Roger Stone insists he won't flip on President Trump

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Roger Stone insists he won't flip on President Trump

Longtime adviser to President Trump is arrested as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," January 25, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER STONE, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: The charges today relate in no way to Russian collusion, WikiLeaks, collaboration, or any other illegal act in connection with the 2016 campaign.

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: A seven count indictment I think is a very serious indictment, but it shows that the special counsel's office is recovering the evidence it needs.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the White House.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This connection to the integrity of our elections is obviously something we have to get to the truth about.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR EMERITUS: Was their illegal collusion, illegal conspiracy with Russia? We don't find it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: A seven count indictment for Roger Stone, and in that indictment, a number of different parts of it, but this says "After the July 22nd, 2016, release of stolen DNC emails by Organization One," that's WikiLeaks, "a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and whether other damaging information Organization One had regarding the Clinton campaign. Stone thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization One," again, WikiLeaks.

The counts that Stone now faces, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, up to five years there, five counts of false statements, five years per count, potentially, one count of witness tampering, and there's 20 years in prison of that, meaning he's facing a maximum of 50 years in prison.

Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, putting out a statement saying "The indictment today is yet again nothing more than another false statement charge. It doesn't allege collusion. Indeed, it charges no underlying wrongdoing by Mr. Stone or anyone else. Seems like we are coming to an end."

What about all this? Let's digest it with our panel, bring them back, Byron York, chief political correspondent for the "Washington Examiner," Josh Kraushaar, the political editor for the "National Journal," and Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the "Washington Free Beacon." OK, Matthew, what do you make of the Roger Stone indictment?

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: What happened to Richard Nixon in Watergate is a tragedy, Bret, but Roger Stone seems to have read it as an instruction manual if the indictment is correct. And nonetheless, the crime for which he was indicted are process crimes. They are not the crimes that Mueller was appointed to investigate. And so I think the administration is to able to create some space between what happened to Roger Stone and the president himself.

BAIER: Josh?

JOSH KRAUSHAAR, POLITICAL EDITOR, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": It does feel like the walls are closing and when it comes to the Trump White House and possible connections with Russia and WikiLeaks. Stone is merely one of the many campaign officials on that Trump campaign to now be indicted, and it feels like the heat is on in the White House.

On the other hand, from the political point of view, if you remember back in the summer of 2016, Trump was calling publicly on Russia to release the emails, and Stone was tweeting about this for everyone who follows him on Twitter to see. So this was baked in politically to the 2016 election. And I don't think the public and certainly the politics of this changes until Mueller releases his report, and actually there is some evidence of actual collusion which there has not been proven to be so far. So the politics I don't think really change a whole lot even though this is another damning connection from that Trump campaign to Russia.

BAIER: What we don't know, Byron, is the senior Trump campaign official who is ordered to talk to Stone. And the White House and Rudy Giuliani saying it doesn't touch the president. Obviously, he was intimately involved in the campaign. So we don't know a lot from this indictment even though it's seven counts and laid out.

BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": That passage that you read and that you just referred to about July 22nd, 2016, is very important, one of the most important things is it's after WikiLeaks is published. We find out that WikiLeaks, or the Russians have hacked the DNC. WikiLeaks discloses its stuff, and after it happens, someone in the Trump campaign says to Stone, what's going on. So that suggests that there was no knowledge beforehand. And also I think that does not really support any idea that there was some sort of collusion scheme or conspiracy going on between the Trump campaign and Russia.

But the main thing to remember reading this indictment is Roger Stone has always been kind of a B.S. artist. He brags about all sorts of dirty deeds some of which he hasn't even done, and he was doing that in connection to this case in public. And then the House had him come for an interview and asked him about those statements under oath, and he allegedly lied about it all, and it has all caught up with him. But as far as revealing some kind of scheme or conspiracy, it just doesn't do it.

BAIER: Take a listen very quickly to the question of whether Roger Stone would flip for the Special Counsel and somehow testify against the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER STONE, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR EMERITUS: When you're facing a long prison term, the most loyal of people turn to themselves and say, I have to look out for myself first.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You get 10 years in jail, but if say bad things about somebody, in other words make up stories. It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So Matthew, it doesn't sound like he is going to do that, but we'll hear on Tucker's show at 8:00 p.m. tonight.

CONTINETTI: It doesn't sound at all, but I would say the way in which the FBI apprehended Stone in that 6:00 a.m. raid involving so many agents with weapons for what is basically perjury or witness tampering in terms of a Congressional investigation and a Special Counsel investigation, I think shows the Special Counsel trying to ratchet up the pressure, which will continue as this legal process moves on, Bret. And as you mentioned before, these charges can amount to some significant prison time, and I think that's something that Mueller is going to emphasize in his dealings with Stone.

BAIER: All right, panel, stand by. Next up the Friday lightning round, the Venezuela crisis, Democrats move to the left, plus winners and losers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States has concluded Juan Guaido is the interim president of Venezuela. We think every country ought to recognize the Venezuelan constitution, the demands of the Venezuelan people.

