Fate of GOP strategist Stone is with jury
WASHINGTON — A federal jury deliberated Thursday without reaching a verdict on whether veteran GOP strategist Roger Stone impeded a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by repeatedly lying to conceal Donald Trump’s campaign outreach to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
The jury began deliberating a little before 10:30 a.m. and was released for the day a little after 5 p.m. They are set to return today at 9:30 a.m.
A longtime GOP operative whose friendship with Trump dates back four decades, Stone, 67, was charged with one count of obstruction, five counts of making false statements and one count of witness tampering stemming from his Sept. 26, 2017, appearance and written answers to the House Intelligence Committee.
He pleaded not guilty in January; the charges were the last ones filed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s separate investigation into Russian election interference. Stone’s defense argued that he had no “corrupt intent” when he withheld information about WikiLeaks, saying he viewed it as having nothing to do with Russia and outside the scope of Congress’ probe.
The charge of witness tampering carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and the other counts up to five-year terms, although a first-time offender would face far less time under federal sentencing guidelines.
Based on two questions Thursday afternoon, jurors appeared to be wrestling with one of five false statements Stone is alleged to have made: whether he lied while testifying to the committee about talk show host Randy Credico being his only intermediary with WikiLeaks.
Stone described his WikiLeaks source to the committee as a journalist and friend whom he would not name but then two weeks later identified Credico in a letter to the committee as his source. Prosecutors have said Credico was one of two go-betweens
Stone was using to reach WikiLeaks.
Stone did not testify during the trial, which began with testimony Nov. 6.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis told the jury of nine women and three men in closing arguments Wednesday that Stone lied to avoid adding to scrutiny of Trump and his campaign’s quest for Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence agencies and disseminated through WikiLeaks.
The prosecution has relied heavily on recordings and transcripts of Stone’s statements in public in August 2016 and later to committee investigators about having inside information about WikiLeaks’ plans gained through a trusted “mutual friend” or “intermediary” of its founder, Julian Assange. Prosecutors also have shown jurors texts and messages Stone exchanged with others whose help Stone sought in finding out more. Those are communications he told the committee did not exist.
“That’s the beautiful thing about this case. The paper here doesn’t lie,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marando said to jurors.
Defense attorney Bruce Rogow dismissed the charges as a fundamentally misguided and politically biased attempt to smear Stone for the campaign’s legal and natural opposition efforts.
“There was nothing illegal about the campaign being interested in information that WikiLeaks was going to be putting out,” Rogow said. “This is what happens in a campaign. … It happens in every campaign.”