Roger Stone, who left court yesterday during jury selection, claiming to have food poisoning, is back at court today for his trial, where opening statements are expected this morning. He was in front of me in a security line. Asked how he is feeling, Stone said "better."
Stone was with his wife, lawyer Bruce Rogow, a pastor of some kind and another woman. Roger looked sorta haggard.
Juror selection for Stone’s trial is being completed now, but this part of the trial is not being streamed to a media room and annex, meaning the press can’t cover it live.
This restriction, or at least a failure to communicate it beforehand, distressed reporters from outlets who have to cover this stuff live. But Judge Jackson seems intent on going all out to limit info on jurors' identity. And she has good reason. mediamatters.org/roger-stone/al…
Stone jury is seated. Three men, nine women. Nine members are white, we're told.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson just ordered the jury brought in. She also admonished everyone against trying to talk to or report on members of the jury. Jackson said that a report yesterday on one potential juror "fortunately" was "riddled with inaccuracies."
Jury is sworn in.
Opening statements starting now in the Stone trial. Prosecution is going first.
Quick summary of case v. Stone: "The defendant Roger Stone, repeatedly lied under oath to congressional committee and then tampered with a witness to cover up his tracks."
Lead prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky: The evidence in this case will show the Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad. The truth looked bad for the Trump campaign and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump."
Zelinsky says 2 day s after the DNC announced in June 2015 that it had been hacked, Stone spoke to Donald Trump on the phone. Stone talked again to Trump on July 31 for 10 minutes. An hour later, Stone emailed Jerome Corsi to ask him to go to London to speak to Assange.
"The very next day ,Roger Stone emailed the Chairman of the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort. Roger Stone wrote to Manafort on August 3 that he had an idea, in his words, to 'save Trump’s ass.' And he asked that Manafort call him."
Stone also told Steve Bannon, CEO of the Trump campaign, that time was running out, but he “knew how to win this but it’s ain’t pretty."
Zelinksy says Stone falsely tried to pin Credico as his WL intermediary. "If you are looking for someone to pin something on, Randy Credico is a pretty good pick," Zelinsky says, noting Credico is open about struggles with alcohol, that he's excitable and that Stone knew that.
Stone "Bannon had been talking all summer long about WikiLeaks [and] about Julian Assange," Zelinsky says. "Stone had been telling Bannon the same thing he had been telling other people publicly, that he had an intermediary."
