Thread by @kpolantz

Since all eyes are on Roger Stone (+Trump) tonight, let's take a stroll through all the OMG, WHAT JUST HAPPENED moments in this case. Thread:

That Stone was a target of the Mueller investigation and why became clear in 2018.
Jerome Corsi played chicken with Mueller over the Stone/WikiLeaks situation, somehow avoiding a criminal charge.
They offered him a plea deal, Corsi refused to sign it cnn.com/2018/11/27/pol…

Armed FBI agents swarmed Stone’s house on a Friday in late Jan 2019 to make the arrest.

@cnnpolitics @davidgshortell @DelarosaGilAJAM were there w camera, after #cnnstakeout followed tips for months on Mueller’s grand jury activity

cnn.com/2019/01/25/pol…

The indictment: Stone wanted from WikiLeaks Dem emails stolen by Russia in 2016. Coordinated w Trump campaign looking to capitalize on leaks.
Stone lied to Congress about it, avoided giving up records and threatened an associate to keep the story straight cnn.com/2019/01/25/pol…

Remember Andrew Miller? Associate of Stone’s who fought a GJ subpoena for months, through contempt proceeding and appeals, and lost. Then testified about Stone and the 2016 convention even after the indictment cnn.com/2019/05/31/pol…

BTW, the special counsel’s office did have evidence of Stone communicating with WikiLeaks. Inconclusive how much he knew before leak publications in 2016, however.
Mueller never charged any Americans w hacking or conspiracy w Russia cnn.com/2019/02/15/pol…

Mueller documented alleged interactions between Stone and Trump in 2016 and raised the possibility Trump lied under oath, keeping his and Stone’s stories in line on interest to get to WikiLeaks.
Trump wasn't charged w obstruction--partly bc he couldn't be
cnn.com/2020/06/19/pol…

Back in the 2019 court proceedings, Stone posted a pic on Instagram of a federal judge with crosshairs behind her head.

This led to a gag order from the court

And yes, he took the stand to try to defend himself

cnn.com/2019/02/21/pol…

Stone had trouble abiding by the order. He shared social media posts about his case, texted a reporter, planned a re-release of his book cnn.com/2019/07/16/pol…

At the trial, Rick Gates, Steve Bannon and others testified.

Gates remembered, under oath, the car ride to Laguardia in 2016 where Stone and Trump talked on the phone, apparently about the leaks of Dem emails.
cnn.com/2019/11/14/pol…

This was the final argument DOJ prosecutors made to Roger Stone’s jurors asking for a conviction.

An unforgettable closing. "Truth matters."

https://twitter.com/kpolantz/status/1195019553039933440?s=20

Jury decided: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty on lying. Guilty on obstruction. Guilty on witness tampering.

Meanwhile, Trump was tweeting about a double standard cnn.com/2019/11/15/pol…

Trump attacked the foreperson on Stone’s jury. This line of attack has formed the basis of appeals Stone is still pushing in court.

cnn.com/2020/02/21/pol…

Trump wasn’t alone--it was part of a campaign of intimidation and harassment of jurors, from Fox News to the President, Judge Jackson said.
She brought back jurors to attest to their impartiality under oath, reality TV-surprise-style.

cnn.com/2020/02/25/pol…

All of Stone’s jurors later wrote to the court they wanted their privacy and feared for their safety. Some got mysterious phone calls, postcards from strangers

cnn.com/2020/04/16/pol…

Facebook kicked Stone off Instagram and pulled 100+ associated social media accounts this week

cnn.com/2020/07/08/tec…

Facebook had taken notice after Mueller looked into computer crimes related to Stone–including many that were never charged.
One allegation: Stone orchestrated fake online accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media in 2016
cnn.com/2020/04/28/pol…

Back to court: The wind up to Stone's sentencing was wild.

All 4 prosecutors on the case quit when AG Barr overrode/ softened their recommendation for Stone, which was in line with DOJ policy toward defendants cnn.com/2020/02/11/pol…

This launched quite the backlash for Barr, including the first round of several open letters from former officials condemning Bill Barr’s leadership at DOJ cnn.com/2020/02/16/pol…

The prosecutor who stepped in for them at the sentencing had to walk back much of Barr’s legal reasoning. “This prosecution is righteous,” he told the judge. cnn.com/2020/02/20/pol…

The first chair prosecutor at Stone’s trial, Jonathan Kravis, called Barr’s decision to lighten the Department's position in the Stone case “an abdication of the commitment to equal justice under the law”
His @washingtonpost op-ed: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

Stone’s lead prosecutor from the Mueller team, Aaron Zelinsky, testified to Congress that political influence to cut Stone a break came from the top of the DOJ.

Zelinsky had also taken Stone to trial then resigned over the sentencing walkback cnn.com/2020/06/24/pol…

I'll end with this, the words of the federal judge who handled more on the Mueller cases than any other court.
"He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the President. He was prosecuted for covering up for the President"
cnn.com/2020/02/20/pol…