Robert Mueller’s criminal case against Roger Stone is even uglier than we thought
So much has happened in the past five days, it’s easy to lose track of the stunning fact that Donald Trump’s oldest friend was accused in an indictment on Friday of having conspired with Russian government hackers during the election to distribute materials stolen from the Democratic Party. Now, with things continuing to unfold rapidly, Mueller is focusing in even further on Roger Stone.
Over the past couple months we’ve seen Robert Mueller bring in roughly a dozen of Roger Stone’s associates to testify against him before a grand jury. Now Mueller and his team have zeroed in on one particular Stone associate named Andrew Miller, who doesn’t want to cooperate. Mueller considers Miller to be such an important witness, he sent at least five of his prosecutors to a hearing yesterday aimed at forcing Miller to play along. So why is Miller so important?
There’s no way of knowing for sure. But when word first surfaced three weeks ago that Mueller was pursuing Miller, Palmer Report dug up this surreal nugget from a 2017 report filed by the local ABC News affiliate in Stone’s backyard: “Prior to [Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s] 2012 election, a Stone assistant named Andrew Miller gave a mysterious $120,000 contribution to an Israel political committee. After the election, Israel, a Democrat, hired three of Stone’s associates – including assistant Dianne Thorne, co-author Mike Colapietro, and Miller’s girlfriend, Jennifer Hobbs – on the public payroll at the sheriff’s office after his 2012 election. Thorne left [Broward Sheriff’s Office] after questions about her truthfulness regarding her educational background were reported and Hobbs has also left her BSO post.”
What does this have to do with the Trump-Russia scandal? Nothing, as far as we can tell. But if this Broward Sheriff’s Office incident is indeed why Robert Mueller is so focused on getting Andrew Miller to cooperate against Roger Stone, then it tell us that Mueller plans to charge Stone for the incident. This would mean that Mueller is building a comprehensive criminal case against Stone that encompasses every scandal or alleged crime he’s been involved with. This kind of “kitchen sink” indictment would be the best way to convince Stone that he has no choice but to cut a plea deal.
