Thread by @MMineiro_CNS

Yesterday we heard from federal prosecutors that Roger Stone lied to Congress about communications with WikiLeaks because “the truth looked bad for Donald Trump.”

Picking back up with cont testimony from a Mueller team FBI agent at 9:30. @CourthouseNews
courthousenews.com/stone-trial-to…

@CourthouseNews Just passed alt-right social media activist Milo Yiannopoulos flying down the hall in a trench coat and gold sunglasses.

Asked him if he plans to be at the Stone trial everyday.

"Yes. I'm writing a book about it," Milo replied.

@CourthouseNews Govt is bringing back in 14yr FBI veteran Michelle Taylor, who served on Mueller's investigative team.

Roger Stone is present in the courtroom, gray suit, blue shirt, dark-rimmed round glasses just went on.

@CourthouseNews “I would like to move forward in time now and ask you some questions about January of 2017, so a few months later," DOJ attorney moving on from the Aug-Oct 2016 Stone texts that Taylor testified on yesterday.

Talking about the scope of the House Intel Comm investigation now.

@CourthouseNews Taylor reading Rules for House Intel Committee, known as HPSCI, including making regular reports on national security

"I'm going to direct your attention now to the next page of the exhibit ... to the paragraph little j1 .... can you read for us please J1, a,b,c and d?" DOJ Att

@CourthouseNews "I know I just asked you to read a mouth full there..."

DOJ attorney now asking Taylor to read off rules on commencing HPSCI investigations, to be approved by the chair in consultation with the ranking member.

@CourthouseNews Taylor reading email Credico sent Stone Jan 2017
"I have never had a conversation with Julian Assange other than my radio show. I have pieced it all together...so you may as well tell the truth that you had no back channel or there’s a guy you were talking about early August.”

@CourthouseNews Diving into letters that Stone's lawyer (seated right now in the courtroom) exchanged with HPSCI in 2017.

"Mr. Stone has no documents, records...that reasonably could lead to the discover of any facts within the investigation’s publicly-announced parameters.”

@CourthouseNews Listening now to recording from Stone's testimony to HPSCI:

“I have always made it pretty clear that I was referring to a source, that there was an intermediary.” -- Stone

“We’ll need to determine whether we can corroborate that through your intermediary.” -- Congressman

@CourthouseNews “So you have no emails to anyone concerning the allegations of hacked documents...or any discussions you’ve had with third parties about Julian Assange, you have no emails, no documents of any kind of that nature?" Adam Schiff

"Correct." Stone said under oath

@CourthouseNews But Taylor has a chart tracking all of Stone's comms (texts, Twitter DM, FB DM, Signal chats, emails) with Corsi June2016-Sep2017.

And DOJ followed up with a graph that tracks Stone's emails with Credico in Sep 2017.

@CourthouseNews Stone testified to Congress on 9/26/17 that Credico was "not an email guy" and refused to reveal the name of the radio host he said was his only go-between to Assange.

But that same day he EMAILED CREDICO 72 TIMES.

@CourthouseNews 🚨🚨DOJ evidence: colorful graph of Stone's calls Jan-Nov 2016

25 calls to Manafort
20 calls to Gates
2 calls to Bannon
2 calls to Trump

Data is from FBI-obtained phone records.

@CourthouseNews Judge Amy Berman Jackson follows up asking if the records show only the number of calls.

Fmr FBI Agent Michelle Taylor replies yes--"We don't know the content."

But Bannon & Gates are both going to testify against Stone, so stay tuned to find out what went down on those calls

@CourthouseNews Credico texted “My lawyer wants to see me today."
Stone replied “‘Stonewall it. Plead the fifth. Anything to save the plan’ Richard Nixon.”
-----
Frm FBI agent witness “It’s a paraphrase of something Nixon said to John Dean and John Mitchell during the Watergate investigation.”

@CourthouseNews Witness laying out The Godfather Part II references in Stone's text to Credico, tells him to pull a “Frank Pentangeli.”

FBI agent Taylor describes the scene for the jury...

@CourthouseNews “He says he [Pentangeli] doesn’t know anything about it. He’s pressed and he says ‘Oh, I was in the olive oil business with his father but that was a long time ago.’ The senators say he was contradicting a sworn statement he had already provided."

@CourthouseNews “Credico will take the 5th -- but let’s hold a day--" Roger Stone emailed Jerome Corsi 11/30/17

Corsi is the conspiracy theorist that spread the false claim that Pres Obama was born outside the US, something Pres Trump frequently espouses.

