Things That Make Me Go Hmm

The latest on the investigation of Roger Stone, care of Tom McCarthy at the Guardian:

A court filing by Mueller on Thursday said prosecutors had seized "voluminous and complex" material including "multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information," material seized from search warrants executed on "Apple iCloud accounts and email accounts," "bank and financial records, and the contents of numerous physical devices (eg, cellular phones, computers, and hard drives)."

Given that Special Counsel Bob Mueller disclosed to Stone's defense attorneys as part of discovery that some of this material may be used against Stone, we can presume at least some of it implicates him in criminal activities.

So, the first thing I want to note (and I'm surprised that no one else seems to be making this point) is that Stone retaining so much potentially incriminating material is yet more evidence of confidence among Donald Trump's co-conspirators that he would be elected.

That is: Stone (and others) felt confident in keeping information that could be used against them, because they assumed that it never would be.

Stone is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them.

Which brings me to my next point: Mueller has been investigating for about 100 years at this point. It's one thing that Stone was evidently confident that Trump would be elected, but it's quite another that he has remained confident that this information wouldn't be used against him.

Stone is hubristic, but it's the sort of hubris that makes people do whatever it takes to get away with something, not to assume that they will get away with anything.

I'd certainly like to know what is underwriting Stone's confidence and apparent contempt for the Mueller investigation, because it isn't stupidity or hubris or a sheer failure to cover his ass. You don't last as long in the ratfucking game as Stone has if you're daft, arrogant, or careless.

I don't want to give Roger Stone too much credit here, but, at the same time, this strikes me as pretty damn curious.