The news today is going to be all about the early morning arrest of Roger Stone. Of course, many are chock full of glee that we have a Trump Gotcha! here. Except the indictment tells a different story. However, to me, the bigger part of the Stone arrest story is, how did CNN know to be on scene an HOUR before Stone’s arrest?

Here’s CNN’s video of the raid.

First of all, it’s Roger Stone guys, so why in the world would there be a full compliment of FBI plus FBI SWAT involved? Seems kind of over-the-top to me.

Secondly, why didn’t the prosecution contact Stone’s attorneys and work out a deal to have him quietly turn himself in?

Third, who tipped off CNN? Was it someone on the Mueller team, someone with the FBI, or someone else?

Keep in mind, the 24-page indictment, which you can read in full here, doesn’t implicate Trump at all. Instead the indictment makes it very clear that this covers Stone’s behavior and truthfulness during the investigation.

1 count of Obstruction of Proceeding

5 counts of False Statements

1 count of Witness Tampering

Nothing in the indictment about Trump Russia collusion whatsoever. Sorry anti-Trumpers, you lost this one too.

Moving along. Stone has known for quite some time that he was going to be indicted. People have claimed that he has had advance knowledge of what was in the Wikileaks data dumps and more. Reading through the indictment it doesn’t look like he did. But what he did do was lie about his communications with people who were trying to find out WHAT Julian Assange had in his possession.

Stone, a self-described political dirty trickster who famously has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back, will make an initial appearance later Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

The 24-page indictment alleges that Stone worked to obstruct the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by making false statements to the committee, denying he had records sought by the committee and persuading a witness to provide false testimony.

The indictment does not charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published the emails, or with the Russian officers Mueller says hacked them. Instead, it accuses him of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to WikiLeaks’ release.

So again, those who so badly want Trump to be guilty will have to just deal with the fact that, this ain’t it.

Sanders downplays Stone's arrest: "This has nothing to do w/the president & certainly nothing to do with the White House. This is something that has to do solely w/that individual, not something that affects us in this building… will the same standard apply to Hillary Clinton?" pic.twitter.com/sRjHYZdr5k

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2019

But let’s go back to CNN. How in the world did they know to be parked outside Roger Stone’s house in Florida a solid HOUR before the over-the-top raid?

Here’s one explanation.

That would be @davidgshortell. He said on air that he got to Stone's house early this morning after they noticed some unusual grand jury activity in Washington yesterday. https://t.co/4ohoaMTdCe

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 25, 2019

Oh. Ok!

Wait WUT? Someone in DC noticed unusual grand jury activity and just happened to math the right combination of apples and bananas and come up with Stone?

Yeah, I’m not buying it, nor is anyone else.

Look, I’ve never liked Roger Stone. He’s always been a slime ball. He was going to end up facing some type of music sooner or later. Yet what happened this morning is more about how the Mueller team, the FBI, and the media are handling this.

The only real conclusion one can make is that it is more obvious now than ever that the media (CNN in particular) is in bed with those who want to use any means necessary including half-truths of apples/bananas to try and take Trump down. If they can’t do it by use of facts, they’ll do it with innuendo and little tricks like conveniently being on scene to film the raid on Roger Stone’s home and his subsequent arrest.

It's possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller's office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone's arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it's Roger Stone, so few will care. https://t.co/H7VvltkoCE

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 25, 2019

Yes, indeed. No one should be thrilled with how this was handled this morning. No. One.

Exit question for CNN. Who are YOU colluding with within the FBI and the Mueller team?

Welcome Instapundit Readers!

Feature Photo Credit: Josh Hallet, CNN via Flikr, modified and cropped