Hi, and welcome back to Trump Watch! I've been in court with Roger Stone this week and it looks like he's over that food poisoning that forced him out of the first day of jury selection. Follow me on Twitter at @jacq_thomsen for live updates from the trial, and check out law.com and The National Law Journal for news that comes out of it.

 

 

 

A Trump Strategy Inside Roger Stone's Trial

It only took minutes into opening statements at Roger Stone's trial for federal prosecutors to bring President Donald Trump into the mix.

During his opening statement before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, former special counsel prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky argued that not only did Stone knowingly lie to the House Intelligence Committee, but he did so to try and help his longtime friend, Trump.

Prosecutors have presented call records during the the trial showing that Trump and Stone spoke to each other over the phone around the same time that WikiLeaks releases were either rumored or set to take place.

Trump was long destined to be implicated in the case. Special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of Stone alleged he and Trump campaign officials were in contact about WikiLeaks' release of hacked Democratic emails. One campaign official was even "directed" to get in touch with Stone to find out more about the WikiLeaks information dumps, according to the indictment.

All of Stone's actions, including an email he sent to then-Trump campaign head Paul Manafort claiming to have a plan to "save Trump's ass," and a message sent to Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon pitching an idea to help Trump win while warning that "it ain't pretty," were all aimed at helping Trump win the 2016 presidential election, Zelinsky said.

Stone offering help for the Trump campaign isn't necessarily a crime, especially because his "intermediaries" to WikiLeaks didn't offer him much new information. But it deepens the link between the Trump campaign and its interest in WikiLeaks.

Those ties were underscored by a memo from the Mueller investigation obtained by CNN this week, which showed that former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates told investigators that Trump in 2016 said "get the emails."

"[Michael] Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails," the summary of Gates's April 2018 interview reads.

Bannon and Gates are expected to testify at the trial. Gates, represented by Thomas Green of Sidley Austin, pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges and is testifying as part of a cooperation agreement. Bannon, who has not been charged with a crime, is represented by William Burck of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and has not been subpoenaed for his testimony.

Bannon and Stone also exchanged messages about WikiLeaks potentially having dirt on Clinton. As did Stone and Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a Trump campaign surrogate.

Stone is charged with lying to Congress and impeding a congressional investigation. Among those alleged lies that he told congressional investigators is that he was not in touch with the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks in 2016.

"The evidence in this case will show that Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad," Zelinsky said. "The truth looked bad for the Trump campaign, and it looked bad for Donald Trump."

And he cited a text from Stone to his associate, Randy Credico, that said, because of Trump, he could "never get away" with asserting the Fifth Amendment. Credico is a witness in the trial, and Stone is charged with pressuring Credico to not cooperate with investigators.

Stone's attorney, Bruce Rogow, disputed the notion that there was anything wrong with Stone being in touch with Trump. After all, he said, Stone has "known Trump for years."

And he said the communications between Stone and other Trump campaign figures was nothing more than a good-faith effort to get Trump elected.

"That is not a crime, that's a First Amendment right," Rogow said.

An Inside Peek: Speaking of the First Amendment, Stone's use of … colorful language has made for some, uh, memorable moments in the courtroom. Imagine a former FBI agent and a federal prosecutor reading text messages out loud in court that are riddled with obscenities and other vulgar language. Better than watching "The Godfather: Part II," if you ask me!

 

 

A Look Ahead:

Roger Stone's D.C. trial will take a day off on Monday for Veteran's Day, but it will be back in session the rest of the week.

Nov. 12: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments in the lawsuit from groups, led by the ACLU, challenging Trump's national emergency declaration diverting military funds in order to build a wall on the southern border.

Nov. 13: The House Intelligence Committee will hold its first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, featuring testimony from acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

Nov. 15: Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify before the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing.

 

Senior District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C.

 

What We're Reading:

>> 'This Is Not Normal': US Judge Denounces Trump's Attacks on Judiciary: "A federal judge on Wednesday publicly denounced Donald Trump over his attacks on the judiciary, declaring that the president has undermined confidence in the legal system by impugning members of the federal bench and disparaging decisions against his administration. Senior Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia….bemoaned what he said was the growing belief that jurists reflexively decide cases in line with their political beliefs, and he said at least some of the blame for that trend rests with Trump. 'We are witnessing a chief executive who criticizes virtually every judicial decision that doesn't go his way and denigrates judges who rule against him, sometimes in very personal terms. He seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a co-equal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.'" [The National Law Journal]

>> Roger Stone's Lawyers Unveil Their Defense: He Didn't Mean to Lie: "Roger Stone's lawyers want the jury to think about Stone's state of mind when he made allegedly false statements to the House Intelligence Committee about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks. That was the defense, offered by Stone's attorneys in court for the first time Wednesday, against charges that Stone lied to Congress and impeded a congressional investigation. Defense lawyer Bruce Rogow argued that, because Stone was appearing before the committee as part of its probe on Russian interference in the 2016 election, he was only answering questions with Russia, and not WikiLeaks, in mind." [The National Law Journal]

>> Giuliani Turns to Pierce Bainbridge and Michael Cohen's Ex-Lawyer in Ukraine Scandal: "Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he is being represented by two partners at Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht and a lawyer at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron amid allegations he helped President Donald Trump manipulate U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine for political goals. Giuliani tweeted Wednesday afternoon that was being 'represented and assisted by' Eric Creizman and Melissa Madrigal, both partners at Pierce Bainbridge in New York, and Robert Costello, an early friend of Giuliani's. Costello previously represented Michael Cohen, former Trump's former attorney and fixer." [The New York Law Journal]

>> A Judge Didn't Sound Eager to Throw Out House Suit Seeking Trump Tax Returns: "A federal judge in Washington appeared reluctant Wednesday to dismiss a House lawsuit seeking President Donald Trump's tax returns, saying he was skeptical of the Justice Department's arguments that courts lack jurisdiction to resolve disputes between Congress and the president. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia said there is a 'strong line of cases suggesting the House would have standing to bring this type of case'….McFadden's early commentary did little to deter Justice Department lawyer James Burnham, a former Trump White House lawyer, who argued that Congress has tools aside from a federal lawsuit to 'wring' information out of the executive branch." [The National Law Journal]

>> New Lawsuit Alleges Illegal 'Shadow' Ukraine Diplomacy at Trump's Direction: "A new lawsuit is alleging that top State Department officials violated record-keeping laws by using 'secret' channels to discuss diplomatic moves on Ukraine, specifically President Donald Trump's desire for Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family. In the complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the groups Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, the National Security Archive and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations asked for a court order requiring the State Department to preserve the communications. 'State Department officials charged with carrying out our foreign policy should not be left in the dark about shadow diplomacy carried out through a secret, alternative channel,' the complaint reads." [The National Law Journal]

>> Newly Public Records Show Trump Placed Call to Former 'Apprentice' Contestant the Day of Alleged Sexual Assault: "President Donald Trump's phone records from more than a decade ago were made public Tuesday, showing that the timing of conversations between Trump and former 'Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos lines up with Zervos' account of their interactions in 2007 and 2008. Zervos has accused Trump of sexual assault, and she sued him for defamation in New York County Supreme Court in January 2017 after he denied the accusation and described her as a liar. In the Verizon records, all of Trump's calls are redacted except six calls between Trump and a number associated with Zervos. The records cover late December 2007 to March 2008, including a call made on the day of one of two alleged assaults." [The New York Law Journal]

Thanks for reading. We will be back next week with more Trump Watch.