The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - September 04, 2024


Will a NY Judge Jail Trump Next Week? With Trump Impeachment Lawyer David Schoen


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

144.91612

Word Count

7,055

Sentence Count

497

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

In this episode of The Stone Zone, host Roger Stone is joined by David Schoen, who represented President Donald Trump in one of the impeachment proceedings on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The two discuss the ongoing saga surrounding the so-called "Hush Money" case against President Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, as well as the ongoing efforts by the Trump team to delay the case and seek a delay in sentencing. Stone and Schoen also discuss the possibility of the case going to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and what that could mean for the President's case and the potential for a reversal of the sentence. The episode also touches on the role of lawfare in the case, and how it relates to the ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign and the ongoing Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into the alleged hush money agreement between Trump and a former White House lawyer named Donna Shalit Shehadeh, who has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to commit perjury, among other charges, and false statements, to influence the investigation and obstruct justice in order to influence, obstruct, and obstruct the investigation, and delay the investigation of a presidential election, and to obstruct and impede justice, the Stone Zone's host, Roger Stone sits down with one of America's most prominent criminal defense attorneys, David Schoonen. and discusses how the case will be handled by the Supreme Court, and why the case should be heard in federal court, not state court, rather than state court. The Second Circuit, and whether the President should be moved to federal court or federal appeals, and the process should be expedited, or should the case be transferred to federal appeals. . . , and what to do next, and who should be allowed to appeal the case in this matter, and which should be the next step in the process, and where the case might be heard, and when the case is likely to be heard and what the process will be dealt with next, etc., etc., and what will be the outcome will be next. of the process is going to be next, Stone talks about the process and what can be done, and if the case can be heard next, what s being allowed to be done next, & what s going to happen next, and what is the next steps, and so on, and much more. and so much more, and more!


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The Stone Zone, with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit Roger Stone.
00:00:07.220 Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.
00:00:11.240 He is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald
00:00:15.960 Trump. As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts,
00:00:20.940 spoken at countless venues, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the
00:00:25.980 Cambridge Union Society. Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena,
00:00:31.120 Stone has become a pop culture icon. And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.
00:00:41.200 Welcome. I'm Roger Stone. And yes, you are back in the Stone Zone. We're very privileged to have
00:00:47.820 with us today as our guest, David Schoen. He's one of the most prominent criminal defense and
00:00:53.620 constitutional attorneys in the country. He represented President Donald Trump most ably
00:00:59.700 in one of the impeachment proceedings on the floor of the U.S. Senate, someone we call on from time to
00:01:06.320 time for his sage legal opinion. And we're pleased to have him with us today. David, welcome to the
00:01:13.440 Stone Zone. Thank you very much. Great to be here. So, David, obviously it's rare that you see this
00:01:21.060 kind of legal backdrop in a campaign for president, but from the period that President Trump announced
00:01:28.360 that he would be running again, he became a target for what has become known as lawfare. This is an
00:01:36.660 effort to try to first impoverish him, bankrupt him, then now incarcerate him. And of course, the larger
00:01:45.840 issue is an attempt to blacken his name in the run-up to a presidential election. The president
00:01:53.220 faces sentencing in a Manhattan courtroom in front of Judge Juan Marchand in the so-called hush money
00:02:02.340 case, which seems to be to be a pretty thin case to begin with. He went to the federal courts to try to
00:02:09.740 get a delay in this proceedings, but that evidently yesterday was denied. So, give us your view here,
00:02:17.260 an overview of what's likely to happen and how this particular aspect of lawfare plays out.
00:02:26.080 So, the effort, most recent effort to go to federal court before Judge Alvin Hellerstein in the United
00:02:32.040 States District Court for the Southern District of New York was the second attempt. They were before
00:02:36.240 Judge Alvin Hellerstein when the case started and he rejected their efforts. There's a federal statute,
00:02:41.500 28 U.S.C. 1442 A.1, that allows a government official who has a criminal case brought in state
00:02:49.740 court to try to remove the case to federal court if the conduct at issue is an act related to any act
00:02:58.280 taken under color of the office that the person held. And so, that was the theory here that some of the
00:03:05.700 facts alleged in the New York case before Judge Merchant, the so-called hush money case, were taken,
00:03:12.620 if at all, when President Trump was president. And therefore, they related to his office and the
00:03:19.520 case should be moved to federal court. Judge Hellerstein rejected that some time ago and no
00:03:25.160 appeal was taken. They now, the Trump team now moved again before this sentencing to ask Judge
00:03:31.960 Hellerstein to take it up again, raising two grounds, essentially. One, that Judge Merchant is biased and
00:03:37.320 should have recused himself and refuses to do that. And the second, the same argument that it
00:03:43.780 relates to an act taken, an official act, let's call it, and that the immunity decision from the Supreme
00:03:49.740 Court changes the analysis from the first time Judge Hellerstein heard it. And now, since we know that
00:03:55.240 some of the acts involved were acts taken after President Trump was president, there has to be an
00:04:00.940 examination of whether those acts are covered by immunity as official acts, and therefore, the case
00:04:05.960 should be in federal court. Judge Hellerstein kind of summarily dismissed it all last night and said
00:04:11.600 nothing has happened, no decision, no facts alleged have occurred that would change his opinion. So, it's
