Mueller buried hints of wider Stone conspiracy indictments to come in Russia filing: ex-US Attorney

Roger Stone has been in the news this week for his inflammatory Instagram post, but a former United States Attorney writes that a much bigger story regarding Stone is brewing, and is overlooked.

Barbara McQuade, former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, writes in a new USA Today OP-ED Tuesday that “a superseding indictment with more charges, and maybe more defendants, may be in Stone’s future.”

She writes extensively about clues Mueller’s recent court filing leaves for those that read it closely, and those clues lead to potentially very damaging ties between Stone and Russian intelligence agents.

“One detail in the new filing jumps out,” she writes. “It says ‘the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release. Several of those search warrants were executed on accounts that contained Stone’s communications with Guccifer 2.0 and with Organization 1.’”

McQuade then reminds readers that Guccifer 2.0 is alleged to be a persona operated by the GRU (Russian military), and ‘Organization 1’ is WikiLeaks.

She goes on to note that “he filing discloses that the government has evidence of Stone’s direct communications with Russian intelligence and WikiLeaks. This revelation goes much further than the Stone indictment itself and establishes a direct link between Russia and Stone, a Trump campaign adviser.”

Those direct ties to Russia is at the heart of a potential conspiracy against the United States charge, which could be looming for Stone, she says.

“Referring to these communications as ‘evidence’ suggests that the special counsel considers the communications probative and relevant to proving Stone’s guilt. Whatever these communications are, we can reasonably conclude that they are incriminating.”

Read the full OP-ED here.