Comedian and radio show host Randy Credico said he didn’t really think that flamboyant Republican operative Roger Stone had been seriously threatening his fluffy white Coton de Tulear, Bianca.
Prosecutors had first brought up Stone’s comments from a heated 2018 text message exchange about the dog in which Stone called Credico a “rat” and a “stoolie” and told him, “I’m going to take that dog away from you. Nothing you can do about it.”
Credico said in court the dog, who he has had since 2006, is important to him.
“I have no wife and no kids,” he said.
In Stone’s January indictment, prosecutors held those comments up as one of many examples of Stone allegedly threatening Credico to keep him quiet but Credico dismissed that under oath during cross-examination Friday.
“You know that Roger Stone loves dogs?” Stone’s defense lawyer Robert Buschel asked Credico, pointing to the fact that Stone owns dogs.
“Yes, I acknowledge that he loves dogs,” Credico replied. “Did he love my dog? He loves all dogs.”
Credico said he believed that specific instance was likely just “hyperbole” by Stone.
“I don’t think he would steal a dog … I don’t think he was going to steal the dog. I think he was pretty riled up at the time, that I was rebutting him at the time,” Credico testified. “And so I didn’t think he was going to hurt the dog … I know he would’ve never touched that dog.”
Stone is charged with repeatedly misrepresenting to Congress his 2016 attempt at collaborating with WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange to obtain dirt on and stolen emails from then-candidate Hillary Clinton, with prosecutors alleging Stone tried to contact Assange by using both InfoWars conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi and Credico as conduits, though he allegedly misled Congress in 2017 by concealing his WikiLeaks-related discussions with Corsi, attempting to pin it all — including his “backchannel” claims throughout August 2016 — on Credico.
And while Credico said he hadn’t taken Stone’s threat about Bianca seriously, his anger with Stone’s other threats and deceptions was palpable.
Dozens of texts and emails from Stone to Credico show the self-described “dirty trickster” was determined to stop the shock jock from talking to House investigators. Credico had gotten Assange on his radio show in late August 2016 by reaching out to Margaret Ratner Kunstler, a lawyer and a long-time friend of Credico’s who was in touch with Assange’s team.
Credico testified that he bragged about getting Assange on his show to “one-up” Stone, who himself had been bragging for weeks about having an “intermediary” and “mutual friend” and “backchannel” through WikiLeaks. Credico said he was angry with himself for letting Stone know about Kuntsler’s involvement, which he felt Stone then held over his head for months.
“I was ashamed of myself that I had done that,” Credico said. “I never should have done that.”
Credico said mentioning Kuntsler was one of Stone’s tactics to keep him from talking since Credico didn’t want his friend’s role in helping him reach out to Assange for an interview made public. But Stone’s repeated threats and his hints about Kunstler weren’t the only reason Credico ultimately pleaded the Fifth.
“I certainly did not want to be stuck as the guy who helped Trump win the election,” Credico testified. “If I could testify, I could’ve cleared this up. I could’ve said I wasn’t the backchannel … Stone is one of many reasons I took the Fifth. There’s a thousand reasons I took the Fifth … I didn’t want to drag Ms. Kuntsler into this … If I do that, I sacrifice Ms. Kuntsler’s reputation.”
Credico had complained in messages to Stone that he didn’t want to be his “patsy” but said in court that “I was the patsy at that point.”
And Credico repeatedly testified that he felt cornered and trapped by Stone’s false claims.
“I can’t work on his level. He plays hardball. He throws a lot of junk, and I tried not to get hit,” Credico said.
The cross-examination by Stone’s attorney seemed at times haphazard. The judge admonished him about getting into arguments with Credico and not displaying exhibits for the jury. When he tried to bring up lies that Credico had allegedly told to Stone “throughout the years,” Credico responded with anger.
“Throughout the years? Do you really want to go into that? About lies? We can start in 2002, sir,” Credico said, referring to when the two met.
Prosecutors followed up with a brief redirect of their witness once Stone’s lawyers were finished in an apparent effort to get control of the courtroom once more, getting Credico to repeat that he had not provided any information about WikiLeaks to Stone during the time period when Stone first started bragging about having an in with Assange, that he was not Stone’s backchannel, that he never told Stone he was a backchannel, and that he repeatedly tried to get Stone to stop lying about him and to Congress.
When he was done, and the jury and witness were dismissed, Judge Amy Berman Jackson told the prosecution that “I’ve given you a lot of leeway there” and reminded them that “a redirect is not a cross-examination.”
[Read more: Bannon: Trump campaign saw Roger Stone as link to WikiLeaks and Assange]