00:04:17.340 back to Judge Merchant. Apparently, now, the Trump team is going to appeal it to the United States Court of
00:04:22.400 Appeals for the Second Circuit, and we'll ask Judge Merchant again to postpone the sentencing while that
00:04:28.080 appeal runs its course. What is the makeup of the Second Circuit, and any thoughts on how they might
00:04:36.780 rule? I understand the courts are entirely nonpolitical, except, of course, when they are. I said that, you
00:04:43.740 didn't. How do you think that plays out? Well, the Second Circuit is kind of all over the place,
00:04:49.720 both ends of the spectrum. There are a few more recent appointees that, good and bad, let's say,
00:04:58.340 for an issue like this. I don't think it's likely that the Second Circuit will take it up. There's this
00:05:04.960 sort of overriding sentiment, it seems, that while this shouldn't guide judicial decisions, but an
00:05:10.120 overriding sentiment that the case should just go before Judge Merchant and run its course in the
00:05:14.880 state system. I will say this. I would bet dollars to donuts that the conviction will be reversed. It
00:05:21.200 has to be reversed if the integrity of the rule of law means anything in New York. It seems to me
00:05:27.740 President Trump was charged and convicted under a statute that was never really identified. The
00:05:36.100 government of the state prosecutors never identified what the underlying crime was. Again,
00:05:40.820 you know, just in a nutshell, it was a misdemeanor to make false business records, supposedly, to cover
00:05:47.680 up with the check. First of all, to make false business records regarding checks paid to Stormy
00:05:53.420 Daniels. And then they transform it into a felony, supposedly, by showing that that was done to commit
00:06:01.160 or to hide some other crime. They refused to identify what this some other crime was,
00:06:07.500 could have been to help him in the election, could have been for tax purposes, or otherwise, all
00:06:12.120 completely different defenses. The judge refused to make the prosecution identify the crime. There's a
00:06:18.860 clear due process violation, effective assistance of counsel violation, and so on. There's no way the verdict
00:06:25.540 can be upheld consistent with the rule of law. And so I don't believe the DA really cares about that.
00:06:31.700 Ultimately, they want all of this to play out before the election. They want there to be a sentencing.
00:06:35.680 They want to be able to trumpet as they have, that this is a convicted felon running for president,
00:06:40.520 and so on. And it's a phony set of charges, as even Trump haters have said from the start.
00:06:47.660 Former Attorney General and Governor Cuomo in New York has said, if Trump were not running for
00:06:53.140 president, these charges never would have been brought, in his opinion.
00:06:55.960 One of the things that surprised me was the limitations that the judge put on President
00:07:03.540 Trump's defense. Now, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because the judge in my case put the
00:07:08.900 same kind of limitations on my defense. But for example, if it is alleged that the underlying crime
00:07:17.300 was a federal election law violation, the judge denied Trump and his lawyers the ability to call
00:07:24.540 the former chairman, vice chairman, and general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, who's
00:07:30.360 pretty widely viewed as the foremost expert on that law. Do those become appealable matters
00:07:37.780 at the next step?
00:07:39.140 Absolutely. There's an independent defense here that he was denied the right to put on a defense,
00:07:44.960 period. And that includes calling witnesses, putting forward theories of defense in cross
00:07:49.460 examination and in direct testimony. It includes the jury instructions that went out. How on earth
00:07:54.920 should a lay jury be able to decide whether he committed, he doctored up his business records
00:08:01.360 in order to attempt to commit or to commit or to cover up some election finance violation when they
00:08:08.420 can't possibly understand, it's not subject to lay sort of view, the federal election finance rules.
00:08:16.680 There are many, many, as you well know, many detailed rules on what can be done, can't be done.
00:08:23.660 And the question, of course, in this case, factually would have been, did if he even filed,
00:08:28.780 made false business entries, was it done to cover up something for embarrassment purposes so his wife
00:08:33.980 wouldn't find out? Do people really think that the vote for or against President Trump in that election
00:08:41.060 was going to be determined by whether they thought he had a relationship with any particular woman or not?
00:08:47.600 It's absurd. We had, you know, major national security issues and other important issues.
00:08:52.920 But anyway, your point is well taken.
00:08:55.980 That is, he was never permitted to put on a defense,
00:08:58.300 and that raises all kinds of constitutional violations.
00:09:02.060 Before we leave New York, let's speak to the other high-profile case there, Judge Ingeron,
00:09:09.640 obviously convicted or found against President Trump on the so-called valuations case.
00:09:17.220 This one really boggles the mind because, as I watched it, the president wasn't allowed to put on
00:09:23.600 any defense at all. It was basically, you're guilty, now we're just going to decide how much
00:09:28.820 you're going to pay. How do you think that case ultimately plays out?
00:09:34.600 That's absolutely right. And here he put on an expert, he put on bank witnesses who said there
00:09:39.120 was no laws. In fact, the banks made a lot of money off of it and that he had done nothing wrong.
00:09:43.760 But the judge in this case, because he heard it as a bench trial rather than a jury trial,
00:09:48.340 was able to make credibility findings and just discounted the Trump witnesses and credited
00:09:53.560 Letitia James, Attorney General Letitia James' witnesses. Again, that case must be reversed on
00:10:00.360 appeal for many reasons. The executive law at issue itself purports to charge fraud. It's the only
00:10:06.940 variety of so-called fraud that doesn't require any reliance on a materially false statement of any
00:10:13.520 kind or any loss or any victim. So it's absurd. But I think a big issue that I really don't hear
00:10:19.620 talked about much is the denial of the jury trial in the case. This same executive law came before a
00:10:27.100 federal judge, Louis Stanton, in the U.S. District Court, the Southern District of New York. And he
00:10:32.240 found that in federal court, there's a right to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment, under this exact
00:10:37.600 same law that the state court has found there is no right to a jury trial under the state constitution.
