Roger Stone Can Be Tried, Again

[fleur-de-lisa]

snip . . .

A future Justice Department would be well within its rights to open a new investigation into Stone’s activities. Such an investigation wouldn’t be hard: The very facts the jury found sufficient to convict Stone suggest that he may be guilty of other criminal offenses. For example, Stone was charged with (and convicted of) making false statements under the general false-statements law. That law criminalizes false statements when made in the context of any “matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch.” But another law specifically criminalizes “cover[ing] up … any record” to impede a federal investigation. It appears Stone did just that, as his indictment alleges that he lied about no longer having emails and text messages that he did still possess. That could be the basis for a new charge—and it certainly provides a basis for a reopened investigation. Stone’s claims might also violate the federal perjury statute, which punishes making a false statement under oath.

Likewise, Stone was charged with (and convicted of) obstruction of Congress under a federal law. That behavior likely runs afoul of other federal laws, such as the omnibus obstruction-of-justice provision.

There’s more. Mueller brought charges against Russian intelligence officials for their hacking of the Democratic National Committee and for conspiring with WikiLeaks to release the hacked emails. Recent litigation has uncovered some previously redacted sections of Mueller’s final report. Those passages reveal that the former Trump-campaign chair Paul Manafort told Mueller that Stone knew of the WikiLeaks releases before they happened and, strikingly, that Stone told Trump about those releases before they happened. Put that together, and Stone could be charged with aiding and abetting the hack-and-dump that was the cornerstone of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Again, the point isn’t that Stone necessarily could be charged—it’s that there’s enough evidence to reopen an investigation into him, and that he’s far from being in the clear.

Ordinarily, protections against double jeopardy forbid trying someone for the same crimes twice. But the crimes above have different elements from the ones Stone was convicted of, so they are not the same—and being forced to prove different facts to establish different elements of a crime is, in general, a key indication that prosecutors are not running into constitutional double-jeopardy concerns. Moreover, one can imagine that a future Justice Department investigation would uncover more facts not available previously due to the Trump administration’s attempts to cover up what happened—after all, the entire second half of Mueller’s report described the administration’s attempts to impede Mueller’s investigation.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/roger-stone-can-be-tried-again/614128/?utm_content=edit-promo&utm_term=2020-07-14T16%3A37%3A28&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social

[blueinredohio]

1. Please,please,please do it. Charge him with all the crimes you can.