The pre-dawn arrest of former Trump adviser Roger Stone in connection with the Mueller investigation has many scratching their heads over how it went down. Not only did the FBI surprise Stone at 6am Friday morning with a knock on his door - as opposed to simply notifying his attorney and letting Stone turn himself in, but CNN was there to film the entire thing going down.
Wow wow wow.
— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 25, 2019
CNN got video of the FBI making the Roger Stone arrest before 6AM. pic.twitter.com/iDBSYUKKzF
FBI arrested my neighbor Roger before my morning jog, I’ve only seen shit like that in movies, crazy to start to my Friday
— Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) January 25, 2019
This begs the question; did the FBI tip off CNN ahead of Stone's dramatic takedown?
Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren certainly thought so on first take, tweeting: "CNN cameras were at the raid of Roger Stone…so FBI obviously tipped off CNN…even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN instead of trying to quietly arrest Stone;quiet arrests are more likely to be safe to the FBI and the person arrested."
CNN cameras were at the raid of Roger Stone...so FBI obviously tipped off CNN...even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN instead of trying to quietly arrest Stone;quiet arrests are more likely to be safe to the FBI and the person arrested
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) January 25, 2019
Others shared her sentiment:
The FBI special ops-style predawn raid of Roger Stone for process crimes and the tipoff of CNN is a sad day for America
— Jack Posobiec úø (@JackPosobiec) January 25, 2019
CNN is literally on the side of the police state left
Perp walks are a feature of witch hunts
It's possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller's office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone's arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it's Roger Stone, so few will care. https://t.co/H7VvltkoCE
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 25, 2019
CNN claims that they staked out Stone's house based on "unusual grand jury activity in Washington yesterday" along with other information.
That would be @davidgshortell. He said on air that he got to Stone's house early this morning after they noticed some unusual grand jury activity in Washington yesterday. https://t.co/4ohoaMTdCe
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 25, 2019
CNN producer David Shortell admitted that he was “waiting” outside Roger Stone’s house at 5am, an hour before FBI agents and police...