Roger Stone's Arrest Is the Signal for Congress to Act

Last edited Sat Jan 26, 2019, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

David Frum

The indictment of Roger Stone moves the Trump-Russia story forward—but leaves the country stuck in exactly the same place.

Stone has been indicted for obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering, but here’s what he was lying and witness-tampering about: his repeated communications with WikiLeaks to further and enable Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. On the basis of the indictment, it appears that the Trump campaign had advance knowledge that the October WikiLeaks dump was coming—and what its contents might approximately include. Via Stone, the Trump campaign coordinated messaging with WikiLeaks. Stone’s link to WikiLeaks told him, “Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke, neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus …”

But here’s how we’re stuck. We are now entering the third year of a presidency tainted from its start by clandestine assistance from Russia. That corrupt connection overhangs every strategic decision: the president’s repeated threats to quit NATO; his refusal to implement congressionally voted sanctions to punish Russia for nerve-agent poisonings in the U.K. Only 31 percent of Americans feel confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not blackmailing their own president, according to the latest Marist poll.

Thanks to the Mueller inquiry, individuals associated with this election scandal are beginning to face justice. But also thanks to the Mueller inquiry, the nation remains as vulnerable as ever to the consequences of the scandal: a president beholden to a hostile foreign power.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/roger-stones-arrest-is-the-signal-for-congress-to-act/ar-BBSJ3fl?li=BBnb7Kz