00:10:44.700 So there's a real tension there that I believe turns on serious issues of due process and the
00:10:50.000 right to a jury trial. I believe that even under the New York Constitution, there was a right to
00:10:54.200 jury trial. There's a procedural question because President Trump's lawyers didn't request, timely
00:10:58.820 request a jury trial. But I think there's an argument there to be made that it would have been futile.
00:11:03.560 And therefore, there can't be any constitutional waiver since there was already a case in New York that
00:11:07.540 said you don't get the right to a jury trial. But that's a major consideration. That's a fundamental
00:11:12.200 part of our system. The reason, by the way, that a New York state court had said there's no right to
00:11:17.160 a jury trial is because they found that this executive law isn't really about damages. It's
00:11:21.860 about putting some fraudster out of business or alerting the public and so on. And so they said when
00:11:27.100 damages are incidental to the law, then there's no right to a jury trial. Here, the damages carry the
00:11:34.980 day in the case. It's unprecedented damages, hundreds of millions of dollars. They're not
00:11:40.400 incidental to anything. And so I think his fundamental right to a jury trial was denied.
00:11:44.940 I wish that issue had been raised more squarely on the appeal, but I think he'll win the appeal anyway.
00:11:50.640 So let's go back to the most danger-fraught part of this, the sentencing of President Donald Trump on
00:11:58.060 the 18th. In the event that the judge orders him into immediate incarceration, presumably at Rikers
00:12:06.720 Island, there are got to be serious questions regarding his ongoing Secret Service protection.
00:12:13.620 This may not be a legal question, but logistically, I'm not even sure how that could work.
00:12:19.800 I'm not either. It's unprecedented. You can be sure that the Attorney General in New York and the
00:12:25.900 District Attorney will assure Judge Merchan that they can provide proper security with the Secret
00:12:31.680 Service. They'll find a facility for it and all of that. It's a bunch of nonsense. And for anyone
00:12:37.200 who has suggested that this was election interference, putting President Trump out of commission during
00:12:43.180 the election season would absolutely cement that for the American public. He should go up,
00:12:49.000 way up in the polls because of these ongoing efforts. There's no reason for any of this to be
00:12:53.640 conducted before the election. I'm in agreement with you there. So as I understand it, until
00:13:02.380 sentencing is complete, the president really can't file his appeal. Is that correct?
00:13:09.820 That's correct, because there won't be a final judgment to appeal from in the case until the
00:13:13.800 sentence has been imposed. All right. Let's move to the so-called documents case,
00:13:20.420 which at this juncture, as you know, Judge Eileen Cannon of the 11th Circuit has ruled that special
00:13:28.900 counsel Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional for a couple reasons. First of all, there's no
00:13:36.180 provision in law for the creation of that position. Secondarily, Mr. Smith, very much like Robert Mueller,
00:13:44.540 was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He was not a sitting U.S. attorney. I know that Hunter Biden's
00:13:53.620 lawyers tried to raise this issue pertaining to special counsel David Weiss, but Weiss was a U.S.
00:14:00.120 attorney. His authority has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. It's interesting to see Andrew Weissman and
00:14:08.860 Joyce Vance and all these other virulent, vicious partisans posing as unbiased legal analysts insisting
00:14:18.540 that the ruling by Judge Cannon is in a fringe case, that it's an illegitimate theory,
00:14:25.820 even though it was put forward by former Attorney General Ed Meese and two respected law professors,
00:14:33.460 neither one of whom is particularly a Trump supporter, but focused solely on the law. The
00:14:41.220 judge essentially ruled that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. Smith has announced his
00:14:49.220 intention. I think he may even have filed his appeal with the 11th Circuit. How do you think this plays out?
00:14:56.800 Well, it's a fascinating case to me. As you know, also, there is a more summary decision from the D.C.
00:15:03.800 Circuit upholding the special counsel position, notwithstanding these constitutional problems
00:15:09.260 that Judge Cannon identified. Very importantly, I think Judge Cannon identified at least two major
00:15:14.320 constitutional problems. The factual scenario that you've identified, no statute authorized in the office,
00:15:21.560 no proper appointment, no confirmation by the Senate. He's not an inferior officer. And so those apply
00:15:26.740 under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2. But she also raised
00:15:34.680 the Appropriations Clause argument, which is very important. And that is that we only appropriate
00:15:41.120 money for offices that have been legally authorized, and that that isn't the case here. And that's Article 1,
00:15:47.500 Section 9, Clause 7. So that's another important argument. And that's why she heard testimony
00:15:53.120 about, or argument at least, about this unlimited budget that Jack Smith seems to have. And by the
00:16:00.840 way, it should go mentioned that Jack Smith has on his team, again, some of the worst prosecutors
00:16:08.120 around. I have a sanctions motion going against J.P. Cooney and Molly Gaston, two members of his team,
00:16:14.860 and a pending case in D.C. right now. And you certainly know J.P. Cooney. But it'll be interesting
00:16:23.180 to see how it plays out. What's disturbing to me is that we see these so-called scholars or commentators
00:16:28.020 suggesting this is a frivolous decision. It's not a frivolous decision by any means. And Professor
00:16:33.240 Calabrese and Lawton from Northwestern and Boston University didn't write a frivolous argument on this
00:16:41.940 subject. As you said, Meese wouldn't have filed it had it been frivolous. So it's a very interesting
00:16:48.200 argument, the way it'll play out. I'm also concerned about an amicus brief that a group is trying to
00:16:53.320 file now, run by former federal judge Nancy Gertner and NYU ethics expert Steve Gillers,
00:17:00.720 asking the 11th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, to remove Judge Cannon from the case. There is no basis
00:17:06.560 for removing Judge Cannon. And I'd like to know where these experts and moral barometers are with
00:17:15.260 respect to Judge Merchant, who has the clearest case of recusal or for disqualification under New
00:17:20.700 York law of any that I've ever seen, quite frankly, given his daughter's clear conflict of interest and
00:17:26.640 the provision in the New York ethics law for mandatory recusal when there's a possibility or a likelihood
00:17:33.580 that a family member of the judge could have a financial interest substantially affected.
