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Republicans want answers on excessive show of force in Roger Stone arrest
GOP lawmakers also ask in letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray whether bureau tipped off media
Posted Jan 30, 2019 6:31 PM
Griffin Connolly
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking why the bureau executed an armed, pre-dawn raid to arrest Roger Stone. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/POOL file photo)
Republican lawmakers demanded answers on Wednesday from FBI Director Christopher Wray on the arrest of former Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone last week.
In separate letters to FBI Director Christopher Wray, House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins and Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham expressed concern that the FBI agents who made the arrest, armed with M4 rifles, used an excessive show of force to arrest an elderly man with no history of violent crimes and who had made known that he would voluntarily surrender.
Although I am sure these tactics would be standard procedure for the arrest of a violent offender, I have questions regarding their necessity in this case, Graham wrote in his letter to Wray. The American public has had enough of the media circus that surrounds the Special Counsels investigation. Yet, the manner of this arrest appears to have only added to the spectacle.
Current and former federal law enforcement officials have speculated that the FBI arrested Stone in an armed pre-dawn raid because special counsel investigators led by Robert S. Mueller III might have believed that Stone would try to destroy evidence in his home.
Stone, in accord with his trademark political theatrics, compared the raid of his Florida home to the arrest of Mexican druglord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman and the Navy SEALS raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Graham and Collins also demanded that Wray produce documents detailing any communication between the FBI and CNN, or any other media outlet, alerting them beforehand of the arrest plans.
Conservative pundits and media organizations have suggested that someone at the FBI or on Muellers team tipped off the network, which caught the arrest on camera.
CNN has explained that it anticipated the raid through good instincts, some key clues, more than a year of observing comings at the DC federal courthouse and the special counsels office and a little luck on the timing.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/republicans-question-wray-over-excessive-show-of-force-in-roger-stone-arrest
TheBlackAdder
(28,160 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,073 posts)Comrade Graham wants to be sure his azaleas aren't trampled when they come for him, apparently. Don't worry, Lindsay. Your magnolia tree will be safe.
Soxfan58
(3,479 posts)They will be nicer when they arrest him.
Funtatlaguy
(10,862 posts)Use your own imagination to fill in any blanks as to what items.
DeminPennswoods
(15,265 posts)not its usual Friday. They also knew that Thursday sessions usually resulted in Friday indictments. Stone had been saying that he expected to be indicted and it was known that Corsi and Credico had made recent appearances before the GJ. In fact, Corsi showed a draft indictment and plea agreement the special counsel had prepared against him. I'm sure CNN figured odds were better than 50-50 something might happen with Stone. Their journalistic instincts got them a scoop!
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)C_U_L8R
(44,982 posts)Their phony protests are pathetic.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,142 posts)No wait, he doesnt.
mucifer
(23,466 posts)Vinca
(50,236 posts)Mc Mike
(9,111 posts)tanyev
(42,512 posts)ProfessorPlum
(11,253 posts)After all of this time, I'm still capable of being shocked by their hypocrisy, lack of a sense of fairness and balance, and out and out wussiness.
ProfessorPlum
(11,253 posts)they just treated him like they believed him. God, this makes me vomit.
avebury
(10,951 posts)Aussie105
(5,315 posts)FBI, armed, 6 am, kick the door in, stun grenades, warning shots, rough up the perps, look for drugs, etc.
Oh wait, they knocked on the door, and no one got roughed up? No warning shots, no stun grenades?
Damn polite of them, I'd say.
Nothing to complain about, really.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)Autumn
(44,962 posts)themaguffin
(3,816 posts)unblock
(52,108 posts)Fixed it for you!
tulipsandroses
(5,120 posts)I am completely disgusted. They have not been concerned with black lives snuffed out by law enforcement.
no_hypocrisy
(46,009 posts)Roger Stone was surprised and not given notice of being taken into custody.
