Roger Stone Indictment References ‘The Godfather Part II’

Roger Stone, the longtime political fixture who worked as both a formal and informal advisor to President Trump during various stages of the 2016 presidential campaign, was arrested Friday morning by the FBI and charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering, and five counts of false statements, according to Inquisitr.

The indictment centers on Stone’s communications with Wikileaks and alleges that Stone sought emails from that organization which were obtained by Russian hackers. The witness tampering indictment relates to Stone’s attempts to sway the testimony before Congress of radio host Randy Credico. While doing so, according to CNN, Stone cited Richard Nixon, for whom he once worked, and of whom Stone famously has a tattoo on his back.

In his communications with Credico, according to the indictment, Stone not only threatened the witness’ dog but also told Credico to “do a Frank Pentangeli.”

“On multiple occasions, including on or about December 1, 2017, STONE told Person 2 that Person 2 should do a ‘Frank Pentangeli’ before HPSCI in order to avoid contradicting STONE’s testimony,” the charging document says. “Frank Pentangeli is a character in the film The Godfather: Part II, which both STONE and Person 2 had discussed, who testifies before a congressional committee and in that testimony claims not to know critical information that he does in fact know.”

“FBI. Open the door.”

Watch exclusive CNN footage of the FBI arresting longtime Trump associate Roger Stone. Stone has been indicted by a grand jury on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. https://t.co/5QHKDB2mfA pic.twitter.com/UeKo7CmXWo

— CNN (@CNN) January 25, 2019

“Person 2” is reportedly Credico, a radio host and sometime friend of Stone’s, who was reportedly Stone’s intermediary in his communications with Wikileaks.

“Do a Frank Pentangeli” is a reference to the 1974 film The Godfather, Part II, in which Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) has agreed to testify before a Senate committee about crimes committed by the Corleone family, including murders he committed under Michael Corleone’s orders. But when he’s about to testify, it’s revealed that the family has brought in Pentangeli’s brother from Sicily, and the intimidation caused by his presence leads Pentangeli to back down and tell the committee, falsely, that he knows of no crimes, and that he had lied in his previous statements. The character later commits suicide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUjjzwIrebQ

In that analogy, the Trump campaign is the mob family, guilty of numerous crimes, while Credico is Pentangeli, the witness who knows the truth of those crimes but is now pressured to lie about them. Credico testified for two hours before the Mueller grand jury last September, per Politico, although CNN stated Friday that Credico pleaded the Fifth when he testified before the House Intelligence Committee. Credico had sought, and received, permission to bring his dog with him for the grand jury testimony.

In keeping with the mob analogy, Stone also referred to Credico as a “rat” and “stoolie” in communications, per the indictment.