Roger Stone: A Question Mark in Mueller Probe

and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. Turning now to a stunning development in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the arrest of Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist and sometimes confidante of President Trump, for obstruction, witness tampering, and false statements. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responded to a reporter's question about whether the President encouraged any of

Stone's alleged illegal activity. That is probably one of the more ridiculous and insulting questions to accuse the President of the United States of asking someone to break the law. Um, that is frankly, it's just insulting. It's just not true. Joining me, is Brad Moss, a partner at Mark sade Brett looking at the indictment of Roger Stone, Tell me, on a scale of one to ten, how important this is for Muller's investigation. This is pretty much what I would say is an eight. You know, the way I

read this indictment, this is the speaking indictment. Robert Mueller's team laid out a lot of facts in the background that weren't actually necessary or critical to the underlying charges, which were all processed crimes. It was obstruction, you know,

fallse statements, witness tampering. But he provided all this background detail about what Roger Stone was doing during the campaign, in particular how senior officials in the Trump campaign, which as far as later reporting is born out, was Steve Bannon, were directed to coordinate with Stone on all WITCHI Leaks related matters, which of course brings out the question, this is what Mueller is hinting at, who was the person

who directed Steve Bennon to coordinate with Stone. There's probably about five people on the planet who could have directed Steve Bennon to do anything. All their last names are either Trump or Cushner. So this is Mueller thinking at what where this is going, hinting at what he's got

coming down the pike. He did this indictment, he could obviously amend it a superseding indictment if Roger Stone decided not to cut a deal What the question remains is how much does roger Stone have and what would he be willing to cut a deal for now. Roger Stone came out of court on bond of two fifty thousand dollars. He said that he will not quote their false witness

against the President. He did not answer whether or not he would cooperate with the Muller investigation, saying his lawyers hadn't been contacted and he didn't want to address that. Do things change when you've been arrested? Absolutely, your calculus changes. And this is even the first time we've heard stuff like this from a Trump associate member. What Michael Cohen used to say, I'll take up bullet for the president.

You know what, the moment indictment show up, the moment you faced the prospect of time in a four by four cell without your freedom, your calculus changes. Roger Stone is not a young man anymore. He's sixty six years old. He doesn't want to spend it twilight years in a four by four cell. Once the shock of this immediate moment has worn off, and the prosecution team from Mueller's office coordinates with his defense attorneys and lays out a lot of their evidence, a lot of which I bet

you is not in this indictment. Yet, there will be a choice for Roger Stone to make. Is it worth it? Is he ready to take the fall or is he going to cooperate? No, one's going to ask him to lie. If he's got reliable, legitimate, corroborated material evidence he can provide Mueller's team, they'll take it the look to cut him a deal. If he doesn't have anything, there's no deal to be made. And that's alway always the sixty four dollar question. Roger Stone loves the blow viate, he

loves the hype. He may not actually have anything else to provide, and if that's the case, then he's going to go to jail. What about his contacts with wiki links? There's no specific charge related to that. Correct. What was laid out in the factual background provided some of the elements of where you could see a potential criminal charge

or two coming down the pike. There's a potential for because of the outlined how the campaign, specifically senior campaign officials are directly using Stone as an intermediary to get advanced knowledge and the coordinate production of hacked materials from wiki leaks. There's a potential criminal conspiracy charge they're regarding campaign finance felonies in terms of securing something of value from a foreign national aid Julian Assange for the purpose

of influencing the election. And there's a potential criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States charge in terms of interfering in the administration of the election by bringing in hacked illegally hacked information. These are two potential criminal conspiracy charges that could be brought out in superseding indictments. What remains

to be seen is what else does Mohler have. Does he believe he's got enough to actually make that charge stick as a matter of law and in court, and is he holding on that is leverage to try to see if Stone will crack and will make a deal to cooperate. Now, Stone's arrest was different from the other arrest in the Mueller investigation. FBI agents arriving at dawn than executing a search warrant, and when he was outside the courthouse he said he was terrorized. Of course, he

also said that FBI agents were extraordinarily courteous. What does it say that Muller did not allow him to turn himself in. They had a real legitimate fear, as outlined in motion that was separately filed. What's why the indictment was originally under sealed. They had a legitimate fear that roger Stone would run, that he would destroy evidence, that he would flee. And roger Stone, because of his reputation, he is the political dirty tricks guy. He's not Paul Manafort,

He's not RICKI. Roger Stone's ethos is m O is dirty tricks. The government could not take that risk. What the public saw with that pre don raid, that is not you sual. But it's not unusual either. That happens a lot in various criminal cases. It happens when you have a suspect that you can't risk them fleeing, you can't risk them destroying evidence. The amount of people involved, that's entirely routine. It doesn't happen a lot with white

collar criminals. Tends to happen for more blue collar, more drug related or gun related charges. But it is still a normal part of police enforcement. You just don't see it every day. And so people went, oh, my lord, it's so shocking. No, it's really not. Roger Stone did not answer questions about whether he was waiting for a pardon, or he would ask for a pardon. Could that be

in the back of his mind? Absolutely? Absolutely. If you're Roger Stone, especially if you think that this is all just federal charges and mostly just process crimes, there's an element to which you're wondering, how long can you hold out, how many how much money do you get saved up to try to tow the line, gets the present to pardon you, and you can spend the next fifteen years making money in speeches talking about how you stood up for Donald Trump. All right, thanks so much, Brad. As always,

that's Brad Moss. He is a partner at Mark's Sade. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Grosso. This is Bloomberg