00:17:41.720 Yeah, this is a reoccurring theme. So in other words, when a judge who was appointed, let's say, by Barack
00:17:50.200 Obama, issues a ruling that is a politically oriented case, that's perfectly all right. So even though the
00:17:58.840 Russian collusion hoax we now know, based on the report of special counsel John Durham, was hatched in
00:18:06.340 the Oval Office with President Barack Obama present, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, the attorney general,
00:18:16.220 the head of the FBI, the fact that the judge who sat on my case, the judge who sat on General Flynn's case,
00:18:23.620 the judge who sat on Paul Manafort's case, they were all appointed by Barack Obama. You see, that was
00:18:30.180 no problem whatsoever. Now, when Judge Cannon, who was, by the way, a respected prosecutor and highly
00:18:38.600 regarded in the circuit, when she makes a judgment adverse to what the radical left wants,
00:18:46.580 she's incompetent. She's unqualified. This is outrageous. She's going to be removed from the
00:18:53.800 circuit. It's an extraordinary double standard. And they continue to insist that the issues raised by
00:19:01.740 Attorney General Meese and ultimately by Trump's lawyers, these are fringe theories. I mean, David,
00:19:08.140 you've read their pleadings. Are these fringe theories?
00:19:11.240 Not at all. They're very important constitutional issues that have to be fleshed out. You know,
00:19:17.660 I don't know who's going to win in the case. Again, the 11th Circuit, the panels are extraordinarily
00:19:22.760 different depending on who they get. And reasonable people can differ on the issues. But I'm telling you,
00:19:30.860 Professor Calabrese makes a very strong legal argument in his article on which these arguments
00:19:36.720 are based. And there has to be a full and fair airing of the issues and not some attempt to
00:19:43.500 marginalize them, as you've said, and as is going on from Neil Caddiel and Andrew Weissman and all of
00:19:50.320 these folks mocking it on the television. This is an important civics lesson for the American people.
00:19:55.460 And nobody should mock the application of the provisions of the Constitution that are involved
00:20:00.520 in this case. I can't actually think of any time in American politics where the U.S. Supreme Court
00:20:08.440 made a ruling where they were subsequently attacked on that ruling by a sitting president
00:20:13.400 of the United States. I'm sure President Nixon wasn't happy with the Supreme Court's ruling regarding
00:20:20.040 the requirement that he release the Watergate tapes, the so-called White House tapes. He had a legitimate
00:20:26.940 argument that they were his personal property. The Supreme Court ruled against him. He didn't defy
00:20:33.480 the court, nor did he attack or vilify the court. I can't remember, I can't ever remember a time
00:20:39.200 in which a sitting president attacked the court and basically said that he doesn't intend to honor
00:20:48.080 the court's rulings. This is kind of the beginning of the end. David, final point, because I know you're
00:20:54.740 pressed for time, and I appreciate your being with us, the Supreme Court reforms put forward by President
00:21:03.200 Joe Biden. I'm a layman, but I read them. It seems to me that they're a total separation, they are a total
00:21:10.480 violation of the entire concept of the separation of powers that have served the country well for
00:21:16.280 200 years. Your thoughts? I think it's a horrible initiative. It ties into what you just said before
00:21:24.740 this, and that is the unprecedented attacks by the chief executive, President Biden, Vice President
00:21:30.620 Harris, on the institution of the Supreme Court and on the individual justices. It's absolutely
00:21:37.020 outrageous. And, you know, we hear these claims by now-candidate Harris that the Republican Party,
00:21:43.540 anti-democratic and Donald Trump would tear apart democracy. There are no more anti-democratic
00:21:49.300 initiatives than things like the Democratic Party has been undertaking, trying to pack the court now,
00:21:58.000 trying to limit the terms of Supreme Court justices because they don't like their decisions,
00:22:03.960 undermining the integrity of the court. Yeah, it's true that Supreme Court justices aren't elected,
00:22:07.940 but they're a fundamental part of our constitutional system under Article III of the Constitution.