@CourthouseNews “Hey don’t worry about it. Trump will give you a pardon," Stone texted Randy Credico on 12/1/17

@CourthouseNews HPSCI report on Russian interference --- “Stone further disputed under oath that he had advance knowledge of the source or actual content of the Wikileaks disclosures.”

Goes on to say HPSCI couldn't dispute the claim made under oath but also that 5 witnesses invoked 5th Amend

@CourthouseNews Fmr FBI agent Michelle Taylor is done testifying, aprx 4 hours in all.

Toward the end she got to the crudest of the Stone/Credico texts and emails from Spring 2018.

@CourthouseNews Here's one of the more lightweight ones from May 2018:

“You’ve opened up to perjury charges like an idiot....you have 5 different versions...maybe you need to get into rehab and get that memory straight.” Credico

“You are so full of shit. You got nothing.” Stone

@CourthouseNews Back in April Stone was more, ehem, colorful:

“I know you are a dumb shit but...I have a Constitutional right to call you a lightweight cocksucker drunk asshole piece of shit and I just did.”

“I am going to take that dog away from you and there’s nothing you can do about it."

@CourthouseNews Breaking for lunch. Judge Jackson said she wants to talk with the courtroom security officer after the room empties but said it's an unrelated matter.

@CourthouseNews And we're back -- defense attorney at the lectern to start cross-examining former FBI agent Michelle Taylor, she served on Mueller's team.

@CourthouseNews Awkward start with Stone's attorney asking Taylor if she saw any of the evidence before her testimony but the questions were oddly phrased and the witness was puzzled, with Judge Jackson having to step in to smooth it out.

@CourthouseNews "I saw a form of this book before I came in here today but I did not create this book," Taylor said about the evidence binder.

@CourthouseNews Rogow telling Judge Jackson that he does not plan to pull the evidence including lots of Stone's texts back up on the screen as he questions Taylor...

So the jury won't see the exhibits again and will have to follow along with his references to the govt exhibit #'s

@CourthouseNews Stone's attorney looking over the different call logs with Taylor now:

"Do you have any knowledge of what was said in those calls?" Rogow

"I do not." Taylor

@CourthouseNews Rogow got underway briefly asking Taylor about conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi

Taylor said she knows about him.

“Do you know that he wrote a book that Hitler -- “ Rogow gets cut off by a DOJ objection.

Bench conference with the judge.

@CourthouseNews Yeah that attempt to discredit Corsi didn't fly.

Rogow is moving on now.

Just asked if it was illegal for Stone to email Manafort but stopped by another objection, can't ask witnesses to opine on the law.

Taylor responded to the question with wide eyes, mouth open.

@CourthouseNews “I ask you once again based on this email do you know whether or not Corsi ever saw Assange?" Rogow

“I do not.” Taylor

@CourthouseNews Slow going with this method -- they're trying to figure out how the evidence numbers correspond with the tabs in the govt's binder.

@CourthouseNews Rogow not starting off very strong -- drilling down on the idea that Taylor does not know if Corsi made contact with Assange but keeps getting tripped up.

"I'm sorry I keep making the same mistake. Tab 14 exhibit 38."

@CourthouseNews “Once again, do you have any idea of whether or not Mr. Corsi saw Mr. Assange?” Rogow

“Does she have personal knowledge of whether or not Mr. Corsi saw Mr. Assange, that’s what you have to ask.” Judge Jackson

“I do not and these messages do not mention Assange.” Taylor

@CourthouseNews Less than 30mins in and Judge Jackson just sustained the second objection to Stone's attorney's questions.

“You’re asking for hearsay. Can we all approach the bench?” Judge Jackson said.

@CourthouseNews And Rogow has skipped over the question, now asking about a selfie of Credico outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where Stone was hiding out

"Do you know whether Mr. Credico went inside of the embassy on the date of this photograph?" Rogow

"I don't believe he did." Taylor

@CourthouseNews Rogow asked about House Intel Committee investigations but got tripped up, again.

"Do you have a basis of knowledge to answer that question about House procedures?" Judge Jackson

"No, I don't." Taylor

@CourthouseNews So far no detectable theme to this line of questioning.

Rogow is moving slow and with the delay as Taylor finds the exhibits in the govt evidence binder it's hard to link the previous question to the one she is answering.

@CourthouseNews Rogow himself is taking a full 10-15 secs at times to find the exhibits in the binder before asking Taylor about the evidence, followed by a delay as she locates what he wants her to read off from the transcript of Stone's testimony.

