Inside the Mueller probe

This morning brings news that Roger Stone has been charged in a seven-count indictment handed up by the grand jury in the Mueller probe: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements and one count of witness tampering. Stone was arrested by the FBI in Fort Lauderdale this morning. The New York Times has just posted Mark Mazzetti’s story here (accessible here via Outline). I have posted the indictment below via Scribd. It’s all about WikiLeaks and the path to senior officials in the Trump presidential campaign.

Stone came up in the discussion led by MSNBC host Ari Melber on Wednesday with four witnesses who have been subjected to the Special Counsel operation: Jerome Corsi, Sam Nunberg, Michael Caputo and Carter Page. According to the MSNBC summary, “Topics in the wide-ranging interview included Roger Stone, Trump Tower Moscow, the question of Russian collusion and possible additional indictments.” It is frustrating to watch — someone really needed to call out Ari Melber for his highhanded treatment of various factual issue — but the occasional glimpses from inside the barrel of the Mueller probe make this of interest, if not entirely worthwhile.

Having been under FBI surveillance for a year (and reaching back) and still at large, Carter Page must be the cleanest man in the United States. I am not sure why he remains tongue-tied or unresponsive to a question or two posed by Melber.

Quotable quote (Michael Caputo): “I tell you at the end of the day, at the end of all of this, the thing I regret the most was getting involved in the 2016 campaign because I didn’t know then what I know now. And what I know now is that Hillary Clinton was so certain she was going to win, she was [so] embarrassed by losing that they created this false Russian collusion, this bogus Russian collusion narrative. And it has consumed my family. It’s consumed all four of us completely. We have small disagreements across the board, but I think every single one of us will tell you that this has been an incredibly horrific experience…”

Video via Ian Schwartz/RealClearPolitics.

Stone Indictment by Scott Johnson on Scribd

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