Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is demanding an explanation from the FBI about its handling of last week’s arrest of Roger Stone.
In a letter sent Wednesday to FBI Director Chris Wray, Graham said he was “leery” of Stone being arrested at his Florida home in the early morning hours Friday, rather than being allowed to surrender voluntarily. He questioned whether the “tactics” were necessary in Stone’s case. Graham suggested that those tactics “only added to the spectacle.”
That the FBI abused its power in its arrest of Stone, who was charged by special counsel Robert Mueller, is a growing conspiracy theory on the right, with Stone himself comparing the arrest to raids on Osama bin Laden and the drug lord El Chapo.
Among the questions Graham asked Wray to respond to specifically by Feb. 5, is whether federal law enforcement alerted CNN — which had a reporting team at Stone’s house when he was arrested — or other media outlets when the arrest was going to occur.
CNN, the only outlet there that morning, published an account of how its large team of reporters covering the Mueller probe put together that Stone’s arrest might be happening Friday, including clues from Mueller grand jury’s schedule and from how Mueller has handled previous defendants. Nowhere has CNN indicated that it was tipped off to the arrest by a source in Mueller’s team or the Justice Department.
Prosecutors, in seeking to place Stone’s indictment and arrest warrant under seal, said in court filings that public disclosure of the charges “will increase the risk of the defendant fleeing and destroying (or tampering with) evidence.”
FBI agents also showed up with a search warrant for Stone’s home when he was arrested, and his duplex in New York was also raided, an associate of his told CNN.
Read Graham’s letter below:
I wish Graham cared as much about the United States as he does about Donald Trump, Roger Stone and Russia.
Man, Miz Linz’s hands must be sooooo dirty.
Maybe it comes down to him actually being smart enough, back in the day, to realize what a fuck up Donnie Trump was, and he didn’t want law enforcement looking too closely at the Russian Connection?
Lindsey the Incredible Shrinking Senator knows as well as the rest of us that the bastard would have immediately gathered up all his devices and records and chucked them in the canal if he’d simply been called in. He’s professionally known as a “ratfucker,” for Christ’s sake. Not playing by the rules is a lifelong point of pride for him.
Graham has gone full lunatic recently. Seems to me the FBI doesn’t have to discuss “sources and methods” to anyone, let alone a partisan hack.
That’s why I really think he’s afraid he’ll be implicated. Two years ago electing Trump would be the end of the GOP, but now he’s throwing out everything he can to deflect, distract and deflect again.