Donald Trump Was “Colluding” with Roger Stone on Four Different Direct Lines
The parties in the Roger Stone trial just released some pre-trial documents that include a stipulation for a bunch of emails and phone numbers that will be discussed at trial. (I’m not linking them because they’re not redacted.)
The big surprise — though I guess we should have expected this — is that Erik Prince is on there, which means he’s probably the Trump supporter eagerly awaiting the drop of John Podesta’s emails.
On or about October 3, 2016, STONE wrote to a supporter involved with the Trump Campaign, “Spoke to my friend in London last night. The payload is still coming.”
[snip]
Later that day, on or about October 4, 2016, the supporter involved with the Trump Campaign asked STONE via text message if he had “hear[d] anymore from London.” STONE replied, “Yes – want to talk on a secure line – got Whatsapp?” STONE subsequently told the supporter that more material would be released and that it would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign
But far more damning is that there are four Donald Trump phone numbers there, as well as numbers for his two assistants and his bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
Trump told Robert Mueller, under oath, that he didn’t remember being in the loop on Roger Stone’s efforts, clear lies.
Response to Question II, Part (e)
I was in Trump Tower in New York City on October 7, 2016.
I have no recollection of being told that WikiLeaks possessed or might possess emails related to John Podesta before the release of Mr. Podesta’s emails was reported by the media. Likewise, I have no recollection of being told that Roger Stone, anyone acting as an intermediary for Roger Stone, or anyone associated with my campaign had communicated with WikiLeaks on October 7, 2016.
Response to Question II, Part (f)
I do not recall being told during the campaign that Roger Stone or anyone associated with my campaign had discussions with any of the entities named in the question regarding the content or timing of release of hacked emails.
Response to Question ll, Part (g)
I spoke by telephone with Roger Stone from time to time during the campaign. I have no recollection of the specifics of any conversations I had with Mr. Stone between June 1.2016 and November 8, 2016. I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with him, nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign, although I was aware that WikiLeaks was the subject of media reporting and campaign-related discussion at the time.
Now we know that Trump spoke to Stone a lot. So much so it’s going to make clear all these claims are lies.
In the George Papadopoulos’ testimony to Congress, Mark Meadows defined “collusion” to mean “benefitting from Hillary Clinton emails.”
Mr. Papadopoulos. And after he was throwing these allegations at me, I —
Mr. Meadows. And by allegations, allegations that the Trump campaign was benefiting from Hillary Clinton emails?
Mr. Papadopoulos. Something along those lines, sir. And I think I pushed back and I told him, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. What you’re talking about is something along the lines of treason. I’m not involved. I don’t know anyone in the campaign who’s involved. And, you know, I really have nothing to do with Russia. That’s — something along those lines is how I think I responded to this person.
Mr. Meadows. So essentially at this point, he was suggesting that there was collusion and you pushed back very firmly is what it sounds like.
It turns out Donald Trump was “colluding” with Roger Stone on four different direct lines!
You know after a week of incredulous bullshit over trumps’ ego and markies? I read this excellent reporting and I’m going, yeah…….just more overwhelming ‘facts/truths’ about that liar and his outright disregard for laws, morals/principals………whatever: It’s like seeing someone who’s tortured an innocent dog…..just throw cruel and we have to endure every fricking moment of the day w/what’s next. Yeah. The ratfucker. He and trump …….Thanks Marcy.
[you linked them]
TY, unlinked. I thought that was just the 3 page brief.
(obscure TV reference from the early 70s):
Glance a lot: link, Secret Chimp!
He stands for justice. He has no fear.
He’s the agent to call when trouble is near.
Glance a lot: link, ya gotta come through.
Everybody’s fate is restin’ on you!
Oh, Glance a lot: link, whatcha gonna do?
You gotta stop TRUMP! The job is up to you
Great memory for a Superhero we need.
so now even NOAA has disavowed the truth in favor of Trump’s ego.
With nobody in government willing to stand up to him, what difference does it make how many laws he’s breaking?
(great reporting btw. I learn so much from this blog.)
