The Mueller probe is close to be completed. Should the President be worried after the latest indictment and is Roger Stone going to prison? I was on the Kennedy show on Fox news to discuss these issues.
TRANSCRIPT:
KENNEDY: What sticks out with the Roger Stone indictment to you?
TROTTER: What is most noteworthy about this indictment is the absence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The indictment goes on at great length talking about Russian hacking and WikiLeaks publicizing these e-mails which everybody knew back in 2016. But in going through the details in the indictment, it basically has an absence of evidence of the core attempt in this investigation to find out whether there was a criminal conspiracy between anyone in the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and the indictment has no evidence that there was any criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
KENNEDY: So even if the President did not direct Roger Stone or someone from higher up in the campaign, did not direct Roger Stone to engage with WikiLeaks and disseminate the information, Roger Stone – [laughter] he’s certainly an entertaining character, is he in deep yogurt?
TROTTER: Anytime you have the force of the federal government coming and prosecuting you, you are in deep yogurt, but that doesn’t mean that the prosecutors don’t have a high burden to prove. If you look at the counts that they’ve alleged, none of it has to do with criminal espionage with the Russian government. Instead they’re all process crimes that are very similar to what Mike Flynn pled guilty on, lying in an investigation, and they are not from any criminal conspiracy, they are from the investigation of the criminal conspiracy.
KENNEDY: Yes. I don’t know that I’ve seen someone this delighted to be indicted in quite some time. Is there upside for Roger Stone here other than just being ubiquitous?
TROTTER: I’m not sure if you believe that saying about “there’s no bad publicity,” but certainly he seems to be enjoying his time showing that he is not intimidated. But I think it’s really important in that, in the interview he gave yesterday he talked about how he will not bear false witness against the President. I think that’s a crucial point that people need to remember.
KENNEDY: Do you think he was signaling the president like I’m not going to lie, give me a pardon?
TROTTER: I don’t think so. but it is interesting to see that if you go back when you look at all the presidential pardons in situations like this, some of the people who thought that they were going to get them didn’t end up getting them like Web Hubbel with the Clinton administration.
KENNEDY: Gordon Liddy is still in jail….that’s not true.
TROTTER: No.
KENNEDY: What I was thinking about today, whenever the president leaves office, the day before, whether it’s in two years or six years, the list of pardons is going to be the most fascinating and entertaining thing we’ve seen throughout this entire enterprise.
TROTTER: I think we’ve heard that called pardon-palooza. It’s a bi-partisan “afflication.”
KENNEDY: Whatever Palooza they’ve had in the past, this will be the fyre festival, thank you so much, Gayle Ttrotter
TROTTER: Great to be with you with, Kennedy.
