Word came down in March 2017 that longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was an important focus of the special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller. From that point on, there was a steady drumbeat of stories about Stone, about his associates, and his connections with WikiLeaks. Starting in the fall of 2018, predictions about Stone’s indictment seemed to come almost every day from a variety of sources. At the end of December, Mueller requested and received Stone’s testimony from House committees, and from that point on, the predictions of his imminent indictment seemed almost hourly. On Jan. 24, news broke that Stone had used InfoWars as a vehicle to buy the silence of potential witnesses to his actions.
And now Roger Stone is seeking an answer to the greatest mystery of all: How is it that CNN was on hand to see him get hauled away by FBI agents? According to TPM, Stone isn’t just upset that he was pictured on TV as he was handed his marching orders, he’s also calling for an investigation into this mystery. Because how could CNN possibly know, after months of suspected obstruction and a day after news broke that he was tampering with a potential witness, that it might just be worthwhile to park a camera truck across from Roger Stone’s door? Just in case he might be arrested … for obstruction and witness tampering.
The conspiracy theory floating among the conspiracy-mad right is that CNN was tipped off by inside information from the hermetically sealed Mueller team. That conspiracy theory gained heat last week when acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, in between refusing to answer questions and stalling for time, did answer a question—to say that he was concerned about this big puzzler.
Stone’s evidence that CNN got an advance nod? The reporter was able to produce a copy of Stone’s indictment just 15 minutes after his arrest. According to Stone, his own attorney didn’t see those papers for another two hours. So <insert Law and Order noise here> case closed!
And Stone’s claim really does suggest there is a mystery here … because the special counsel’s office made the papers available five minutes after Stone’s arrest. The actual mystery: Why was Stone’s attorney so slow?