Roger Stone faces two choices — turn on Trump or go to jail: former prosecutor

A former federal prosecutor says Roger Stone has little choice to avoid jail after his indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Glenn Kirschner, former assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and now an MSNBC legal analyst, wrote a column for NBC News explaining the peril faced by Stone, a longtime Republican operative and associate of President Donald Trump.

"One obvious question raised by the Stone indictment is, who is the person that 'directed' the senior Trump campaign official to undertake this criminal coordination with Stone?" Kirschner said. "It seems logical that such a person would need to be pretty senior themselves, if they were directing another 'senior official' to do something."

"Then again, there is one 'junior' person who might have had the requisite status to direct a senior campaign official — Donald Trump Jr.," he added.

Kirschner said the special counsel would almost certainly use the indictment on obstruction of justice and other charges related to an alleged coverup as leverage to turn Stone against other potential conspirators.

"Given the strength of the 'hard evidence' (emails, text messages, false sworn testimony, etc.), Roger Stone has little hope of avoiding conviction at trial," Kirschner said. "Cooperating with the Mueller probe is likely his only way to avoid jail time."