It should have been the great surge protector Perry. His forecasting skills during the Macondo Blowout still landed Texas four billion in settlement. I think at the time Perry had said something like, no need to worry, the current is going in the other direction.
https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1170341734519382016?s=12
Possible the ACTING Director of Comms, a Trump appointee, went anonymous rogue with the email statement and not NOAA writ large.
Ah Exhibit E has the phone numbers of these characters. I believe you mentioned to Lemon Slayer/ Twitter that you were going to not publish them? Is this a mistake?
“What you’re talking about is something along the lines of treason. I’m not involved…”
Papadopoulos sums it up quite concisely.
Why the heck is this not front page, above the fold, bold headline news?
Why the heck isn’t MSM using their bold “BREAKING NEWS” headline to report this news?
Mueller knew what he was asking. Pretty sure Trump understood what Mueller was asking. That fact is a big deal.
Thank you EW. You are a national treasure. This is what was needed to break this whole assault on our nation wide open. Hope we all link to this piece as we dial up the rest of congress critters holding out on impeachment.
So if the #’s are there, any chance any calls from those numbers were captured?
Four telephone numbers for Donald Trump, contact numbers for two of his assistants and his longtime body guard, who would always know where he was and how to contact him?
This is a presidential candidate a month away from a general election, a guy famous for hating process but micromanaging everything personal, with a normal attention span that would embarrass a toddler. It sounds a lot like Trump wanted to be kept in the loop about every detail.
That’s also how I’m reading it. (Famous micromanager not micromanaging his own campaign? Pull the other one, and you might get music.)
It would have helped a lot if Mueller had included this among the examples of obstruction, klynn. The Judiciary committee got one allegation of a Stone phone call to Trump from Michael Cohen. If they had known of other instances, especially ones documented in the stipulations, and had Mueller describe those as instances of obstruction, they might have moved toward impeachment months ago. These calls are clear evidence of conspiracy.
True, our media does not do the job we need them to do against a threat as serious as Donald Trump. But the failures in the justice system to help them do their job have been just as blameworthy. Michael Cohen went to jail for the commission of a conspiracy that obviously involved many others. That’s part of a pattern of the justice system acting to protect Donald Trump. I cannot absolve Robert Mueller either.
You honestly think that is all the HJC got? Really?
Dare we hope they’re finally getting serious? What’s your take, Bmaz?
https://twitter.com/muellershewrote/status/1170514677693964288?s=21
It will be impossible for AG Barr to spin these calls as some form of executive privilege so the odds of a preemptive pardon is high – not to reward Stone but as a move of self-preservation.
This is really critical evidence. People need to scream about it and the fact Trump lied under oath regarding the Roger Stone questions.
A preemptive pardon would be obstruction. It better not happen; however, it would make a damning political ad on the high crimes DT has committed.
Maybe this is one of the big reasons Nancy Pelosi keeps insisting that Donald Trump will self-impeach.
My guess for the “supporter” had been Dana Rohrabacher (who recently set up shop in DC, I believe.) So, it wasn’t much of a leap to see that it is Prince, instead. In fact, it makes much more sense considering his connections to Flynn, DeVos, and more. Prince was an intern for Rohrabacher at one time. Stone and the Wiles(es) are also longtime friends of the former Congressman.
But it looks like I’ll have to remove Susie Wiles as my guess for the conveyor of the “Well done” message to Stone and replace her name with Alexandra Preate, maybe. Hmm. Didn’t see that coming…
As Pelosi knows, political self-impeachment works about as well as self-regulation in the oil and banking industries. It’s her way of saying, not my problem, it’s for the voters to decide. Funny that that logic never applies when the issue is primarying a sitting Blue Dog Democrat.
The “30k emails” refers to emails that Clinton deleted that the TEA-banging bigots, including Trump, thought were very incriminating. Trump said the media would “greatly reward” Russia, but really he was trying to take credit for telling Russia to get what he actually thought was incriminating evidence of some sort. He did not know what was in those emails, but he himself fell for the conspiracies of what could be in there.
