- The Washington Times - Friday, January 25, 2019

Former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent Dan Bongino wants to know why the FBI had to “hit the door” during the Friday morning arrest of longtime political operative Roger Stone over process crimes.

The host of “The Dan Bongino Show Podcast” reacted to Mr. Stone’s arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by noting its “highly unusual” nature, given that there was no flight risk, no sense of urgency and no charges related to acts of violence.

Mr. Stone’s indictment is on charges of obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“This is another process crime where the Mueller investigation, the result of the investigation has produced the crime,” Mr. Bongino told a “Fox & Friends” panel. “As a result of the investigation, we have this alleged witness tampering and failure to produce documents, but there is no evidence of a predicate crime outside of the investigation itself. But secondly, but leaps out to me is: Roger Stone is no flight at all. He’s one of the most recognizable people in this entire investigation. Why would you hit his door at six o’clock in the morning to arrest him with the FBI and not allow him to turn himself in?”

Mr. Bongino said it appeared as though Mr. Mueller’s team often reacted in ways that were designed to change damaging media narratives.

“The fact that he wasn’t allowed to turn himself in by what is not by any stretch a violent crime — the allegations are, again, a process crime — it could be serious, maybe not. I don’t have the details of the arrest, but it’s highly unusual, especially for one other reason as well,” he said. “You don’t hit the door. It’s just not something you would do unless it’s a violent crime or there was some urgency to it. It’s just not common in a case like this.”

The former Secret Service agent added that Americans should at least find it “odd” that “millions in assets and skilled investigators” have hunted for evidence of collusion between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Moscow without success.

Mr. Stone’s bail was set at $250,000 by a federal judge on Friday, and he was restricted in his traveling to south Florida, Washington, D.C., Virginia and New York.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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