Perhaps the most colorful character in the special counsel investigation was Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political operative and Donald Trump friend who sports a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back. Stone, who publicly cheered on WikiLeaks as the organization released hacked Democrats’ emails during the presidential campaign, had said for months he would be charged by Robert S. Mueller III. On January 24, 2019, his prediction came true.
And early the next day, a team of FBI agents—armed and wearing bulletproof vests—knocked on the door of Stone’s Florida home and took him into custody. The special counsel had secured this seven-count indictment against the sixty-six-year-old political operative, alleging that Stone had tried to thwart congressional inquiries into Russian interference in the election. He was charged with lying to Congress, obstruction, and witness tampering.
Stone vowed to plead not guilty and fight the charges.
The indictment alleged that Stone attempted to keep lawmakers from uncovering his efforts to get information about WikiLeaks’ release of the hacked emails, after it was publicly alleged the hacking was done by the Russian government. It noted pointedly that a senior Trump campaign official “was directed” to contact Stone about WikiLeaks’ releases and possible “damaging information” the group had about Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Prosecutors identified WikiLeaks only as “Organization 1.” It was unclear who the senior campaign official is.
“STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1,” the indictment alleged.
The indictment detailed in particular Stone’s communication with Steve Bannon, who was then Trump’s chief strategist and is identified in the indictment as a “high-ranking Trump Campaign official,” as well as two of Stone’s associates—Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer identified in the indictment as “Person 1,” and Randy Credico, a New York comedian and radio host identified in the indictment as “Person 2.” By prosecutors’ telling, Stone had tried through Credico and Corsi to get information from WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, though he would later tell lawmakers falsely he had no records about that.
Corsi’s lawyers confirmed he is Person 1 in the indictment but noted it “does not accuse Dr. Corsi of any wrongdoing and indeed this is the case.” Lawyers for Bannon and Credico declined to comment. All three were identified by people familiar with the case, and communications described in the indictment match their publicly known communications.
While the indictment did not charge Stone with conspiring with Russia, the allegations suggest that the campaign was willing to seek out and use messages hacked by a foreign state as political ammunition. And it provided lively anecdotes about how Stone sought to stymie investigators’ work. For example, it alleged that in November 2017, Stone told Credico to “[s]tonewall” after the House Intelligence Committee sought his testimony. The next month, he invoked a character from the Mafia movie The Godfather: Part II, who, during a congressional hearing, told lawmakers, “I don’t know nothin’ about that.”
“And if you turned over anything to the FBI you’re a fool,” Stone told Credico, according to the indictment.