White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to the news of the arrest of Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone for allegedly making false statements to Congress, questioning if Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will be held to the same standard.
Sanders first noted during a CNN interview on Friday, “This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House. This is something that has to do solely with that individual.”
Stone was indicted on seven counts in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, The Hill reported. He was arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida early on Friday morning.
The indictment alleges that Stone made “multiple false statements” to the House Intelligence Committee regarding his interactions with “Organization 1,” which is believed to be WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks released troves of Democratic emails during the 2016 race.
Pressed on Stone’s connection to Trump, Sanders described Stone as “somebody who has been a consultant for dozens of Republican presidents and candidates and members of Congress.”
She pointed out any conversations that Stone and Trump had during the course of the campaign were not the subject matter of the charges brought against the former adviser, which involved making false statements and obstruction charges.
“I think a bigger question is, if this is the standard, will this same standard apply to people like Hillary Clinton, James Comey, James Clapper?” Sanders said. “Will we see these same people who we know have also made false statements, will that same standard apply?”
Following Comey’s announcement that he would not be recommending criminal prosecution of Clinton in July 2016, GOP lawmakers sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department days later regarding Clinton’s sworn testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, The New York Times reported.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson noted that Comey testified before Congress in 2017 that he had never authorized the FBI to provide anonymous sources for news stories about the Russia or Clinton investigations.
However, subsequent testimony by his former deputy direction Andrew McCabe contradicted Comey’s statements.
Finally, Clapper famously denied before Congress in 2013 that the federal government collects metadata on Americans’ phone records.
That testimony was shown to be false.
Via WesternJournal
