Federal prosecutors requested permission Friday to show a scene from “The Godfather Part II” during the upcoming trial of Roger Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser.
In a motion filed in D.C. federal court, the Department of Justice asked to play an excerpt from the 1974 film referenced in messages Mr. Stone sent to a Randy Credico, a longtime acquaintance on the opposite end of a witness tampering charge.
“To not show the clip at trial would deprive jurors of significant context for understanding critical messages in this case,” wrote Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for D.C.
Roughly 4 minutes and 20 seconds long, the scene involves a character in the film, Frank Pentangeli, appearing before a congressional committee investigating organized crime. The character is expected to provide testimony that would allow lawmakers to recommend a charge of perjury against a mob boss, Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino, but instead claims not to know about his ties to the Mafia.
“I don’t know nothing about that,” the character claims in the film. “I was in the olive oil business with his father but that was a long time ago.”
Mr. Stone repeatedly referenced Pentangeli, including specifically the character’s congressional testimony, in emails and text messages he sent to Mr. Credico after learning that the latter had been subpoenaed to appear before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into Russian election interference.
Mr. Stone had previously told the same committee that Mr. Credico, a comedian and radio host, had acted as an intermediary between himself and Julian Assange, the publisher of the WikiLeaks website that released stolen Democratic documents during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. Prosecutors claim that Mr. Stone lied to Congress about the connection and then tried pressuring Mr. Credico to do the same, however, resulting in Mr. Stone being charged in February with counts of perjury, obstruction and witness tampering.
“Start practicing your Pantagele [sic],” Mr. Stone wrote to Mr. Credico in one of the messages cited by prosecutors.
“Sure I know Roger Stone,” he wrote in another. “he was in the Olive Oil business with my father. But that was a long long time ago.”
Asking permission to admit the movie scene into evidence at trial, Ms. Liu called it “directly relevant” to the witness tampering charge brought against Mr. Stone.
“Several of the allegedly criminal acts at issue involve Stone’s referencing Pentangeli and Pentangeli’s testimony before Congress,” she wrote. “To understand Stone’s messages … it is necessary to understand those references.”
Mr. Stone, 66, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied asking Mr. Credico to lie to Congress.
“He does impressions,” Mr. Stone said previously. “I was asking him to his Frank Pentangeli impression.”
“Watching the movie clip and seeing the context in which Pentangeli delivers the lines that Stone quotes to [Mr. Credico] makes clear that Stone’s messages were not mere references to [Mr. Credico’s] abilities as an impressionist, but rather were a suggestion that [Mr. Credico] testify falsely to Congress,” Ms. Liu countered this week. “The clip is an important piece of evidence on this critical, disputed issue.”
Mr. Stone’s trial is currently scheduled to start Nov. 5.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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