In a bid to gain access to allegedly “privileged and highly sensitive” information, Roger Stone attempted to subpoena CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that handles Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) documents, as part of his defense in his ongoing case against the U.S. government.
More specifically, Stone has asked for “unredacted versions of three reports that were prepared by CrowdStrike” to provide the DNC and DCCC with legal counsel regarding “an unprecedented cyberattack orchestrated by Russian-based hackers during the 2016 presidential election.”
As the United States Government chose not to respond to Stone’s request, the DNC and DCCC filed a leave to file opposition asking that Stone’s request be denied due to the fact that the information has “no evidentiary value” to his case. The response also claims that in subpoenaing Crowdstrike Stone has asked for information from the wrong organization. Both the DNC and DCCC stated that they are the proper targets of his Subpeona and that Crowdstrike has no claim to the files Stone is after. According to the document:
“Both organizations (among other high-profile Democrats) were victims of the 2016 cyberattack and have a strong interest in preventing the publication of the unredacted reports that contain, among other things, recommendations for remediating and preventing future attacks, which are protected by the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine, and the First Amendment privilege, and the release of which would potentially expose the DNC and DCCC to significant harm.”
The document then goes on to discuss that even if Stone were to find “evidence showing that Russian intelligence was not involved in the DNC and DCCC cyberattack” it would have no bearing on the charges of perjury or witness tampering that he’s facing. The filing also cites Stone’s misuse of social media and his penchant for disclosing details of his case publicly online.
Stone was originally indicted for obstructing an investigation into Russian election interference, making false statements before the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Select Committee, and witness tampering. What Stone thinks these documents can lend his case is unclear at this time, and the DNC and DCCC make clear in their response to his subpoena that his request doesn’t establish the relevance of the materials he’s asking for. It’s entirely possible, given Stone’s history of spreading conspiracy theories, that he was simply looking for new material to spread online.
Leave to File 8/9/2019 by Law&Crime on Scribd
[Image via Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images]
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