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Roger Stone clutches the bible as he is found GUILTY of lying to Congress about

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Roger Stone was found guilty Friday of seven charges of lying to Congress
He was found guilty five counts of making false statements to Congress and single counts of obstructing a congressional proceeding and witness tampering
Stone could be jailed for a maximum of 50 years - 20 years for obstruction and five years apiece for the lying and witness tampering charges
He lied about his conversations with senior Trump Campaign officials and lied to lawmakers when he said he had no written communication about WikiLeaks
Longtime Trump confidante Stone previously told Congress that Randy Credico was his back channel to WikiLeaks' Julian Assange
But Credico denies those claims and threatened to contradict Stone's sworn statement, which would showed Stone perjured himself
By BEN ASHFORD IN WASHINGTON D.C. FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 11:51 EST, 15 November 2019 | UPDATED: 12:01 EST, 15 November 2019

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Roger Stone faces years in federal jail after he was found guilty today of lying to Congress about his efforts to procure stolen Democratic Party emails from WikiLeaks to help Donald Trump become President.

Jurors agreed the self-proclaimed political dirty trickster told five 'whoppers' when he testified before members of House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

Stone lied about the identity of his 'back channel' to WikiLeaks and lied when he denied asking its founder Julian Assange for the plundered messages.

He lied about his conversations with senior Trump Campaign officials and lied to lawmakers when he said he had no emails or written communications about WikiLeaks that could prove useful to their probe.

The smooth-talking agent provocateur was found guilty of seven charges in all: five counts of making false statements to Congress and single counts of obstructing a congressional proceeding and witness tampering.

Roger Stone was found guilty Friday of seven charges of lying to Congress +8
Roger Stone was found guilty Friday of seven charges of lying to Congress

He was found guilty five counts of making false statements to Congress and single counts of obstructing a congressional proceeding and witness tampering +8
He was found guilty five counts of making false statements to Congress and single counts of obstructing a congressional proceeding and witness tampering

The tampering referred to his effort to bully the comedian and radio host Randy Credico into pleading the Fifth so he would avoid contradicting Stone's sworn September 26, 2017 testimony.

Stone had told lawmakers that Credico was his 'back channel' to WikiLeaks when it was actually the conspiracy theorist and author Jerome Corsi.

The 67-year-old defendant arrived at court Friday as he had done throughout the trial, dressed immaculately in a sharp pinstripe suit and arm in arm with his second Nydia Bertran Stone.

Perhaps hoping for a miracle, Stone was also clutching a bible in his left hand.

He showed barely a flicker of emotion as he stood, his left hand in his pocket, as jurors returned their unanimous guilty verdicts at 11:44am on the second day of deliberations.

When he returns for sentencing Stone faces a maximum sentence of 50 years - 20 years for obstruction and five years apiece for the lying and witness tampering charges.

However sentencing guidelines will dictate a much lower term for a first-time offender.

Friday's guilty verdicts signalled the end of Stone's decades-long career on the shadier margins of US politics.

Stone entered the political arena in 1972 when he ditched his studies at George Washington University, support Nixon in his re-election campaign then landing a job on his administration.

In one of his first stunts he contributed $135 to one of Nixon's Republican rivals in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance - then slipped the receipt to a journalist.

Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress about his efforts to procure stolen Democratic Party emails from WikiLeaks to help Donald Trump +8
Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress about his efforts to procure stolen Democratic Party emails from WikiLeaks to help Donald Trump

Bannon said he had no direct knowledge Stone's link to Julian Assange (pictured) but assumed there was a relationship because Stone boasted about one +8
Bannon said he had no direct knowledge Stone's link to Julian Assange (pictured) but assumed there was a relationship because Stone boasted about one

During congressional hearings into the Watergate scandal in 1973 it emerged Stone had recruited a spy to infiltrate the campaigns of several of Nixon's Democratic rivals.

He was fired from his job with then-Senator Bob Dole but went on to work for several more presidential campaigns: those of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and, eventually, his longtime friend Donald Trump, who had hired Stone to lobby for his casino businesses in the 1990s.

Despite lying to Congress in 2017 Stone was predicting right up until January of this year that he would evade Robert Mueller's prosecutors, sneering in an exclusive DailyMail.com interview: 'They got nothing.'

Three weeks later he found himself in handcuffs when rifle-wielding FBI agents surrounded his Fort Lauderdale, Florida home in the middle of the night to take him into custody.

A seven-day trial in Washington, D.C. District Court heard how Stone saw the 2016 Russian hack of Democratic Party emails as a way to 'save Trump's ass' and get his longtime friend into the White House at Clinton's expense.

He used two different associates to try to tease information from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about his plans to publish the plundered trove, then contacted senior Trump Campaign officials to pass on what he knew to help swing the vote their way.

When asked to testify before Congress one year later about possible Russian collusion, however, Stone told a series of 'whoppers' to 'cover his tracks', telling lawmakers he had one intermediary rather than two.

The net result of Stone lying to lawmakers 'over and over and over again' was that the House Intelligence Committee was impeded in its inquiries and its final report into Russian election inference was inaccurate because it didn't mention Stone's true intermediary, his trial heard.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon told a federal court last Friday that Roger Stone was considered the Trump Campaign's 'access point' to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. He's pictured leaving federal court wearing three shirts, a blazer and a wax coat to testify in the trial of Roger Stone in Washington, D.C. where the temperature was 42 degrees F +8
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon told a federal court last Friday that Roger Stone was considered the Trump Campaign's 'access point' to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. He's pictured leaving federal court wearing three shirts, a blazer and a wax coat to testify in the trial of Roger Stone in Washington, D.C. where the temperature was 42 degrees F

He also concealed numerous conversations with senior Trump Campaign figures including White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, ex Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and even Trump himself, it's alleged.