Think about this, it was more important for Trump to take credit for this crime because of his ego and because of his susceptibility to conspiracy theories. He really thought Clinton’s crimes were bigger than the hacking.
(Sorry I posted this twice, once on your earlier article, meant to post it here)
Sorry, but Trump doesn’t believe Hillary Clinton’s emails are a greater crime than the Russian hacking. Trump would love to portray Clinton’s emails as being the political crime of the century though because then Trump’s crimes pale in comparison! Trump knew/knows the Clinton emails were/are an easy piece of red meat for him to throw out before the American conspiracy theory crowd because the Russians had invested so much Russian troll/bot propaganda over the years in propounding criminality linked to Hillary’s emails.
Her emails was also the hottest conspiracy theory to exploit aside from perhaps Seth Rich’s murder or maybe Pizzagate thanks to former FBI Director Comey feeling compelled to reveal there were Clinton emails that had been found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop shortly before the election.
You’re giving Trump far too much credit if you think he believes in actual Hillary Clinton corruption. What Trump knows is that he and his campaign stood to gain from keeping corruption and criminality claims against Clinton(s) alive during the campaign. Trump followed the lead of the Republican party in a big way. That malign activity by the Russians and the Trump campaign included humping the Uranium One sale, her emails, Benghazi, the Clinton-Epstein connection, the Soros connection, the Bill Clinton speech in Russia, the Clinton ties to Haiti earthquake relief, etc.
“You’re giving Trump far too much credit if you think he believes in actual Hillary Clinton corruption”.
This line actually stunned me into temporary silence. Trump was absolutely intelligent enough, before dementia and slipping into full psychosis, to know Clinton Corruption exists. The guy has been friends with them for years.
Always spoke highly of them, defended Clinton during impeachment, played golf with Bill, was one of their biggest public donors through out the years, and had them sit up front at his last wedding. Something no one would do if they were mere acquaintances. Not to mention the fact that Chelsea and Ivanka were and likely are still very good friends. None of that adds up to them being enemies or just simple acquaintances. It’s been reported in several MSM articles that Bill played a large role in talking Trump into running for office, during golf outing.
Trump wasn’t always a bumbling idiot and raving lunatic. Why would the Clinton’s be friendly in any aspect toward Trump, since they obviously knew he was a corrupt individual, the man did not hide it. They took donations from him, when they could easily have denied, could have declined wedding invitation, made sure Chelsea didn’t become friends with Ivanka, and said hell no to golfing. That’s what you do when your a non corrupt family whose gut feelings scream to them to stay away from that sociopath. They did none of those. And there is no justification as to why they thought it was okay, without going down the road of them all being corrupt, and just playing the game because of their similar connections. They may not have loved one another but they sure as hell had a lasting relationship. Would you go golfing with someone you claim to despise? And then go to their wedding? That’s rhetorical.
He just tried to throw his pals under the bus publicly, because he needed to take attention away from the spotlight that the Presidency brought. He saw it as fair game, because stakes are high, but they both knew Trump would never take an actual step to investigate them at all. Just huff and puff on Twitter, rile up his base and try and score a temporary media victory. He would never truly go after them because they are friends. They have far to many connections to have anything come from investigations.
[Welcome back to emptywheel. Please use the same username each time you comment so that community members get to know you. This is the third variation of your user name to date, please stick to the same one. Thanks. /~Rayne]
Yeah sorry, I forgot the name I used when I first posted.
Most politicians would acknowledge they’re expected to tolerate a lot of individuals they’d rather not associate with for the sake of their $$$ contributions and access to whatever social demographic they occupy. The Clintons might also accept social invitations for weddings and the occasional golf outing in order not to piss off someone like Trump whose social and business vindictiveness are legendary.
Your last paragraph — I’m howling laughing at your claim Trump’s done nothing more than “just go after them on Twitter.” Trump has tried to sic the DOJ on them and that wasn’t just a pretense or a redirecting of the spotlight. If the Russians had given Trump anything dirty on Hillary of consequence, he would have exploded that dirty political bomb whenever Roger Stone gave him the nod. Trump wouldn’t have lost any sleep over lighting that fuse. They weren’t particularly good friends. Trump cultivated the Clintons because he wanted access to their social connections and whatever that reflected political limelight might bring him. That’s true of all Trump’s relationships. Trump seeks out individuals who can benefit TRUMP for reasons that eventually become clear to everyone watching.
