Thursday, December 1, 2016

Campaign adviser Roger Stone makes the most absurd Trump-related comment yet, claiming recount increases odds of Hillary Clinton being prosecuted


Roger Stone and Donald Trump
(From freedomdaily.com)
Of all the stunning statements made by and about President-Elect Donald Trump, the worst might have come earlier this week when a key Trump adviser indicated he had no knowledge of, or respect for, the rule of law.

Roger Stone, in so many words, said he has no regard for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and for the ideals of the American justice system. If one is to assume that Donald Trump shares those views, our country could be in for a period of unimaginable darkness for the next four years -- or longer.

What exactly did Stone say? He said the Hillary Clinton campaign's decision to join the Green Party's recount effort in three swing states increases the likelihood of Clinton being prosecuted. Here are details on the comments, as reported at The Hill:

A longtime ally of President-elect Donald Trump says the Hillary Clinton campaign joining recount efforts increases the chances that Clinton will face criminal prosecution.

I think Hillary increases her chances of prosecution by acting this way,” Roger Stone said Monday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.”

We should note that Stone long has been seen in political circles as somewhat of a loon. He got his start in politics as a dirty trickster for Richard Nixon, and The Daily Beast has described him as a "self-admitted hit man for the GOP." But Stone hardly is an outsider or a lightweight. He largely is credited with creating the "Brooks Brothers riot," which stopped the Miami-Dade recount during the 2000 presidential election and helped give us eight years of George W. Bush.

To hear a guy with that kind of clout -- and with the ear of the incoming president -- say that participating in a recount makes it more likely Hillary Clinton will be prosecuted . . . well, it makes one wonder if Stone (or Trump, for that matter) ever took a seventh-grade civics class.

Those of us who did take such a class know a little bit about the quaint notions of due process and equal protection that are found in the 14th Amendment. We know that, at least in theory, all of us are to be treated equally under the law -- and any prosecution is to be based on probable cause that an individual committed a crime, not on her support for a recount that might determine whether our election system was compromised.

Trump recently has backed off his campaign statements that he would prosecute Clinton if he was elected -- supposedly over an alleged e-mail scandal in which the FBI twice has released statements that it could find no criminal wrongdoing. A Politico article about the Stone comments, indicates Trump was on thin legal ice all along:

It would be a major breach of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House for the president to order the prosecution of any individual as a means of political retaliation. (The FBI recommended against bringing charges against Clinton for her use of a secret email secretary of state in July and reaffirmed that decision a few days before the election.)

Still, Trump’s senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, also seemed to draw a connection between the recount effort and the prosecution question during a TV interview on Sunday.

He’s been incredibly gracious and magnanimous to Secretary Clinton at a time when, for whatever reason, her folks are saying they will join in a recount to try to somehow undo the 70-plus electoral votes that he beat her by,” Conway said to CNN’s Dana Bash.

To make this even more mind blowing, one of Trump's candidates to be secretary of state reportedly is Gen. David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to giving classified information to his mistress and still is on probation for that crime. This is an administration-in-waiting that suggests it would prosecute Hillary Clinton, against whom the FBI found no criminal conduct regarding classified information, while offering a cabinet post to David Petraeus, who has admitted to committing a crime involving classified information.

This is scary stuff, folks, especially for those of us who are wide awake in what seems to be a somnolent United States. Before even taking office, you have Trump and his acolytes essentially saying they support political prosecutions -- or, even worse, prosecutions based on whims or perceived affronts.

This suggests these people are not only dangerous, they are frightfully stupid. To go on television, time and again, to say they do not respect basic constitutional protections indicates they have no business serving in a position of governmental authority.

How dense are these people? Stone told The Daily Beast in 2008 that he had come to regret launching the Brooks Brothers riot. From the article:

“When I look at those double-page New York Times spreads of all the individual pictures of people who have been killed [in Iraq], I got to think, 'Maybe there wouldn't have been a war if I hadn't gone to Miami-Dade. Maybe there wouldn't have been, in my view, an unjustified war if Bush hadn't become president.' It's very disturbing to me."

It was so "disturbing" that Stone now supports Donald Trump? Sweet Jeebus, have mercy on what's left of our country!

We learn that Roger Stone has a sliver of a conscience, and at least mild concern about the U.S. engaging in unjustified wars. but he supports Donald Trump in 2016? The same Donald Trump who appears quite capable of launching unjust wars on a monthly basis, once he hits the Oval Office?

So Roger Stone perhaps has a conscience when it comes to war, but his conscience exits stage left when it comes to political prosecutions and respect for the constitution? A shaky conscience, with no brain, is . . . well, a bad combination.

Man, we are in for a heap of trouble. Our country probably has never seen dysfunction like Donald Trump, and acolytes such as Roger Stone, are about to unleash.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is worse, Trump or the people he chooses to have around him?

Anonymous said...

Roger Stone was conning the reporter with his alleged concern over deaths in Iraq war. A guy who supported both George W. Bush and Donald Trump has no conscience.