00:22:15.160 These are horrible initiatives. There's so many anti-democratic statements coming out of this
00:22:22.960 administration, candidate Harris and President Biden. And it starts with the Congress as well. You know,
00:22:31.080 Jerry Nadler said we can't trust the voters with respect to Trump. Yes, we can. That's part of our
00:22:36.480 democratic system, a fundamental part. The voters get to choose who their leader will be in this
00:22:42.620 country. So we've got to stop this anti-democratic action by the Democratic Party, including, by the
00:22:49.220 way, going into states around the country to very aggressively remove or prevent third-party candidates
00:22:57.800 from getting on the ballot so that people have a choice other than the two. That's, again, a fundamental
00:23:03.720 part of our constitutional system, the right to vote and the right to stand for office. And so we see the
00:23:10.080 Democratic Party as part of what led to RFK Jr. withdrawing and throwing his support behind President
00:23:15.860 Trump now. Final question, since you raised it. An important part of your practice has always been
00:23:23.180 helping candidates of various parties or independent candidates get ballot access, kind of a fundamental
00:23:30.800 right. It's interesting. The Democrats spent literally tens of millions of dollars to prevent
00:23:38.580 Robert Kennedy from being on the ballot in various states. But now that he's withdrawn and decided to
00:23:46.620 endorse and support President Trump, yesterday a judge denied him the ability to get his name off
00:23:53.780 the ballot in Michigan. So first they fought his ability to get on the ballot. Now that he's on,
00:23:59.420 but he's no longer a federal candidate, the judge in Michigan refuses to remove him from the ballot.
00:24:07.060 Your analysis of that.
00:24:09.760 Same in North Carolina. You know, they often come up with, there is this principle that on the eve of
00:24:14.280 election, ballot printing initiatives are difficult to undertake and we don't make last-minute changes.
00:24:20.940 They do when they want to and when they have to. There's significant precedent coming out of Chicago
00:24:25.740 with former Mayor Washington and so on when they last minute ordered ballots to be changed. It's true,
00:24:31.800 there are overseas ballots that are out and so on, but we have to allow people to be on the ballot or
00:24:36.780 take people off of the ballot when it's appropriate. And it's appropriate here because it will skew the
00:24:41.940 vote. Listen, in California, you know, they've gone to this top two primary system so that people only have
00:24:48.360 two candidates that they can vote for. I'm about to file a constitutional challenge to that system. I believe
00:24:53.740 it violates about many ballot access constitutional provisions. But anyway, I think the democratic system
00:24:59.960 is to allow candidates who have some support, at least, to get on the ballot and if a candidate isn't running
00:25:06.060 for office anymore, to get off the ballot and make that clear to people.
00:25:09.520 All right. I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank my guest, David Schoen,
00:25:15.700 to my mind, one of the most brilliant legal minds in the United States. David, thank you so much for
00:25:20.400 giving us your time today. Thank you very much. It's an honor, always. Yesterday, in an extraordinary
00:25:26.960 interview with Kash Patel, the former National Security Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff of the U.S.
00:25:35.320 Defense Department and Sean Ryan, Patel pointed out the vulnerability of our electrical grid. In fact,
00:25:44.840 he predicted that there would be an attack to shut down America's electrical power grid. You know,
00:25:51.480 the last time I thought about this was when AT&T's cell service went down. It was a nightmare. And then
00:25:58.560 I decided to do something about it. I got the Iridium 9555 phone and their proprietary Iridium
00:26:07.080 satellite service. Take a look. This is Roger Stone. Remember when AT&T's cell phone outage left
00:26:15.080 millions, including me, stranded without a means to communicate with loved ones, business associates,
00:26:21.300 or even for emergency services? You see, cellular networks are particularly vulnerable,
00:26:26.420 big targets for hackers and terrorists, as well as vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural
00:26:32.460 disasters. So if your cell phone goes down, how will you communicate? That's why I got the Iridium
00:26:40.260 9555 satellite phone and service. I'm using the proprietary Iridium satellite service. Cell networks
00:26:49.080 only cover about 7% of the earth, while the Iridium system covers 100% of the earth. You can call or
00:26:56.340 text from any place you can see the sky. These are trusted by U.S. military and government officials
00:27:02.340 everywhere. All calls are encrypted, safe and secure. No eavesdropping, no hacking. It's the reason the U.S.
00:27:09.720 military uses Iridium phones and the U.S. Senate uses satellite phones for their secure phone calls.
00:27:16.160 You too can ensure your privacy by using our Iridium proprietary satellite network. Just go to
00:27:23.620 sat123.com slash roger. No tracking and no one can listen to your calls. No one will ever read your
00:27:31.780 text but the person you're sending them to. And more importantly, big tech cannot steal and then sell
00:27:37.660 your data. You can get the Iridium 9555 phone at no cost if you sign up for a plan with a 24-month
00:27:46.240 agreement. A monthly plan is only $95.95 and you get the phone for free. You can get a plan with us
00:27:55.040 for as little as $85.95. And then there are discounted family share plans with up to three
00:28:01.620 free phones. Those are also available. The Iridium 9555 satellite phone will work from anywhere on earth
00:28:09.420 with no exceptions. Oh, and how do you keep your satellite phone charged in the event of an
00:28:15.060 electrical grid shutdown? You're going to want our solar-powered satellite phone recharger. You can
00:28:21.060 get it all by going to sat123.com slash roger. You need to have secure communications. Get your Iridium
00:28:30.180 9555 phone now. I'm Roger Stone and you're back on The Stone Zone. Florida has a constitutional
00:28:42.520 amendment on the ballot, Amendment 3, that would legalize cannabis. That's right. It would legalize
00:28:48.900 marijuana. At the same time, it would leave to the legislature the right to both regulate it and tax it
00:28:56.800 and ensure its purity. Now, under this system, you would, for example, the legislature could prohibit
00:29:05.320 public use. That way it doesn't smell like marijuana every place. I endorsed Amendment 3 several weeks
00:29:12.240 ago, and I'm happy to say that President Donald Trump has now endorsed Amendment 3. President Trump,
00:29:20.040 a posting on True Social, says, as everyone knows, I was and will be again the most respected
00:29:26.620 law and order president in U.S. history. Whether we like it or not, Amendment 3 will be legalized.