NICOLA MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT: They put together a coup attempt together with an international coup. There is a media coup against Venezuela to distort the real situation and put pressure on a country and impose the model of intervention from Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The situation in Venezuela continues to spiral. The U.S. and other countries recognizing the opposition leader as the new president, as you take a look at this map. The red are countries that recognize Nicolas Maduro as the president and want to continue his reign down there.

We're back with the panel. We'll start there with the Friday Lightning Round. Byron?

YORK: The Trump administration is doing the right thing here, and as the map just showed, doing it in conjunction with a lot of other nations, being very multilateral, which the president is accused often of not being, and also doing it in clear opposition to Russia, which the president is also accused of not doing very much. So the United States is in the right position here.

BAIER: Josh?

KRAUSHAAR: This feels like an old-school proxy war where you have the traditional U.S. enemies, Russia, China, Iran, even Cuba trying to prop up Maduro, and the U.S., like Byron was saying, has a pretty strong multilateral alliance in the hemisphere, including Canada behind us.

What's striking to me domestically is that there are these rising stars on the left in the Democratic Party that didn't have the moral courage to even criticize Maduro, and I'm talking about Ocasio-Cortez, and you have Ilhan Omar in Minnesota who put out statements without criticizing Maduro and even being to the left of Bernie Sanders on this subject. And it shows that we are getting a lot more extreme when it comes to foreign policy views, and the left is finding new ways to redefine socialism when it comes to foreign policy.

BAIER: Speaking of the left, it does seem, Matthew, and we've talked about this a couple of times. But as more and more candidates get into this 2020 race on the Democratic side, that really that's the way they are going. That's the power that they see and where they think the votes are going to be.

CONTINETTI: And they may be right, Bret, within the Democratic Party, but I'm not sure that holds for the rest of the country when it comes to the general election. The Democrats who have entered the race so far have embarked on an apology tour. And that's not necessarily the best way for a candidate to introduce him or herself to the public. You want to start off with an affirmative vision, what you want to do for America, for our future. And instead all the Democrats who have entered and some who are thinking about entering have started off by groveling.

BAIER: We'll see. Winners and losers down the row. Byron, winner and loser?

YORK: For my winner, I was worried that with all the news tonight we would not have time for an animal story. So my winner is the Bluffton, South Carolina, police department, which has done a good deed, gone to the local animal shelter for the newest member of its canine team, a puppy named Justice. My loser is the movie "First Man." It was kind of a strange biopic of Neil Armstrong, stirred political controversy, was thought to be an Oscar frontrunner. Totally shut out of the big Oscar categories.

BAIER: Josh, winner and loser?

KRAUSHAAR: The winner are the federal workers who will finally get back to work, get their backpay, and actually for the first time I think the bureaucracy got something of a good name. We realize that they are a lot more than just the folks who work in Washington and are part of that big massive bureaucracy.

But the loser, I'm going to go to sports. The Super Bowl is next week, but the Washington Redskins are still not in the playoffs. Dan Snyder has presided over a whole host of losing teams, and I think the Trump White House doesn't talk to the press a whole lot. Redskins President Bruce Allen held his first press conference in 588 days. They're not very media friendly, and it's not good when you're losing so many football games that you can't offer some explanations to your fans.

BAIER: All right, Matthew, winner and loser?

CONTINETTI: As much as it pains me to say this, my winner is Nancy Pelosi. She went toe-to-toe with Trump not only in the shutdown but also on the State of the Union, and she won. In fact, the first sign to me that this shutdown was probably going to come to an end and soon was when Trump retreated on the State of the Union earlier this week.

My loser, Bret, is the news industry, which amidst the scandals involving stories about the special counsel, about the Covington Catholic kids, is also experiencing a wave of layoffs. And also a recent poll by the Pew Foundation found that if 58 percent of the Americans don't think the media understands them, and those Americans are right.

BAIER: All right, panel, thank you, have a great weekend. When we come back, "Notable Quotables."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. You're looking live at the House floor, and they are now back in session. We expect a voice vote that will move this bill forward, and that will mean that the president will likely sign the opening of the government, the continuing resolution, tonight.

Finally tonight, "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Straight to the FOX News alert, Roger Stone is indicted by a grand jury.

CROWD: Lock him up! Lock him up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federal workers who are going to homeless shelters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they are, and I don't really quite understand why.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is the let them eat cake kind of attitude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm getting hundreds and hundreds of reports, I can't come to work anymore.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: I am running for president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Buzzfeed" just got it wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We expect the United Kingdom to tell us what they want, what they really, really want.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can try to teach a goat how to climb a tree, but you're better off hiring a squirrel in the first place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been terrible people have threatened our lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he didn't have a MAGA hat, and that was not a pro- live protest, this would not be a story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a low point I think in history for the speaker of the House to uninvite the president of the United States.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: We need a physical barrier that you can't crawl under, climb over, drive through, or walk around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nicholas Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power.

TRUMP: That's what socialism gets you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many -- do you give?

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: Zero.

TRUMP: We have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government.

PELOSI: I have been very clear on the wall.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Hopefully now the president has learned his lesson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Busy week.

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