TRUMP CRIME FAMILY;: ANOTHER SOLDIER OUTED

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One of my favorite "small-world" stories is how Mario Puzo, author of "The Godfather," played a significant role in my life. You can read all about it in my memoir, "The Client Decides."

I thought about that this morning when I read Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of Roger Stone for obstruction, lying to Congress, and witness tampering. Stone not only channels Puzo's legendary mob leader, but Stone actually quotes Puzo: Stone urges "Person # 2" ("P2") to "do a Frank Pantangeli," the Godfather II character who, in testimony before Congress, lies by claiming ignorance of facts that he, in fact, knows all about.

Roger Stone is the storied political "trickster" who was so loyal to the last disgraced President that he had a portrait of Richard Nixon tattooed on his back.

Stone told Congress that he communicated to Wikileaks leader Assange about the hacked Democrat emails via his sole intermediary, P2.

P2 was then subpoenaed to testify before Congress. He told Stone he would tell the truth, which would make a liar out of Stone on several counts. The Mueller indictment charges that when P2 so informed Stone, he urged  P2 not only to emulate Puzo's fictional Frank Pantangeli, but to follow the advice of Stone's real-life idol: in an email to P2, Stone quoted advice earlier given to co-conspirators by Richard Nixon: "Stonewall it. Plead the Fifth. Anything to save the plan."

Stone was questioned by two Congressional committees about the Russia interference with the 2016 election. He arrogantly denied having any correspondence, emails, texts, or other material relating to the Wikileaks publication of hacked Democratic Party emails. Indeed, he swore there was no such documentation, that all of his communications on the subject were oral.

But the Special Counsel indictment proves that the Stone testimony was a lie, and quotes from a score of relevant emails and texts written and received by Stone. Included in that trove are Stone's communications:

i) With "senior Trump campaign officials" regarding releases Wikileaks might have that would damage the Clinton campaign. Included was an email wherein Stone was "directed by a senior Trump Campaign official to inquire regarding further releases", and Stone's responses to the Trump campaign reporting the potential for future releases of damaging material.

ii) With both Person #1 ("P1")  and P2 seeking to give information to Assange, and get information from Assange,

iii) With P2, urging him to lie to the Congress and the FBI about his communications with Stone, or take "the Fifth" to protect Stone's lies,

iv) With P2, bullying and threatening P2. When the latter displayed reluctance to follow that advice, and instead urged Stone to go back to Congress and correct his lies:

a) Stone urged the witness not to talk to the FBI, not to be "a rat, a stoolie." [Once upon a time,"Rat" was slang used by fictional mob figures to describe stool pigeons. Now it appears to be standard English used by public official mobsters, when talking about their stoolies:  see e.g., Richard Nixon (John Dean), Donald Trump (Michael Cohen.)]

b) When P2 continued to resist Stone's admonitions to lie and/or stonewall, Stone turned up the heat. He threatened to "take your dog away from you," and he told him to "Prepare to die [expletive deleted]."

So Stone was arrested, required to post $250,000 bail, and surrender his passport. Coming out of court, he gave a Nixonian salute and vowed he would not testify against the President. 

Meanwhile, mysteries abound:

Who is P2, the person who unsuccessfully urged Stone to purge his perjury and got threatened to have his dog stolen, and worse? Press reports suggest P2 is a New York comedian/radio host named Randy Credico. Hard to figure how he is involved with this crowd, but there it is.

Who is P1? Jerome Corsi, the right-wing birther conspiracy theorist who formerly worked for Alex Jones' Infowars, says it is he. So far, Corsi has rejected a plea deal and cooperation offer from Mueller, but is openly accusing Stone of lying about their relationship. Corsi is also suing Mueller, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the NSA, the Washington Post and its owner Jeff Bezos for 1.6 Billion Dollars.

Who is the lawyer-friend of P2, who had the ability to speak directly to Assange, and whom Stone threatened to have disbarred if P2 didn't play ball? 

And who is the "high-ranking member of the Trump Campaign" with whom Stone exchanged emails on the subject of the Wikileaks' release of hacked Democrat emails? Bannon? Donald Jr.? The President?

Is there more to come? Is Roger Stone the sought-after conduit between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks? 

And what is the connection between Stone and his correspondence-pal Gucifer 2.0, the Russian intelligence operative credited with the hack and providing the anti-Hillary information to Wikileaks? This indictment does not go there at all. What's up with that?

And If Mario Puzo had written a novel about this confusing but basically not-really-in-doubt grand conspiracy, would the publisher have rejected it as being beyond belief?

And none of this, of course, deals with the follow-the-money track of the Mueller inquiry.

Confused yet?

My end-of-the-day reaction? I liked title of this film, but I find the guts of it disappointingly thin gruel. More early-game Mueller maneuvering. But hey, Mr. Mueller knows a lot more about this than I do. My chips are on him.

Stay tuned. We are nowhere near the final scenes of this movie.

A bientot.