00:29:36.200 In Florida, like so many other states that have given approval, personal amounts of marijuana will
00:29:40.820 be legalized for adults. Whether we like it or not, this will happen, though the approval of voters,
00:29:46.580 so it must be done correctly. We need the state legislature, Trump said, to responsibly create laws
00:29:52.460 that prohibit its public use in public spaces. So we don't have to smell marijuana everywhere we go,
00:30:00.140 as they do in so many Democrat-run cities. At the same time, Trump wrote, someone should not be a
00:30:06.600 criminal in Florida when it is legal in so many other states. Now, Congressman Matt Gaetz is opposed
00:30:14.360 to Amendment 3. That's because it is being done in the form of a constitutional amendment,
00:30:19.260 amendment, meaning the advocates of Amendment 3 went out and collected a necessary number of
00:30:24.220 signatures and met other very strict legal requirements for the wording of constitutional
00:30:30.560 amendments in Florida. Gaetz says that he would have preferred that this be done through the
00:30:37.380 legislative process. That's, of course, completely unrealistic. Here's why. The only reason we have
00:30:44.980 medicinal marijuana currently legal in Florida is through constitutional amendment. That's because
00:30:52.380 the Republican legislature and Governor Rick Scott opposed it, and the legislature refused to either
00:30:59.760 pass it as a law or to put it on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. Therefore, John Morgan of
00:31:07.320 Morgan and Morgan stepped forward and put together a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for
00:31:16.520 medicinal use, of course, leaving the ability to regulate that in a regulatory and distribution scheme
00:31:23.580 to the legislature. The first time he put it on the ballot, it failed very narrowly. Constitutional
00:31:30.720 amendments in Florida require 60 percent of the vote. Second time, to his credit, John Morgan corrected
00:31:37.240 all of the mistakes he had made in the previous effort. He drafted a much, much better constitutional
00:31:43.320 amendment, and it passed. Here's the problem. Florida's constitutional, pardon me, Florida's medicinal
00:31:50.680 medical marijuana system is cumbersome, bureaucratic, extremely restrictive, limited, expensive,
00:32:01.120 and very user unfriendly. See, under the law passed by the legislature to regulate medicinal marijuana,
00:32:09.800 its use is only limited to a very specific list of illnesses and diseases. The system requires a license
00:32:18.640 card, which has to be renewed. It's a nightmare. Now, I feel strongly about this because, frankly, when my own
00:32:25.840 father was dying of cancer and he was wasting away because he had no appetite and he was in horrific
00:32:34.640 pain, my sister and I got him cannabis, which he smoked. It both put weight on him, restored his appetite,
00:32:42.480 and helped him ease the pain. I believe that there are veterans and many in Florida who must rely on cannabis
00:32:51.280 for medicine. But the current system of medicinal marijuana isn't working. It's why I support Amendment
00:33:00.000 3 and why I'm proud that President Trump now also supports this act of freedom. All right. Here's another
00:33:10.000 interesting story I wanted to touch on. Again, broken by my friend Laura Loomer, then in the New York Post. Tim
00:33:16.880 Waltz's older brother, Jeff Waltz, has come out against his brother's candidacy for vice president.
00:33:26.800 Writing in the, being quoted in the New York Post, he says, I'm 100% opposed to all his ideology. Jeff Waltz
00:33:35.280 declares Friday evening to the Post. He said he had little faith in his kid brother. I've thought long and hard about
00:33:43.880 doing something like that. I'm torn between that and just keeping my family out of it, the 67-year-old
00:33:49.880 Floridian wrote. The stories I could tell. Tim Waltz is not the kind of character you want making decisions
00:33:56.920 for your future, he added. Besides Tim Waltz, he has a sister, Sandra Dietrich, who lives in Nebraska,
00:34:03.560 where the Waltz clan grew up. Another brother, Craig Waltz, is deceased. As you can see now,
00:34:09.720 all the members of the Waltz family, other than perhaps Tim Waltz's wife, are now opposing his
00:34:16.440 candidacy. The other thing that caught my interest this week was Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris seems to
00:34:25.640 be out front for the censorship of X. X, which used to be known as Twitter. X, which is fundamentally
00:34:33.720 a free speech site. Let's take a look at Kamala Harris. He has lost his privileges and it should
00:34:40.440 be taken down. And the bottom line is that you can't say that you have one rule for Facebook and
00:34:44.760 you have a different rule for Twitter. The same rule has to apply, which is that there has to be
00:34:50.280 a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power. They are
00:34:56.200 directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation.