Why:
1. Stone could have left the country and escaped prosecution with no trace.
2. Would authorities have wanted to arrest him if it meant having to go through The Proud Boys who Stone would have called to encircle his property? There would have been a riot and spin used to discredit Mueller.
Bengus81
(6,927 posts)GASP.....Stone said it was like the Bin Laden raid!!
kacekwl
(7,010 posts)Roger Stone. Can't he afford lawyers ?
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)IronLionZion
(45,380 posts)but they won't get any real answers. Just some nonsense about how black skin looks like a dangerous weapon because most guns are black.
DBoon
(22,336 posts)Roger Stone should be glad he is white.
The fact he is alive is proof he was treated with unusual respect by law enforcment
mickswalkabout41
(145 posts)Looked like a typical warrant raid on any given day for the rest of America. Why is stone different? Oh yeah. Rich, white, Republican. Maybe they should have called him and asked him to turn himself in, or sent a limo.
HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)This is what they are relegated to worrying about? How the Hell did we not win the Senate?
Edit: Or, I just thought of this - was there something in that house that Graham doesn't want the world to see?
samnsara
(17,602 posts)malaise
(268,638 posts)by cops. I wonder why! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
edbermac
(15,933 posts)Fuck off Lindsey.
spanone
(135,776 posts)yea, whatever rog.....you fucking criminal
stopbush
(24,391 posts)being treated unfairly.
Different situations entirely. One does not equate to the other. Its like complaing that it was unfair that you lost the two-man bobsled race because you werent allowed to have four men like the other race.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)be in jail without bail.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)They may have caught all his "guests" that were gathered at his home?
UpInArms
(51,279 posts)What utter nonsense
LakeSuperiorView
(1,533 posts)The armed wake up call probably took that into account. If there is a group that publicly says they want to fight that adopts a bozo, and you have to arrest the bozo, you go prepared to fight. He gave up without a whimper, but better to have body armor that you don't need than to have need for body armor that you don't have.
Why are Republics complaining about FBI agents doing their job without pay?
rainin
(3,010 posts)The Wizard
(12,532 posts)in covering for Russian efforts to destroy this nation. How many of them are up to their elbows in Russian bribe money hidden in off shore money laundries?
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)Roger Stone doesn't look like he was injured but I'm sure Lindsey Graham will want to interview Roger's dogs.
spanone
(135,776 posts)poor babies
Chickensoup
(650 posts)it should be about Trump meeting Putin many times without records, minutes of what was discussed or other U.S. officials attending while Putin always had records of meetings. It should be about insulting our intelligence directors knowledge while floating Putin,s views as Americas best course of action.
How could we tolerate this and for how long?
ScratchCat
(1,975 posts)the fact that "Congress" doesn't have "oversight" over the daily operations of the FBI or DOJ. What I mean is, the FBI doesn't "answer to" or "owe an explanation to" Congress on any specific case. For instance, Congress can't make the FBI answer questions about an ongoing case regarding a serial killer or a bank robbery. This just isn't how Congress' oversight power works. the FBI makes the decision as to how they will arrest a person and isn't obligated by the Constitution to have "Congress" approve of it.
I wont even point out the hilarity of Graham pretending to speak for the American public regarding the Mueller investigation(which is all of a sudden a 'media circus' again).
ck4829
(35,034 posts)ck4829
(35,034 posts)ck4829
(35,034 posts)ck4829
(35,034 posts)ck4829
(35,034 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,308 posts)will be a wonder of schadenfreude.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)They were afraid for their lives.
Jarqui
(10,119 posts)Stone threatening violent civil war while going to the gun range with a nut like Alex Jones to practice for it ... is plenty of justification
stopbush
(24,391 posts)But arrest a lowlife dirty trickster using SOP and Lindsey clutches his pearls.
SWBTATTReg
(22,059 posts)into the back of a police car, e.g., whack their head accidently while putting them into the back seat?
Hypocrites.