Attorney Says Roger Stone Won’t Cooperate With Jan. 6 Panel

Isabel van Brugen
By Isabel van Brugen
December 8, 2021US News
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Attorney Says Roger Stone Won’t Cooperate With Jan. 6 Panel
Roger Stone exits federal court in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2019. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)

Veteran political operative Roger Stone won’t cooperate with the House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, and will invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, his attorney has said.

Stone’s attorney, Grant Smith, said in a letter dated Dec. 6 that he will not hand over documents to the committee, and would not appear for a deposition, ABC News first reported.

“Given that the Select Committee’s demand for documents is overbroad, overreaching, and far too wide-ranging to be deemed anything other than a fishing expedition, Mr. Stone has a constitutional right to decline to respond,” his attorney wrote, reported NBC News.

”Indeed, the Select Committee seeks an imprecise and undefined category of ‘documents and communications concerning’ a broad range of constitutionally protected political activity.”

Stone, a long-time friend and adviser to former President Donald Trump, was subpoenaed last month along with Trump ally Alex Jones.

“We need to know who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress,” committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said at the time.

The panel accused Stone of being in Washington on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 to “lead a march to the Capitol.” Stone “promoted his attendance at the rallies and solicited support to pay for security,” the panel charged.

Stone has denied any involvement with violence that unfolded during the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol building.

“I have said time and time again that I had no advance knowledge of the events that took place at the Capitol on that day,” he said last month.

It comes just shortly after the panel threatened to hold Mark Meadows in contempt after Trump’s chief of staff said he would not appear for a deposition.

“Tomorrow’s deposition, which was scheduled at Mr. Meadows’s request, will go forward as planned. If indeed Mr. Meadows refuses to appear, the select committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution,” Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel’s vice chair, said in a joint statement.

Meadows through a lawyer earlier in the day informed Thompson and Cheney he would not appear for a deposition.

Meadows planned to appear voluntarily to answer questions about non-privileged matters, the lawyer, George Terwilliger III, said in a letter.

But he took offense to the panel issuing subpoenas for information from third parties, in addition to Thompson’s recent assertion that someone asserting their Fifth Amendment rights was tantamount to an admission of guilt.

“As a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition,” Terwilliger wrote.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, was charged with contempt of Congress after refusing to cooperate with the panel.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times

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