Anonymous said...

If Donald Trump really wanted to "drain the swamp," why would he associate with a "strategist" who worked for Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, etc.? More signs that Donald Trump is a con artist. Roger Stone is the worst of the worst.

Anonymous said...

Roger Stone built the swamp. He ain't about to drain it.

Anonymous said...

What a hoot if Trump nominates Petraeus, and a GOP Senate confirms him -- after all the bullshit about Hillary Clinton's e-mails and supposedly classified emails. You can't make this stuff up.

Anonymous said...

Trump and Stone. What a combination, like "Nightmare on Elm Street"

Anonymous said...

Jeff Sessions' problems with the KKK just won't go away:


http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2016/12/shelby_in_1986_ran_campaign_ad.html

legalschnauzer said...

Old KKK tales are soon going to be the least of Jeff Sessions' problems. Reporters in several locales are working on Sessions stories that could be highly explosive. I am one of those reporters. I've also got new breaking material on Bill Pryor. Stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

Here is all you need to know about Roger Stone, from Wikipedia:


"In 2007 Stone, a top adviser at the time to Joseph Bruno (the majority leader of the New York State Senate), was forced to resign by Bruno after allegations that Stone had threatened Bernard Spitzer, the then-83-year-old father of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer.[5][34] On August 6, 2007, an expletive laced message was left on the elder Spitzer's answering machine threatening to prosecute the elderly man if he did not implicate his son in wrongdoing. Bernard Spitzer hired a private detective agency that traced the call to Roger Stone's wife's phone. Roger Stone denied leaving the message, despite the fact that his voice was recognized, claiming he was at a movie that was later shown to have not been screened that night. Stone was accused on an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews on August 22, 2007, of being the voice on an expletive-laden voicemail threatening Bernard Spitzer, father of Eliot, with subpoenas.[35][36] Donald Trump is quoted as saying of the incident: "They caught Roger red-handed, lying. What he did was ridiculous and stupid."

legalschnauzer said...

Thanks for sharing, @1:49. Was not aware Stone was involved in taking down Eliot Spitzer. Very interesting. I'm guessing Stone wanted to protect the Wall Streeters that Spitzer was going after.

Anonymous said...

YW, LS. Here is more on why Stone went after Spitzer, from the Atlantic:


Stone had a motive to plant the story because he had been paid to embarrass the governor. First, former NY State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno hired Stone for $20,000/month to take on Spitzer. With Stone's help, Bruno turned everyone's attention away from his own corruption -- using state aircraft and vehicles to go on personal fund-raising trips -- and toward an attack on Spitzer for "spying" on Bruno. (The "spying" consisted of releasing public records of Bruno's state-paid travel.)

Anonymous said...

One can only imagine when this weakening damn collapses and all those claiming to have had no ideas, especially those in media for past so many years refusing to respond, ascending to media zeniths liken to New York Times reporter Campbell Robertson during 2005; but did his editors know he accepted fact based documented evidences exposing corruption and apparently was him, that chose not to go pubic with story after claiming to go see Bob Johnson with the Associated Press in Montgomery?

Anonymous said...

Great piece on Roger Stone, under headline, "A Comprehensive Guide To Trump Ally Roger Stone, A Racist, Sexist Conspiracy Theorist"

http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/05/09/comprehensive-guide-trump-ally-roger-stone-racist-sexist-conspiracy-theorist/210303


This guy could be Trump's Karl Rove.

Anonymous said...

http://imgur.com/gallery/ikbFXCw

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...

e.a.f. said...

I have concluded that Donald Trump is a vengeful individual and as such will go after Clinton if she does anything to "piss" him off. Its just how he rolls. His people are clear about it and everyone in the U.S.A. ought to be concerned. he will use his position as president to 'get even' with anyone who has ever stood in his way.

He's a loose cannon. He spoke to the President of Taiwan. the U.S.A. hasn't had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since about 1979. Now China might put it down to: the guy's an idiot and doesn't know what he is doing Or they may take it as a supreme insult and a new direction for the U.S.A.in diplomatic relations. Whether trump realizes it or not, the U.S.A. and a whole lot of other countries need China's assistance to keep North Korea in line. No small feat. Trump may not realize it but China hold the majority of American government debt. If they start to sell that off the USA will be in for a world of hurt. Then of course there was the little chat Trump had with the President of Pakistan, not good folks. They and India still don't get along. Then there was a casual chat with the British P.M.--clearly he does not understand how state heads travel==they don't just drop by.
he has invited the President of the Phillipines to visit the U.S.A. The guy who told people to feel free to shoot and kill drug dealers and users. So far approx. 3,000 people have been murdered. Its a great way to get rid of your opposition. You don't invite these types of people to visit your country, well unless you're a rogue nation or an idiot.

So good luck to America and the American people. Trump is well on his way to making the U.S.A. the laughing stock of the diplomatic world.