Roger Stone. (Cornelius O'Donoghue / Shutterstock.com)
On Friday, President Donald Trump's longtime associate Roger Stone was indicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Soon after the FBI raided Stone's apartment, his lawyer, Grant Smith, issued a statement denying Stone's culpability.
"There was no Russian collusion, it's a clear attempt at silencing Roger," the statement read. "This was an investigation they started as about Russian collusion and now they're charging Roger Stone with lying to Congress about something he honestly forgot about, and as Roger has stated publicly before, he will fight the charges.
"Roger Stone is vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collusion," Smith added in a statement to CNN.
NEW: Attorney for Roger Stone responds to indictment in Mueller probe on charges of obstruction, false statements,… https://t.co/xpfIDbIPhf
— World News Tonight (@World News Tonight)
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JUST IN from @SaraMurray from Stone's attorney:
“Roger Stone is vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collu… https://t.co/Qt9W5MP5uq
Rep. Adam Kinzinger is making the most of his independence from the Republican Party to launch repeated social-media broadsides at his colleagues and Donald Trump. Kinzinger launched two explosive retweets today:
The first labeled Rep. Lauren Boebert "TRASH" while sharing a story about how she had insulted Rep. Ilhan Omar recently in an elevator, which references to a backpack and "jihad squad." Boebert apologized today for the encounter. (Kinzinger also used "TRASH" to accompany a retweet of Boebert's Republican primary opponent, Marina Zimmerman, asking followers "to help me take out the trash.")
The second ridiculed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy today, tweeting, "I hate to LOL this, but I must (Kevin McCarthy) is a living example of what happens when you try to hug a skunk."
That zinger accompanied a retweet of a story in which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened not to support McCarthy as speaker if Republicans regain control of the House in 2022.
But it was just the latest in a torrent of attacks launched by Kinzinger, R-Illinois, since he announced late in October that he was not seeking re-election to Congress. He and Rep. Liz Cheney have been the only House Republicans willing to attack Trump and his enablers.
On Thanksgiving Day, Kinzinger retweeted a post by Chris Krebs, the cybersecurity chief fired by Trump for refuting his election Big Lie.
Krebs had quoted a CNN story stating, "A third RNC official described the relationship between Trump and the national party as "a hostage situation," claiming that Trump could devastate the GOP if he decided to leave the party or encouraged his supporters to stop contributing to it at any point, including if the RNC no longer agrees to cover portions of his legal bills."
It was among several recent posts by Kinzinger attacking Trump, including one referring to him as "the former guy."
On Wednesday, Kinzinger pitchforked Sen. Ted Cruz, retweeting Lyin Ted's unbelievably tone-deaf attempt to make light of having made a vacation getaway to Cancun while his constituents were suffering through a devastating power blackout:
"This is (Ted Cruz) trying to mainstream his grand screw by joking about it. Ted you aren't funny, and to quote Jonah Hill in Superbad, 'People don't forget.'"
A member of the Oath Keepers militia who was indicted for taking part in the January 6th Capitol riots talked up "blood in the streets" in private chat messages with fellow militants.
As flagged by NBC 4 Washington's Scott MacFarlane on Friday, federal prosecutors are asking the courts to keep Oath Keeper Ken Harrelson behind bars ahead of his trial by noting that he took part in private chats in which his fellow militants advocated for violence ahead of January 6th.
One particularly disturbing message came from Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs, who has also been indicted for taking part in the riots and who advocated giving pro-Trump demonstrations "a little more teeth" to make them more effective in convincing members of Congress to not certify the results of the 2020 election.
"We need those senators very uncomfortable with all of us being a few hundred feet away," wrote Meggs on Christmas Day in 2020. "Now we aren't talking about crossing the line. But we need to be standing on the line!!! It's all bad from here guys. We need Trump because it will make our jobs easier. There is gonna be blood in the streets no matter what."
An unidentified militia member seconded Meggs's sentiments and said that the only way to overturn the election was "if we scare the sh*t out of them and convince them it will be torches and pitchforks time [if] they don't do the right thing."
In court filing today, feds argue to hold accused OathKeeper conspirator Ken Harrelson in pretrial detention\n\nThey allege Harrelson exchanged SIGNAL messages on Xmas Day 2020 saying "We need Trump", "Blood in streets", "scare the s**" out of Congress, "torches & pitchforks" ===>pic.twitter.com/OgDjqUBVCF
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day percentage drops in months, and pandemic-hit sectors that had gained from a reopening falling sharply after a new coronavirus mutation was found.
Authorities worldwide reacted with alarm on Friday to the coronavirus variant found in South Africa, with the European Union and Britain among those tightening border controls as researchers sought to establish if it was vaccine-resistant.
Cruise operators Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line each plunged more than 10%, while shares in United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines also tumbled. The NYSE Arca Airline index fell 6.45% in its biggest one-day percentage decline since September 2020.
Retailers dropped 2.04% as Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season with worries that the new variant would depress store traffic and curb supply.
Selling was broad, with big declines of more than 1% in all 11 major S&P sectors except healthcare, which fell just 0.45% thanks to COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer Inc rising 6.11% to close at a record high of $54, and Moderna Inc jumping 20.57%.
"It is déjà vu all over again for like the eighth time," said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Global Investments in Atlanta.
"What we understand about this variant could accelerate over the weekend, if there is more concerning news than good news, a lot of people don't want to be holding risk assets on Monday morning, or are afraid of what that could look like Monday morning."
Despite the sell-off, market participants noted the drop was likely exaggerated by the thin volume during the shortened post-Thanksgiving holiday session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 905.04 points, or 2.53%, to 34,899.34; the S&P 500 lost 106.84 points, or 2.27%, to 4,594.62; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 353.57 points, or 2.23%, to 15,491.66.
The domestically focused Russell 2000 small-cap index fell 3.67%. Both the S&P 500 and small cap Russell index posted their biggest one-day percentage drops since Feb. 25.
The S&P 500 banks index dropped 3.87% as investors dialed back expectations of faster U.S. interest rate hikes. Energy, this year's best performing sector, dropped 4% on the day, its biggest decline in more than eight months, as crude prices plunged $10 a barrel.
Elevated U.S. inflation, coupled with strong economic data and the renomination of Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair by U.S. President Joe Biden, had fueled expectations the central bank might hike interest rates sooner than expected.
The CBOE volatility index, popularly known as Wall Street's fear gauge, hit its highest level since early March.
Stocks such as Netflix Inc, Peloton Interactive and Zoom Video Communications, known as "stay-at-home" names, all scored solid advances.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 5.84-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.96-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and 23 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 18 new highs and 334 new lows.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Richard Chang)
