A former aide to Roger Stone–who resisted a subpoena to appear before Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s grand jury, fought Mueller’s authority and lost at the district and appellate levels of the federal court system–showed up to testify on Friday. Andrew Miller not only testified before the grand jury, he also released a brief statement on why he decided to fight the subpoena.
Miller testified in Washington. D.C. for roughly two hours about his relationship with Stone and what he knew about Stone’s relationship with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Afterwards, Miller said that he is a “strong libertarian.”
“I’m a strong libertarian and I believe that we have to push back against our government when they demand us to travel across the country to sit with them at a whim. Miss work. Miss your family,” Miller said. “That’s really what we need to stand up for and we need to slow that down.”
WikiLeaks, of course, published “dirt” on Hillary Clinton‘s campaign in 2016 — dirt that was allegedly hacked by Russian military intelligence officers. Mueller investigated whether there was a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump Campaign and ended up not alleging a grand conspiracy. Nonetheless, Stone faces seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering. He is still on track for an early November trial.
Miller also said Stone is “like Uncle Roger” to him.
Here’s an image of Miller outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, in case you’ve never seen him IRL:
Stone associate Andrew Miller testified for two hours before the grand jury. Bottom lines:
– asked about his relationship with Stone, comms between Stone and Assange
– not planning on testifying at Stone trial
– lawyer doesn’t know if they’re building a case against anyone. pic.twitter.com/bjNjlePT8p— Charlie Gile (@CharlieGileNBC) May 31, 2019
Miller, you may have heard, finally agreed this week to testify in front of the grand jury after nearly a year of court fights. With that agreement, Miller’s challenge of Mueller’s authority ended. Miller sued in an attempt to block the subpoena, arguing that Mueller’s appointment was unconstitutional, and therefore could not compel him to testify. Everyone who has made this argument has lost.
Miller’s lawyer Paul Kamenar, for good measure on Friday, pronounced that challenge dead.
“We’ve now completed our journey challenging Robert Mueller’s appointment,” he said.
[Image via Fox News screengrab]