Roger Stone Seeks Stay in Tax Case Due to Wife’s Cancer
JUN 15, 2021 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: JUN 17, 2021
Roger Stone and his wife Nydia Stone—recently diagnosed with cancer—are seeking a 90-day stay in the government’s nearly $2 million tax case against them.
The Stones cited Nydia’s diagnosis with aggressive, advanced cancer as the reason for the stay, because neither would be able to “meaningfully participate” in the case.
Nydia Stone was hospitalized earlier this month, and her “short-term prognosis and health remain uncertain,” according to the document filed Tuesday.
The stay request is unopposed by the government, according to the document, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The government sued the Stones in April for nearly $1.6 million in liabilities arising from joint returns filed for tax years 2007 to 2011, plus more than $400,000 that Roger Stone owes individually from 2018.
Post Edited: Fl. Lawyer Committed Criminal Mortgage Fraud which was Not Reported by Judge Marra https://t.co/GaB8fzE6nX
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) April 17, 2021
Roger Stone was indicted in January 2019 on charges of obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering connected to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump later granted Roger Stone a pardon.
A stay in the case would give the Stones time to evaluate a treatment plan, they said in the filing. Roger Stone is one of his wife’s primary caretakers, and the “sudden change” hampers his ability to participate in the case—including an answer, preparation of a defense, and discovery, the document said.
The case is United States v. Stone, S.D. Fla., No. 0:21-cv-60825-RAR, motion 6/15/21.
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Magistrate Assigned To Roger Stone’s $2M Tax Case Recuses
U.S. magistrate judge Jared Strauss, assigned to Roger Stone’s $2 million unpaid tax suit in Florida recused himself from the case Wednesday. Strauss was appointed to the bench in 2019 and was a prosecutor (an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA)) in Broward before that. He graduated from Harvard in 2005.
The case was “randomly assigned” to a new magistrate, who happens to be the same magistrate (Judge Lurana S. Snow) on Stone’s last case in the very same court which would come to an abrupt end when Donald Trump pardoned Stone.
‘Dirty trickster’ Stone vows to fight charges filed by Mueller in Trump investigation
JANUARY 25, 2019 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT; JUNE 17, 2021
For a guy who got rousted out of bed Friday morning by FBI agents, Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone was as pugnacious as ever when he walked out of the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse in the afternoon with his arms raised and fingers flashing “V” signs.
While some spectators chanted “Roger, Roger, Roger,” others booed and shouted “lock him up, lock him up.”
The courthouse stage was likely a surreal moment for the flamboyant political operative who has seen it all in a career dating back to the Nixon era.
Stone, a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster,” appeared defiant as he declared his innocence after being released on bond following his arrest Friday morning. He is charged with obstructing justice, tampering with a witness and lying to Congress in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election.
Stone, dressed in a navy blue polo shirt and jeans, told a throng of news media members and spectators outside the courthouse that Mueller’s investigation was “politically motivated” and that he had been “falsely accused” of lying to the House Intelligence Committee.
Did you know…in less than 5 years, the number of complaints against judges in the 11th Circuit has more than DOUBLED in less than 5 years?
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— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) June 13, 2021
The behind-the-scenes Trump adviser also declared he would not make any deal with the special counsel to testify against Trump, saying “there is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself.”
“I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated,” Stone, 66, said.
The seven-count indictment filed against Stone reveals fresh details on how Trump campaign associates in the summer of 2016 actively sought the release of emails that the special counsel says were hacked by Russian officers and then provided to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. The indictment says unidentified senior Trump campaign officials contacted Stone to ask when stolen emails relating to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton might be disclosed.
Mueller’s case alleges coverups and deception by Stone — not that he conspired with WikiLeaks or with the Russian officers accused of hacking the emails. Stone, instead, is accused of lying to congressional members in a May 2017 letter and in his September 2017 testimony about WikiLeaks’ activities. He is also accused of obstructing a congressional probe into whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to sabotage the U.S. election to help him beat Clinton, as well as being accused of tampering with a congressional witness.
The indictment says Stone repeatedly discussed WikiLeaks with Trump campaign associates and details his conversations about emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and posted online in the weeks before Trump defeated Clinton.
Prosecutors allege that Stone shared information about WikiLeaks’ strategy with Trump campaign associates, including senior aide Steve Bannon. The indictment says Stone exchanged emails with Bannon, who is referred to as a “high-ranking Trump campaign official.”
In addition, the indictment delves into what prosecutors say were Stone’s false statements to lawmakers about his conversations with Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer and conspiracy theorist, and Randy Credico, a New York radio host. They are identified in the indictment as “Person 1” and “Person 2,” respectively.
The indictment accuses Stone of carrying out a “prolonged effort” to keep Credico from contradicting Stone’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Prosecutors claim that Stone repeatedly told Credico to “do a ‘Frank Pentangeli,’ ‘’ referring to the character in the “The Godfather: Part II” who lies before Congress. Stone is also accused of threatening Credico as well as his dog, Bianca.
On Friday, Trump and his defense team blasted Stone’s indictment. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said it “does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or by anyone else.” Trump called the investigation the “Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country!”
During his brief hearing in Fort Lauderdale federal court after his arrest, Stone was granted a $250,000 bond that was jointly recommended by U.S. prosecutors and his defense team.
Stone was shackled around the waist, wrist and ankles during his first appearance before Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow.
The courtroom was packed with journalists and spectators, while dozens of TV news cameramen and photographers waited outside the courthouse.
Stone thanked the judge after she granted his bond, which restricts his travel to South Florida, Washington, D.C., New York City, and the eastern area of Virginia.
The judge asked Stone to surrender his passport as a condition of his bond. He told her that he does not own a current passport because his had expired.
Prosecutors Jared Strauss and Aaron Zelinsky with the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida also requested that Stone undergo a substance-abuse screening.
The judge ordered one as part of his bond conditions.
Stone’s arraignment date must still be set in the federal court in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, Stone will be able to stay at his Fort Lauderdale home as he awaits trial. Stone’s defense team consists of Fort Lauderdale lawyers Bruce Rogow, Tara Campion, Robert Buschel and Grant Smith.
Outside the courthouse, Rogow, the most prominent member of Stone’s team, called the FBI’s early morning arrest of the longtime GOP political operative a “spectacle.”
The Eleventh Circuit’s “White Out” Opinions
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Expunging Lyin’ Judge Marra’s perjurious words from their Opinion; https://t.co/jP5XvenMmb #WeThePeopleHaveSpoken @senfeinstein pic.twitter.com/OjMhaHa9qH
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) November 7, 2020
“Everyone knows where Roger Stone is; he’s not in hiding,” Rogow said. “The spectacle this morning with the SWAT team breaking into his house, searching the house, scaring his wife, scaring his dogs, completely unnecessary. A telephone call would have done the job, and Mr. Stone would have appeared.”
Stone himself described the scene at his Fort Lauderdale home, saying 29 FBI agents in 17 vehicles with flashing lights arrived at the crack of dawn to arrest him. He said “they could have simply contacted my attorneys and I would have been more than willing to surrender voluntarily.”
Stone is the sixth Trump aide or adviser — and the 34th person overall — charged by Mueller. The nearly two-year-old probe has exposed multiple contacts between Trump associates and Russia during the presidential campaign and transition period. It has revealed efforts by several people to conceal those communications, including the latest allegations against Stone
“I will plead not guilty to these charges,” Stone said after his release from federal custody Friday. “I will defeat them in court.”
