Roger Stone’s wife describes early morning raid by ’29 armed’ FBI agents
The FBI sent 29 armed agents, 17 vehicles, a helicopter and two amphibious units to carry out a pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone’s home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to Stone’s wife, Nydia.
“Every agent was carrying an AK-47 as well as a sidearm. This is a much larger force than used to capture and kill Bin Laden or arrest El Chapo. It must have cost U.S. taxpayers a half a million dollars,” Nydia Stone said in an email which was also a fundraising letter seeking contributions to her husband’s legal defense fund.
On Feb. 15, the judge in the longtime Trump associate’s case issued a gag order. The order prohibits Stone from talking about Mueller and the Russia investigation in and around the Washington, D.C. courthouse where the case is being heard.
The order put an end to Stone’s courthouse press conferences.
Nydia Stone wrote in the email:
“Because I am hearing impaired and I was sleeping I did not hear the commotion when an FBI agent pounded on the door demanding my husband open it and I did not know he had been handcuffed and taken into custody.
“I woke up only when two FBI agents burst into our bedroom and demanded that I get out of bed at gunpoint. I was marched out to the street in front of our house wearing only a night gown and in bare feet. I was instructed to stand next to my husband who was handcuffed and also barefooted. I am not charged with any crime.
“My husband has no previous criminal record, not even a speeding ticket. He is charged and plead not guilty to seven non violent process crimes. We do not own a gun and my husband’s passport had actually expired. The idea that he is a danger to anyone or a flight risk was disproved hours later when a federal magistrate released him on a surety bond.
“Even more humiliating, for some odd reason, A CNN camera crew had arrived at our home only fifty minutes before the FBI strike force and was allowed to film the assault on our home and my husband’s arrest. If my husband was considered ‘dangerous’ why was a CNN film crew in position 10 yards from our front door? How convenient that the CNN producer at our home is a former special assistant to FBI director James Comey!
“My parents came from Cuba. I can understand how these kind of police state tactics can happen in a communist country but it is hard to believe that the FBI Director and acting Attorney General would allow this kind of brutal assault on a U.S. citizen with no prior criminal record and charged only with non-violent process crimes here in the United States.
“After the FBI took my husband away, I was allowed to dress under the supervision of a woman FBI agent who even had to watch me while I used the bathroom. I was not allowed to touch my cell phone even though I could see that my children and grandchildren were calling to see if I was alright. FBI agents tore through every square inch of our home and removed my husbands computers and iPads. They also took my computer which means they got many beautiful pictures of my grandchildren.
“Although you would never know it from the fake news media, my husband, Roger Stone is not charged with Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or any other crime associated with the 2016 election. All the charges against him have been fabricated in an obvious effort to pressure him to turn on President Trump who has been our friend for forty years and who attended our wedding in Washington, D.C. 27 years ago. I remember how he danced with my mother.
“As my husband has made clear, he simply refuses to make up stories about the President or bear false witness against him in order to please Mr. Mueller who wants to undo the results of the 2016 election and remove our President.
“Two years of constant intense investigation into every aspect of our family as well as two years of constant leaks from the special councils office have destroyed our family income.
“In December I canceled our health and life insurance policies because we could not longer pay the premiums. My husband sold his car even though it was a 2006 model and we didn’t get much for it. We burned through a small fund we had put aside from the sale of my husband’s books that was supposed to pay for the college education of our grandchildren.
“Now we are facing a two million dollar cost for lawyers In order to fight the bogus charges against my husband who at 66 years old is facing a potential 45 year prison sentence for crimes he did not commit.
“Every day brings death threats, late night anonymous phone calls threatening to kill us and it’s gotten so I can’t even go to the grocery store without somebody screaming at me and accusing us of being Russian spies – which is funny because my parents fled Cuba and the brutal regime of Fidel Castro while my husband’s family members were mowed down my Russian tanks in Budapest in 1956.
“The same Obama appointed judge who put Paul Manafort in solitary confinement prior to his being convicted of any crime is now considering issuing a gag order so that my husband can no longer publicly raise money for his legal defense.
“P.S. you can see fake news stories online that say my husband and I are wealthy and worth millions of dollars. This is totally false. Roger says these stories are planted in order to make it harder for us to raise money for his legal defense.”
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone could keep talking about the case outside of the courthouse vicinity with the caveat that she could change her mind and amend her order “if necessary.”
In a statement, Stone attorney Grant Smith said, “As you can see in the order, Roger Stone is not in any way ‘gagged’ and the courthouse steps is a reasonable place for everyone to act with restraint and decorum.”
The judge also ruled that attorneys for Stone, Mueller and any witnesses in the case “must refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.”
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