Roger Stone just lost
Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are behind bars, George Papadopoulos has already been there, Rick Gates is headed there, and it increasingly looks like Michael Flynn is headed there too. The parade of Donald Trump’s advisers going to prison is on track to continue, as Roger Stone hangs onto his bail by a thread heading into his trial. Today, Stone suffered a major blow.
The evidence against Roger Stone is so overwhelming, it’s difficult to imagine that he won’t be convicted if his case makes it to trial. His best chance of getting off the hook would have been to convince the judge that the case should be thrown out ahead of trial, on the grounds that the federal investigation into him was improper to begin with.
Unfortunately for Stone, that defense strategy just went out the window. Judge Amy Berman Jackson struck down Stone’s motion to dismiss today. According to the court filing, she said “It is fair to say that Roger Stone has no one but himself to blame for the fact that he was investigated by the Department of Justice.”
It’ll ultimately be up to the jury to decide if Roger Stone is guilty or not guilty, but at this point the odds look very strong that Stone is going to prison. That means all he has left to count on is a pardon from Donald Trump – but thus far Trump has shown no willingness to stick his neck out by pardoning any of his co-conspirators who have been sent to prison. Trump will almost certainly be indicted and arrested himself, as soon as he’s no longer in office.