00:35:04.520 And that has to stop. That is amazing because, of course, it's not a privilege. It's a right to say
00:35:13.640 that Elon Musk or the people at X have lost their privileges. This is not a privilege, but I think it
00:35:20.040 is a portent to dangerous things to come. We know that the Cybersecurity Infrastructure
00:35:26.600 Security Agency, which interfered in the 2020 election by censoring free speech, such as,
00:35:34.040 oh, I don't know, Hunter Biden's laptop allegedly being Russian intelligence, we know that they are
00:35:42.920 again planning to interfere with this election. Censorship, interestingly enough, was one of the
00:35:49.160 three issues that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listed in his powerful endorsement of Donald Trump.
00:35:57.720 I'm going to keep us up with this issue because I still think censorship is the single greatest
00:36:04.920 impediment to a free, fair, honest, transparent election. We had Dr. Robert Epstein on my 77 W
00:36:13.480 ABC radio show recently, and he talked about the way Google manipulates a data. For example,
00:36:21.080 if you are a Democrat, you will get multiple reminders to vote, whether to vote early or to
00:36:26.760 vote on election day from Google. But if you're a Republican, well, you'll get no such reminders.
00:36:33.560 This is a video I have to show you. I love the guys at the Dilly Mean Teams and Ramble Rants is among my favorites. Check this out.
00:37:03.560 four
00:37:07.000 one
00:37:10.660 one
00:37:21.560 two
00:37:24.120 We'll be right back.
00:37:54.120 You got to love that. You just have to love that.
00:37:59.160 Shocking news out of the ingoing inquiry into the events in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:38:07.100 Yesterday, Congressman Corey Mills revealed that those guarding President Trump, rather than most of them being seasoned or experienced secret service agents,
00:38:19.580 actually were employees of the Department of Homeland Security.
00:38:23.360 But don't worry, folks. Each one of them had had at least a two hour webinar to train them in executive protection.
00:38:32.320 Unbelievable.
00:38:32.900 If you are interested in the topic of assassination, let me recommend to you my book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy, The Case Against LBJ.
00:38:44.320 Now, in this book, I use eyewitness evidence, fingerprint evidence and deep Texas politics in a heavily documented book,
00:38:53.780 making the case that LBJ, along with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, Big Texas Oil, organized crime,
00:39:05.780 and, yes, Wall Street interests, all plotted together to murder President John F. Kennedy.
00:39:13.400 Now, if you want, you could get my book.
00:39:16.780 It's a New York Times bestseller, The Man Who Killed Kennedy, The Case Against LBJ.
00:39:21.140 You could buy it at Amazon, or you could buy it at Barnes & Noble, but unless you don't want to give money to a multinational corporation that hates your guts,
00:39:31.780 let me suggest you go to themanwhokilledkennedy.com.
00:39:37.080 That's themanwhokilledkennedy.com.
00:39:40.620 If you do that, then you will not only get the paperback version that has three additional chapters,
00:39:47.160 but you will get a personally signed copy, and, yes, it can be personalized.
00:39:52.960 Well, the election is more than two months away.
00:39:56.100 Is it really surprising that the Biden administration is now raising the false specter of Russian interference?
00:40:03.360 There's going to be Russian interference in our election.
00:40:06.340 We've heard this one before.
00:40:08.200 Take a look at this video.
00:40:09.800 Donald Trump's campaign chairman was secretly meeting with Russian intelligence.
00:40:13.620 Russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy.
00:40:18.240 I think he's guilty because he knows.
00:40:21.160 What did he do?
00:40:22.260 Well, he's the one who can answer that.
00:40:24.140 I think he knows.
00:40:24.900 You said he's guilty.
00:40:25.640 What's he guilty of?
00:40:26.400 Well, I think he feels that there is something that's going to come out about Russia.
00:40:30.360 Why are, you know, other Americans basically believing Putin?
00:40:35.520 Why did Trump believe Putin more than our 11 intelligence agencies?
00:40:40.120 I don't know.
00:40:40.960 Do you have a working theory?
00:40:42.320 I do have a working theory.
00:40:43.360 Well, the role of the government, in his view, is to advance his political fortunes and destroy his political enemies.
00:40:49.960 So what would a second term look like?
00:40:52.120 It would look a lot like Vladimir Putin in Russia.
00:40:54.320 It would look a lot like Viktor Orban in Hungary.
00:40:57.320 Illiberal democracy.
00:40:58.760 In 2016, the Russians intervened heavily in our election to try to elect Donald Trump.
00:41:04.460 They intervened with a massive social media campaign run out of St. Petersburg.
00:41:09.540 They intervened by hacking the Democratic Party.
00:41:14.140 Well, it is like Watergate in the sense that you had a break-in at the Democratic headquarters.
00:41:18.240 The Democratic headquarters, in this case, a virtual one, not a physical break-in.
00:41:22.660 And you had a president as part of a cover-up.
00:41:25.260 And here you have a president doing a different kind of cover-up.
00:41:28.140 Are you worried that Putin could be attempting and the Kremlin could be attempting to intervene in our election in 2024?
00:41:35.220 And should we all be spending more time talking about that?
00:41:37.760 I am very concerned about it.
00:41:41.260 It wouldn't be the first time that Russia has intervened in our election.
00:41:43.680 It wouldn't be the first time they've done it to try to help elect Donald Trump.
00:41:47.080 And they have so much more at stake today than they did back in 2016.
00:41:51.740 With the war going on in Ukraine, with NATO enlarging around it, they feel beleaguered.
00:41:59.700 And here comes Donald Trump, a real lifeline.
00:42:02.640 They have more at stake.
00:42:03.760 They have less reason to avoid risk.