This is painful to watch.

@CourthouseNews Defense is done with cross-examination.

Stone's attorney shockingly did not address the dozens of texts and emails that the DOJ presented as evidence of witness tampering under direct this morning.

@CourthouseNews Moving on to a brief redirect from the DOJ attorney, said he only need 3 mins or so with Taylor before she steps down from the witness stand.

That’s a wrap for the first witness.

DOJ attorney closed out having Taylor read a line from Stone’s testimony about “yet-unproven allegations” that Russia was involved in WikiLeaks hacking the DNC.

“Who is the person that spoke that line?”
“Mr. Stone.”
no further questions

Judge Jackson just schooled the defense on how painfully slow that cross-examination was, saying Stone's attorney tested the patience of the jury.

"Not every lawyer has to be as caffeinated as Mr. Kravis but the pacing of the cross was extremely slow."

Kravis is the DOJ lawyer

Judge Jackson just asked "Mr. Stone are you fully recovered?" (he dipped out of jury selection on Tue saying he had food poisoning) and he said yes.

Randy Credico is taking the stand.

DOJ attorney asks if Credico is testifying under subpoena, Credico says yes. Asks Credico about his employment:

“It seems like I am a professional witness.” Credico replied.

Credico testified that before Aug 23 2016 when Stone was a guest on his radio show, he never discussed Julian Assange with Stone.

We're listening to Credico's interview with Stone now...

“We have a mutual friend, somebody we both trust, and therefore I am a recurrent of pretty good information.”

"I believe that Mr. Arrange is in possession of all of the emails that Hillary’s hechwomen...they thought they erased all these emails. But they're not erased." Stone

DOJ asks Credico if he is that "mutual friend" Stone mentions on the radio show interview. Credico testifies, under oath, no.

And again denies he is the go-between to Assange...

“When you asked Mr. Assange on live New York City radio if Mr. Stone had a back channel, were you referring to yourself?” DOJ

Credico says no, with a slight laugh

Judge Jackson asks Credico to speak more clearly saying he's mumbling.

"I'm mumbley? Let me know if I do that again...I sound like one of those character's from Dick Tracey." Gets some water

Credico said he got good guests on his show after Stone came on as a guest.

Says he asked Stone “'What can I do in return?' What can I do as a quid pro quo, that’s going around these days.”

Credico texted Stone on Sep 18 2016 after the defendant asked him to get a message to the WikiLeaks head as Credico was reaching out to get Assange on his show.

“Just remember do not name me as your connection to Assange, you had one before that you referred to.”

Credico testifying that he had told Stone in 2016 that he would pass a message to Assange but never did.

“Fact of the matter is you got nothing to worry about because no one’s communicated directly with Assange except for on my radio show I just delivered a letter to him," Credico says reading from a text he sent Stone in Oct 15 2016.

same text thread Oct 15 2016

“I suggest we ‘stonewall it -- plead the fifth - anything to save the plan.’” Stone

“What plan” Credico

“Stop busting my balls” Stone

DOJ attorney brings up that Credico does impressions and the witness goes off saying "Would you like to hear some of them...I can do Bernie Sanders."

Judge says no

"Ok I won't do any voices, I promise."

We have hit the Godfather references and DOJ attorney is asking Credico to explain the texts with Stone

"You're tempting me to do the voice." Credico
"Sir if you could just answer the question." DOJ attorney
"We know you are a comedian, but this is serious." Judge

DOJ attorney is trying to keep the testimony moving steadily along through all this evidence--but Credico is quite a character and can't seem to suppress his comedian instincts.

“I have never had a conversation with Julian Assange other than my radio show. I have pieced it all together...so you may as well tell the truth that you had no back-channel or there’s a guy you were talking about early August," Credico reading text to Stone, this one 1/6/17

Credico said he checked back over all his communications and “I concluded I had no back channel communications with Mr. Assange."

Credico off the stand, partway through govt questioning.

Jury going home for the night.

Back tomorrow at 9:30 with continued testimony from Randy Credico.

DOJ telling the judge that there is probably about 45mins left under direct, then defense cross-exam.

"I think you need at least one more person teed up to go....someone whose testimony is likely to be short."

First big witness took the stand today, radio show host Randy Credico, setting off laughs in the courtroom. More fun to come tomorrow picking back up at 9:30AM with his continued testimony. @CourthouseNews
courthousenews.com/comedian-denie…