Compelled to testify by subpoena, Bannon told the trial last week he considered Stone the campaign's 'access point' to WikiLeaks.

To the 'best of his knowledge' nobody on the Campaign ever asked Stone to secure info from WikiLeaks, nor ask him to relay messages to its founder, he said. Nonetheless Bannon confirmed the Campaign did have an interest in anything that could 'help Donald Trump and possibly hurt Hillary Clinton'. 'Roger would have been considered an access point if we needed an access point because he implied and he told me he had a relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange,' said Bannon.

Bannon went on to describe Stone as 'an agent provocateur and expert in opposition research, the tougher side of politics.'

'When you are that far behind you need to use every tool in the tool box,' he told jurors.

Stone also made several mysterious phone calls to Trump himself, one just days after the Democratic National Committee announced to the world it had been hacked.

Former campaign official Rick Gates told the court he overheard the pair talking in late July 2016 as they took a limo from Trump Tower to New York's La Guardia airport. After the call ended Gates, 47, who is awaiting sentencing himself for fraud and lying to federal investigators, recalled Trump telling him 'more information would be forthcoming.' Gates also detailed an email he received from Stone on June 15, one day after the DNC publicly admitted it had been targeted by hackers, saying: 'Need contact info for Jared,'

That was a reference to Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, whom Stone wanted to 'de brief' about WikiLeaks, he said.

Gates said the hack itself provoked 'happiness' within the Trump Campaign, telling jurors it was a 'gift' and a 'leg up' to their candidate's chances.

When asked to testify to the House Intelligence Committee one year later about Russian hacking and attempts to interfere with the election, Stone denied any such conversations had taken place.

He also mislead lawmakers about his sources and falsely told the committee he didn't have any emails, texts or documents relevant to their probe, said prosecutor Aaron Zelinksy. 'In a critical investigation of national importance, the defendant, Roger Stone, repeatedly lied under oath to a congressional committee and lied under oath to cover his tracks,' he told the jury comprising nine women and three men.

Randy Credico carried his dog Bianca as he left court after giving two days of testimony in the Roger Stone trial. He told the court last Friday he feared being labeled as the 'guy who helped Trump win the election' due to his connections with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange +8
Randy Credico carried his dog Bianca as he left court after giving two days of testimony in the Roger Stone trial. He told the court last Friday he feared being labeled as the 'guy who helped Trump win the election' due to his connections with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Prosecutors say that Frank Pantangeli is a reference to a character in Godfather Part II who lies to a congressional committee to help the Corleone family before committing suicide (pictured is a photo from the filme) +8
Prosecutors say that Frank Pantangeli is a reference to a character in Godfather Part II who lies to a congressional committee to help the Corleone family before committing suicide (pictured is a photo from the filme)

Stone sent a stream of texts to Randy Credico which prosecutors say threatened the DJ and his 13-year-old therapy dog, Bianca the Coton de Tulear +8
Stone sent a stream of texts to Randy Credico which prosecutors say threatened the DJ and his 13-year-old therapy dog, Bianca the Coton de Tulear

The long-time Republican schemer was indicted by a grand jury as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia. It's alleged he told Corsi in August 2016 to have a friend 'go see Julian Assange' and 'get a hold of emails' that the WikiLeaks boss had up his sleeve. Stone would later try and hide Corsi's involvement from lawmakers, telling them his sole conduit was Credico, who interviewed Assange for his radio show in September 2016.

When Credico threatened to contradict the testimony by denying he was the principal go-between Stone had been publicly bragging about, Stone repeatedly told him to plead the Fifth or do a 'Frank Pentangeli'.

Prosecutors said that was a reference to a character in Godfather Part II who lies to a congressional committee to help the Corleone family before committing suicide. The rattled comic eventually did plead the Fifth but only after Stone peppered him with threats and insults, including 'Prepare to die cocksucker.

You are a rat.' He even threatened Credico's therapy dog Bianca, a 13-year-old Coton de Tulear, writing in an text message: 'I'm going to take that dog away from you.' 'Now you'll ask why didn't Roger Stone just tell the truth?' Zelinsky told jurors. 'The evidence in this case will show that Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad. 'The truth looked bad for the Trump campaign and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump.'

Stone - who briefly served on Trump's campaign but was pushed out amid infighting with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski - decided not to give testimony and his legal team chose to play audio of his appearance before Congress rather than call a single witness.

Bruce Rogow, lead defense attorney, said the prosecution was based on the 'flawed' idea that Stone needed to protect Trump when he appeared before Congress in 2017.

'There could be no sensible motive in trying to protect the campaign when the campaign was long since over and Mr Trump was president of the United States,' he said. He also failed to convince jurors that it was Credico - an avowed 'lefty' who offered to do a Bernie Sanders impersonation during the trial - who played Stone, not the other way round.

The former Nixon campaign adviser - who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back - was merely 'playing the campaign' by pretending to have direct contact with WikiLeaks, Rogow said.


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