone-trial-donald-trump-wikileaks-070368

The Roger Stone trial is no longer just about Roger Stone.

Despite the profane Stone texts and caustic friendships that have dominated chatter about the case, the Republican provocateur’s court battle will likely be remembered for something far different: It revealed that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign aides knew more about WikiLeaks’ plans than they have let on, and the president may have later misled Robert Mueller about it.

Buried amid days of blasphemy and bombast were quieter new details that collectively showed Trump and his aides discussed WikiLeaks with Stone months earlier than anyone has acknowledged. The revelations have immediately raised questions about Trump’s claims — made months later under oath to the special counsel — that he did not recall any such conversations with Stone.

According to direct testimony and dozens of email and text messages introduced over the last week, the Trump campaign got its first heads up about Julian Assange’s ability to upend U.S. politics as far back as April 2016. The timing is months earlier than any Trump aide has previously described, and months before WikiLeaks published its first cache of damaging materials that would go on to cripple Hillary Clinton’s White House bid.

Additionally, a wider cast of Trump aides participated in WikiLeaks strategy sessions than previously known as they mapped out an attack plan to take advantage of the hacked Democratic emails. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign CEO Steve Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller were all part of those broader discussions about how to best turn the WikiLeaks surprises into political gold.

Perhaps most politically damning, Trump himself discussed the matter with Stone during a phone call in the heat of the summertime general election campaign, according to testimony from former-Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates, who witnessed the call while riding with the GOP nominee from his namesake tower in Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport. While the testimony might not put Trump in any fresh legal peril, it has highlighted a potential contradiction in Trump’s written responses to Mueller’s team.

“I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with [Stone], nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign,” Trump wrote.

Of course, Mueller and his Justice Department supervisors had their reasons for holding back on the public release of so much WikiLeaks-related information before the Stone trial, which didn’t start until more than six months after the conclusion of the special counsel’s Russia probe. Namely, they didn’t want to damage the government’s case against the longtime GOP operative, meaning any references to their evidence were blacked out in the final Russia report.

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Feds’ closing argument: Roger Stone made the House Russia report ‘not accurate’
Prosecutors also implied that Stone’s misdirection caused special counsel Robert Mueller to potentially lose out on key evidence.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/fed-closing-argument-roger-stone-russia-report-not-accurate-070720

Roger Stone’s lies haven’t just put him at risk of being sent to federal prison.

They also caused lawmakers to produce an inaccurate report about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

That was part of the core message that federal prosecutors delivered Wednesday in their closing arguments in the trial of the longtime Donald Trump adviser who is fighting criminal charges of lying to lawmakers and tampering with a witness they tried to interview.

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Thursday morning in Stone’s case. But before the 12 Washington, D.C., residents start their deliberations, they got a final pitch from assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Kravis, who argued that Stone’s attempts to mislead the House Intelligence Committee caused the panel to produce a factually incorrect report.

“Stone not only tried, he succeeded in impeding the committee’s investigation,” Kravis said. “The committee report is not accurate.”

The prosecutor pointed to where the House panel declared in its March 2018 report that it “did not find any evidence contradicting Stone's claim” that everything he said when boasting about the damage to Hillary Clinton’s campaign came from publicly available information.

“No evidence? Really?” Kravis said. “How about that Aug. 2 email from Jerome Corsi?”

That’s a reference to a message Kravis shared with the jury that gets to the heart of the government’s case against Stone. The communication showed that Stone was in contact with the conservative author and conspiracy theorist who apparently had links to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through a conservative activist in England, Ted Malloch.

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Good articles.