November, 14 2019, 11:00pm EDT
CREW Statement on Roger Stone Guilty Verdict
WASHINGTON
Following the conviction of Roger Stone, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Executive Director Noah Bookbinder released the following statement:
"Roger Stone has spent his entire career pushing the bounds of ethics and the law in political action from Nixon to Trump. His conviction on all charges today is the appropriate end to that story. The foreign attack on our election in 2016 put our democracy at risk, Stone will rightfully pay for the part he played in it and in covering it up. Lying to Congress is a serious crime. Tampering with a witness is a serious crime. That he did this to benefit a president currently facing an impeachment hearing inquiry related to pushing for foreign election interference is telling. Stone is at least the sixth Trump associate to be convicted during his presidency. Roger Stone spent his career sowing the wind. Today he reaps the whirlwind."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
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The Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said that "evidence appears to show an illegal arrangement between several Trump-affiliated committees and a compliance firm named Red Curve Solutions that is designed to obscure the identities of those providing legal services and how much they are being paid."
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Red Curve is a domestic limited liability company that offers compliance and FEC reporting services but does not appear to offer any legal services. It is managed by Bradley Crate, who also serves as the treasurer for each of the five Trump-affiliated committees concerned in this complaint, as well as over 200 other federal committees.
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Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee—faces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
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