Roger Stone has been found guilty of seven counts, which include obstruction, witness tampering, and making false statements. Here is an article from the establishment media on the story.
I have given my thoughts before on Roger Stone. Many years ago, I believe I played a role in Stone dropping his bid for running for governor in Florida on the Libertarian Party ticket.
Stone is not a libertarian. He has an element of him that is anti establishment, not all that different from Donald Trump. Stone can certainly come across as a shady guy, which probably didn’t help his case in court. Still, just because you come off as shady does not make you guilty of a crime.
Stone faces up to 50 years in prison. That would be 20 years for obstruction and 5 years each for the other 6 counts. He probably won’t actually get that long, but if he is sentenced to 20 years, that could easily end up being the equivalent to a life sentence. Stone is 67 years old.
Maybe Trump will end up pardoning Stone. That is what he should do, but he would obviously take a lot of flak if he did do it. Trump already hates the media, and the media hates him, so I don’t know why he would care. Maybe Trump will do it after the November 2020 election. He wouldn’t have much to lose after that point, regardless of whether he wins or loses.
The biggest joke is that Stone supposedly lied to Congress. I don’t think Congress should even have the power to force someone to testify under oath if they are not on trial. It is typically a trap, or to trap someone else. You can be James Clapper and clearly lie to Congress about a national surveillance program, but that lying is ok in the world of Washington DC.
You can also lie about Russian collusion in the election, but that is fine. You can also lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but that is acceptable. You can make up unsubstantiated claims about chemical weapon attacks by Assad in Syria, but that is about spreading democracy. You can secretly plan coups to overthrow foreign governments, but that is part of national security in Washington DC.
This is why I don’t take these things seriously. I take them seriously in the sense that there are great injustices, but I don’t take seriously that Roger Stone necessarily committed any actual crimes. And if he did commit a crime, it also doesn’t necessarily mean it was something that should be regarded as a crime.
Trump took to Twitter and said the following:
“So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?…”
Trump hit the nail on the head with this one. Trump may not be great for liberty in many ways, but he has his moments of shining against the establishment/ deep state.
This is why I am hopeful that maybe Trump will pardon Roger Stone.
The other charges are not quite as clear, but if you believe that the whole Russia collusion thing was a hoax, then most, if not all, of these charges should not exist. If you are being framed and you obstruct a witness to try to prevent the framing, who is actually committing the crime?
Dumb Juries
We have a long way to go to achieve a free society. Overall, I think it is good we have a jury system. I would rather be judged by a jury than a government panel, at least in most cases. Even if you get a decent and honest judge, they basically have to follow the law. They don’t technically have to, but they probably won’t last long. And the problem is that a lot of the laws are corrupt.
So I’m sure that members of this jury were convinced that Roger Stone lied to Congress. Therefore, they convicted him. But if you are on a jury, you don’t have to give your reasons for voting a certain way. If you don’t think the law is just, you can vote “no” on convicting. That is jury nullification. You can just say that you don’t think he is guilty and leave it at that.
I have said before that we could have a generally free society if enough people believe strongly in the message of liberty and use their power on a jury. If enough of the population comes to believe that there must be an identifiable victim or potential victim for there to be a crime, then juries will start to find people not guilty of victimless crimes. It only takes one person on a jury to hang it.
In other words, if 20% of the population were to believe in the general principles of liberty, this might be enough to completely change the whole system. If someone is on trial for tax evasion, it just takes one person to vote not guilty (because it is a victimless crime). If this happens over and over again, the laws eventually are nullified.
The same would go with prostitution cases and drug cases where there is no victim. It would also stop people claiming to be victims who are suing over things that should not be a crime. We could stop the violation of certain libertarian principles, such as freedom of association. If I am on a jury, I will uphold the property rights of a business owner who is on trial for voluntarily not associating with someone else, regardless of the reason. I don’t really care what the law says. If it is an unjust or immoral law, then it should not be upheld.
If I had been on that jury, I would not have voted to convict Roger Stone, particularly for supposedly lying to Congress. I don’t know all of the intricate details of the case, but I probably wouldn’t have convicted him of any of the counts. Stone may have his shady tactics, but he should only be convicted of something where he intended harm on an innocent person.
I believe that the Stone conviction was all part of the Russia hoax. I have no idea if he had any association with Wikileaks, but it is obvious to anyone paying close attention that the emails from the DNC came from a leaker. They were not hacked by Roger Stone. They were not hacked by the Russians.
Free Roger Stone!