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1/ The indictment of @StoneColdRoger has people talking about Frankie "Five Angels" Pentangeli. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pen…. This thread wonders out loud why it seems the prosecutors chose a relatively benign interpretation of this classic film reference. (1 of 10).
2/ Stone allegedly told "Person 2" that he should do a “Frank Pentangeli” to avoid contradicting Stone's testimony. assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5694…
3/ Frank Pentangeli is a character in the film The Godfather: Part II, a caporegime in the Corleone Family, who "testifies before a congressional committee and in that testimony claims not to know critical information that he does in fact know." But...
4/ But...that's the prosecutors' read on the Pentangeli reference. I can't help but think that a Frankie "Five Angels" reference could mean so much more. And it could be more sinister...
5/ In the film, Pentangeli is almost killed by rivals, and mistakenly believes Michael Corleone (Stone--in his own mind?) ordered the hit. But the most sinister interpretation of Pentangeli is this...
6/ Frankie "Five Angels" ultimately is persuaded by the Corleone family lawyer to commit suicide, rather than cooperate (further) w/ the govt, with the understanding that his family will be taken care of if he does it. Frankie then runs a hot bath and slits his wrists.
7/ So, is it possible that, to Roger Stone, doing a "Pentangeli" meant the extreme solution to cooperation? That Person 2 should kill himself rather than give harmful testimony? Pentangeli's "amnesia" in the film is a memorable scene--but so too is his suicide!
8/ It raises a question: why did the prosecutors choose the more benign interpretation of the Pentangeli reference, when a suggestion to commit suicide is far more damaging to Stone? This interpretation could be a threat of harm. Some thoughts...
9/ Among the possibilities: (1) no one on the Mueller team is familiar with Godfather II (not likely); (2) the undisclosed evidence suggests that Stone only persuaded Person 2 to forget or change testimony--not kill himself to prevent testimony (more likely).
10/ This may be over-scrutinizing the Frankie Pentangeli reference, but it's interesting that prosecutors included that classic movie reference in the indictment. If nothing else, it conjures up the aura of old-school mafia tactics--maybe that's enough. @NBCPolitics @NBCLatino