00:42:06.660 The United States is supporting Ukraine in the war, or has been until Trump's influence on the GOP.
00:42:13.160 So they have more at stake now than they did before.
00:42:16.000 They have less risk aversion than they did before.
00:42:18.860 So, yes, we should fully expect them to engage.
00:42:21.300 It's just a question of how much they engage.
00:42:24.500 This is an absurdity.
00:42:26.400 Let's address them one by one.
00:42:28.560 Paul Manafort was meeting with Russian intelligence assets.
00:42:32.580 False.
00:42:33.000 They go on to say, usually, that Paul Manafort shared proprietary polling information from the Trump campaign with a man named Konstantin Kalimnik, who they claim is a Russian intelligence asset.
00:42:47.540 There's a couple problems with this.
00:42:49.360 First of all, the Trump campaign had no proprietary polling information.
00:42:53.780 So any information that Manafort gave to Kalimnik would have been from published public sources.
00:43:00.120 Secondarily, as the independent journalist Matt Taibbi has absolutely documented, Konstantin Kalimnik was not a Russian intelligence asset.
00:43:11.000 In fact, he was a U.S. intelligence asset, reporting regularly to the Defense Department, pardon me, the State Department, and to the embassy in Kiev.
00:43:23.640 His name was redacted from a number of documents because he was a confidential source for our government.
00:43:30.420 Secondarily, there, of course, is the claim that Roger Stone was communicating with Guccifer 2.0, who was a Russian intelligence asset.
00:43:38.880 Well, first of all, the very brief 28-word exchange between somebody calling himself goofs for 2.0 and me on Twitter direct messages took place three weeks, pardon me, three months after the Democratic National Committee had been hacked,
00:43:58.520 but also after WikiLeaks had already published all of the material between the DNC and Hillary Clinton.
00:44:07.440 So I spoke to them after the fact.
00:44:10.280 Also, the actual text of all of our exchange, our only exchange, is completely innocuous.
00:44:17.140 It doesn't prove that I received anything from them or knew in advance about any hack of the DNC.
00:44:24.280 In fact, the claim that the DNC was hacked is false.
00:44:28.840 That is because the FBI admitted in my trial pre-motions that they never inspected the computer servers at the DNC, relying on a report from CrowdStrikes, a third-party independent IT firm.
00:44:44.320 The IT report produced by CrowdStrikes was denied to my defense attorneys at trial, but it would ultimately be declassified.
00:44:55.080 It matches the testimony of the head of cybersecurity at CrowdStrikes, Sean Henry, who testified before the House Intelligence Committee that, in fact, he had no proof that the Russians conducted an online hack of the DNC.
00:45:13.040 The judge would not allow me to bring expert testimony from Bill Binney, who was a high-level counterintelligence IT expert with the CIA, or produce any of the forensic evidence that would have proved that there was no online hack at the DNC.
00:45:31.940 And lastly, the claim that the Russians were financing an advanced social media campaign.
00:45:40.680 They spent about $40,000 in a multibillion-dollar race for the presidency, and their messaging was not consistently anti-Trump or anti-Hillary or pro-Bernie.
00:45:52.440 At different times, they said different things.
00:45:55.000 Looked to me like Boris and Igor definitely had English as a second language.
00:46:00.440 Anyway, that's it for today.
00:46:02.640 I want to remind you folks to please follow us on Rumble.
00:46:06.460 You can go to the Rumble app and download that now.
00:46:11.860 As you can see, we are at rumble.com slash Roger Stone.
00:46:16.760 Rumble.com slash Roger Stone.
00:46:19.880 Remember to hit the notifications after you follow us.
00:46:24.040 We're there at 8 p.m. Eastern every weeknight.
00:46:28.340 Folks, you can also see us at worldviewtube.com.
00:46:33.240 That's at 4 o'clock Central and 5 o'clock Eastern.
00:46:36.700 So if you don't catch us at worldviewtube, you can catch us later on Rumble.
00:46:42.040 Lastly, I have to remind you that, yes, our show is sponsored by the great folks at mypillow.com.
00:46:49.020 Mike Lindell is a great American who deserves our support.
00:46:52.540 And I have many favorite products there.
00:46:55.900 Go to mypillow.com.
00:46:58.020 And when you do, use promo code Stone.
00:47:00.960 That's right, promo code Stone.
00:47:03.180 The dog beds, the pet blankets, the super absorbent bath towels, the luxurious bed sheets.
00:47:11.220 These are some of the greatest products out there.
00:47:13.440 You get deep discounts when you use promo code Stone.
00:47:17.660 Mrs. Stone will be very grateful.
00:47:20.460 All right, that's it for today's show.
00:47:22.300 I'm Roger Stone.
00:47:23.220 Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
00:47:25.460 Thanks to our guest, David Schoen, one of the top criminal defense lawyers in the country,
00:47:30.640 on the question of whether President Trump will be incarcerated a few short days from now.
00:47:36.360 Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
00:47:39.700 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people
00:47:46.900 love him.
00:47:48.460 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.
00:47:50.840 Roger Stone.
00:47:51.860 Where's Roger Stone?
00:47:53.080 Where's Roger Stone?
00:47:53.120 Where's Roger Stone?
00:47:55.260 Who's Roger Stone?
00:47:57.460 Yes.
00:47:59.400 Wagner's been Pod.
00:48:02.340 headache.
00:48:03.440 phenomenon.
00:48:10.540 .
00:48:11.020 Thank you.