This is the worst possible news for Roger Stone
Criminal probes into massive criminal conspiracies nearly always work their way from the bottom up. You flip people along the way, and you build stronger cases against the big fish as you work your way toward them. We’ve seen the DOJ work its way up through the ranks of the Oath Keepers and now the Proud Boys in relation to January 6th, and today the DOJ got seditious conspiracy convictions against numerous Proud Boys leaders.
Now it’s time for Roger Stone to be deeply worried. Why? One of today’s convictions, against Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, came even though Tarrio didn’t physically participate in the Capitol attack. It was enough that he helped to plan it. And it makes sense, because that’s what “conspiracy” charges are based on.
In other words, the Tarrio conviction kicks the door wide open for Roger Stone to now be hit with conspiracy charges. There is significant publicly available evidence to suggest that Stone was in on at least part of the January 6th advance planning, to the point that he and Tarrio were in a group chat about it. Moreover, the last time Tarrio got busted years ago, he ended up cutting a deal. This time he insisted on going to trial. But now that he’s looking at perhaps fifteen years in federal prison, he may be a lot more inclined to sell out Stone and get that sentence reduced.
This means that today’s verdict was the worst news possible for Roger Stone. If he thought he was off the hook just because he hasn’t already been indicted, he should think again. And if he thought he’d gotten away with it simply because he didn’t personally attack the Capitol, he should ask Tarrio how that went for him today.
