Like Tucker Carlson, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is unclear why the FBI sent a heavily armed battalion to arrest Roger Stone at his home in Fort Lauderdale. The AP reports that Senator Graham “wants a briefing from the FBI on the tactics it used last week” when it took Stone into custody. Senator Graham asked for the briefing in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray (copy below via Scribd).
The AP seem to think it has the answer that Senator Graham seeks: “It is not uncommon for the FBI to make early-morning arrests of targets under indictment, but it’s the first time Mueller has used that tactic. In court papers, prosecutors wrote they had concerns that if Stone was tipped off to the indictment, it would increase the risk he would flee or destroy evidence.”
Judge Amy Berman Jackson reportedly handles Stone’s case. Team Mueller sought a court order this past Thursday to keep Stone’s indictment sealed pending arrest, asserting that “law enforcement believed that publicity resulting from disclosure [would] increase the risk of the defendant fleeing and destroying (or tampering with) evidence.”
We are to take it that this was a matter of routine practice and that any the in terrorem effect was entirely coincidental. Team Mueller must have thought the indictment came as a surprise to Stone and that he hadn’t yet had time to dispose of incriminating evidence. Stone was about to pull an O.J. and head for Mexico, perhaps, or Russia.
Really? The AP adds: “Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment.”
Senator Graham also wonders (like Carlson) how CNN happened to have Stone’s home staked out when the television-friendly apprehension of Stone went down. Some mysteries are destined to abide.
LOG to Director Wray 1.30.19 by on Scribd
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