Point #1 — Mueller’s Report in Indictment Increments:
Mueller has put a lot more information in this indictment than was necessary to spell out the charges. In fact, Pages 10 — 24 list the actual detailed charges against Stone, while Pages 1 — 9 present a narrative focusing on Stone’s role as a “link” between Wikileaks and Senior Trump Campaign Officials. While this narrative is un-necessary for an indictment, it does get important details out to Congress and the Public regarding the Trump/Russia Conspiracy and provides the first hard link between Wikileaks and the Trump Campaign. Mueller has put such additional details in other indictments to get out information on his findings he wants to be made public. In fact, one could say that Mueller is making his public report right now through these indictments. If Mueller continues to put forth these detailed indictments, Congress may end up with all the facts it needs even without a final Mueller Report, in case such a report is blocked by the AG. In fact, his final report may just be a summary of the information previously released through these indictments.
Point #2 — Mueller, Congress’s Enforcer:
I have already heard a lot of Pundits wondering why Mueller indicted Stone now when he could have done it months ago? If you notice there are numerous counts of lying to Congress in Stone’s indictment, in particular, lying to the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (“HPSCI”). These counts are based on transcripts of Stone’s testimony in front of the HPSCI which were only provided to Mueller by the HPSCI a few weeks ago. That’s because Adam Schiff (D) (Current HPSCI Chairman) agreed to honor Mueller’s request for transcripts of Congressional testimony by Stone and others, where David Nunes (R) (former HPSCI Chairman) had avoided turning them over to Mueller. So that explains the delay in indicting Stone.
More importantly, this is the second time Mueller has charged someone for lying to Congress (the first was Cohen). It shows Mueller is willing to be Congress’s Enforcer and that he takes very seriously the crime of lying to Congress. Besides providing Mueller with a vehicle to threaten these criminals with real jail time if they don’t cooperate, it also sends a strong message to future witnesses who go before Congress that if you lie, you can expect to receive an indictment from Mueller.