Trump’s been trying to gain enough public momentum to run for major office since his first squirrelly weird interviews on Oprah in the 1980s. I remember watching this one interview w/Trump and I couldn’t believe how vapid it was. I still can’t believe Oprah Winfrey didn’t investigate the slimeball before having him on her show. Even worse, Oprah coddled Trump and flattered him as if he was a man of consequence. Perhaps hindsight dominates my perspective, but to me Trump reeked even then. He was intellectually bereft of any real insights into the status of the United States vs its foreign competitors. Frighteningly, Trump’s ignorance then still remains on full frontal display now viz American multinational corporations.
Two shameful softball interviews w/Trump. Despite the 8-year time difference between these two interviews, there’s no difference in the depth of his knowledge. He’s trying to sell himself as a suitable candidate for POTUS even then:
Rona Barrett and Trump, 1980:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAgJAxkALyc
Oprah Winfrey and Trump, 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPs17_AkTI
PS — I tend not to believe Bill Clinton encouraged Trump to run for POTUS. I agree w/the following summary of the context of the call from Trump to Clinton. Trump was after Clinton’s advice. Clinton didn’t consider Trump a serious threat to Hillary’s run for all the reasons I see Trump as a failed and impeachable POTUS.
https://crooksandliars.com/2015/08/did-bill-clinton-talk-donald-trump-running
From the above link:
Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.
Clinton’s personal office in New York confirmed that the call occurred in late May, but an aide to Clinton said the 2016 race was never specifically discussed and that it was only a casual chat.
Trump’s protective measures to keep himself out of danger from direct knowledge of or having participated in Roger Stone’s efforts on his behalf during the campaign made disentangling their intelligence maneuvers difficult. However, those defensive measures taken by Trump and Stone and Prince also condemn Trump as knowing what he was doing was brazenly illegal. This is the criminal action that should condemn Trump. That Trump fired Stone as a ploy to allow Stone to become a back-channel to the Russians and to WikiLeaks is the only way this plot works in a cohesive way.
All the encrypted conversations/ communications by those men serving as cut-outs between Trump and their dirtiest activities confirm Trump was aware what they were doing was illegal and unethical and perversely unpatriotic for someone seeking the presidency of the United States. Same goes for Roger Stone. Same goes for Erik Prince. They used encryption apps because they knew what they were doing was illegal, unethical and unpatriotic in the extreme yet they continued their plot anyway. Did Erik Prince know from the beginning having been a former Navy SEAL they should structure their plot using cut-outs and encryption communications so as to keep this information secret? Who initiated this and who then determined the command structure for this aspect of Trump’s campaign? Once that’s clear, the conspiracy will have been thoroughly fleshed out.
Thank you. Are you commenting from inside Trump’s brain? Or just throwing more verbose run on bunk?
Upscale word salad?
Shocking that the biggest con artist of our lifetimes would lie!
Whose administration let Snowden escape? So why should we elect Biden? & Why unlike past presidents is Obama still in DC? Flynn is a traitor & so is Trump & all the evidence is here & televised before the world. The deepfake prep of Pelosi to buffer PissTapes. The deepfake is the deepfake & all this wanking about is useless. THEY wanted it this way. All is fair in love & war, right? Torture didn’t stop w Obama
[Please make a more distinctive username of more than two characters. This comment isn’t consistent with other comments left by someone using the same username, appearing to be a duplication of an existing username. Thank you. /~Rayne]
[citations needed]
Unlikely to be coming……
That wouldn’t be a surprise. I figure the name is a tell: it’s all PR for someone, but probably not anyone we’d want in office.
I was really hoping this post would be getting more attention. Please consider posting links and sharing far and wide. This post is really important. It should be the only topic being discussed in the media re D-Tr*mp.