So Roger Stone had a bit of a tantrum yesterday. He’s angry because he was assigned to a judge he doesn’t want. What’s really happening is that Rule of Law is colliding with Cult of Leadership.
1/ The court rules require the prosecutor, when filing an indictment, to notify the clerk if there’s a “related” case pending before the court.
Related cases are then assigned to the same judge for “case management and efficiency.”
2/ One way two cases can be related is if the evidence comes from the same wiretaps or search warrant.
When Special Counsel filed Stone’s indictment, he designated Stone’s case as related to the pending U.S. v. Netyksho—the Russian hacking case.
3/ The Netyksho indictment alleged that Russian military officials hacked the DNC, the HRC campaign, and other democratic orgs.
It also alleges that the Russian hackers conspired with persons “known and unknown to the grand jury” to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
4/ All the defendants in the Netyksho case are employed by Russian intelligence(GRU).
To begin with, Stone didn’t want his case designated as “related” to the Russian hacking case.
5/ Judge Amy Berman Jackson is the judge in the Netyksho case. She’s also the judge in Manafort’s case.
She made it clear that she’s not sympathetic to people who conspired with Russians.
He also didn’t want Judge Jackson.
6/ She talked about a “Russia conspiracy” between Kilmink and Manafort (on Aug. 2, 2016) and found that Manafort deliberately lied “to shield his Russian conspirator.”
She then said this raises “legitimate questions about where [Manafort’s] loyalties lie.”
7/ It’s easy to see why Stone doesn’t want her for his judge.
So he filed this doc, arguing that the cases are not related and that he should be randomly assigned a judge.
8/ He pointed out that the indictment doesn’t allege that he conspired with the Russians.
Moreover, he argues that his alleged crimes and the Russian hacking occurred a year apart, so the cases were “unlikely” to have arisen from the same wiretap or search warrant.
9/ Finally, he argued that his due process rights were violated when he was not randomly assigned to a judge.
Special Counsel (SC) filed this response, and revealed a few new facts.
10/ Special Counsel tells us that in fact, the evidence against Stone and the evidence against the Russians DID come from the same search warrants.
“In particular,” SC says, “evidence in this case was found in accounts that were subject to search warrants executed in Netyksho
12/ Oops. In other words, Mueller’s search warrants into the Russian hackers turned up evidence about Stone.
Special Counsel also argues that the cases are related because Stone is accused of obstructing an investigation into the Russian Netyksho hacking.
13/ The court ruled against Stone:
Stone then had his temper tantrum. He posted a picture of the judge with a crosshair in the background. He accused her of running a “show trial” on behalf of “Deep State Hitman” Mueller. (link in the next tweet)
Then he deleted the photo, and his lawyers filed an apology with the court.
But—like Flynn and Papadopoulous—Stone isn’t giving up his version of reality.
15/ Watching Stone’s version of reality (its a “show trial” put on by deep state hitmen) collide with truth reminds me of that remarkable exchange in the McCabe 60 Minute interview.
After Comey was fired, McCabe was summoned to a meeting with Trump.
16/ Trump offered a “gleeful” description of what happened with the firing of Comey. He said people at the FBI were happy he fired Comey because they didn’t like him or support him.
McCabe knew this wasn’t true. He also knew Trump expected him to “adopt” this falsehood.
17/ McCabe refused. He said, “No sir. That’s not true . . . ”
McCabe knew that he’d “given him the wrong answer” and that he’d soon lose his job because of it, but he wasn’t willing to lie to keep his job.
This fits with what we know of Trump.
18/ Trump creates fictions and expects people to accept his fictions as fact.
The portrait McCabe draws of Trump is not a bumbling fool, but an expert manipulator who knows how to subtly threaten and draw people into his web of lies. He entices. He threatens.
19/ This is the cult of leadership: “I am the leader. I will tell you what the truth is, and you will accept it.”
Now Stone is facing a judge who will not accept the Trump-Fox-GOP version of the truth.
Stone won’t give up his reality. He will present himself as a victim.
20/ Judge Jackson commented that Manafort has lived his entire life above the law. Stone has lived his entire life in a world of his own creation—and that world is about to collide with factuality in a court of law.
21/ ADDING: We have a new development. Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered a hearing Thursday on whether the conditions of his release should be modified or revoked based on his Instagram posting:
22/ One thing Stone criticized the judge for was incarcerating Manafort before his conviction. As if Judge Jackson invented pre-trial detention.
This gives him a few days, until Thursday, to contemplate what it’s like on the inside of a jail.
