Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH

,Conspiracy theorist Trump ally and slippery person Roger Stone headed for the evening news shows following his release on $250,000 bond Friday morning.

Stone was arrested by the FBI at a dawn raid at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Stone was charged by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller on seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office.

Stone appeared on Chris Cuomo Prime Time on CNN to defend himself.

Said Stone of his arrest: “When you don’t have evidence, you use theatrics. I think this was an overreaction and the real proof of it was, the judge only hours later gave me a $250K surety bond on my own signature. So if you’re a flight risk, they wouldn’t do that.”

Replied Cuomo: “I’m actually surprised they have you out at all. But when you say they have no proof, Roger, to be honest with you I have not seen an indictment connected to this probe that has more proof than this one does of communications that you have had that prove that you didn’t tell the truth to Congress.”

Stone argued that he wasn’t arrested for anything that shows collusion with the Russian government or Wikileaks: “First of all, I always said that there could be some process crime. There’s still no evidence whatsoever that I had advance knowledge of the topic, the subject, or the source of the WikiLeaks disclosures. I never received any of the WikiLeaks disclosures. I never communicated with Assange or WikiLeaks other than the limited communication on Twitter on direct message, which I gave to the House Intelligence Committee last September, I guess it was.”

Cuomo told Stone he thought it was “ballsy” for Stone to come on TV so soon after the indictment, adding “It makes me think you must believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. You believe that light is not the train but that it is the president and he will pardon you for keeping your mouth shut.”

Said Stone: “I have never had any discussion with him or communication with him regarding that. I have no idea what he might do”

Asked if he would accept one, Stone replied that he doesn’t answer “hypothetical” questions.

Stone also went on FOX News with Tucker Carlson, and got a much different type of interview:

The post Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH

NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH

The heart wrenching story of the life and death of Kalief Browder is indelible if you caught it first in The New Yorker in 2014 in a story called “Before the Law: A boy was accused of taking a backpack. The courts took the next three years of his life.”

The essentials of the case are this: Browder had been charged with grand larceny among other charges for taking a car on a joy ride.

A reasonable sounding judge gave “him probation and ‘youthful offender’ status, which insured that he wouldn’t have a criminal record.”

But, the story said “because Browder was still on probation, the judge ordered him to be held and set bail at three thousand dollars. The amount was out of reach for his family, and soon Browder found himself aboard a Department of Correction bus. He fought back panic. . . as the bus made its way across a long, narrow bridge to Rikers Island.”

He was 16 years-old at the time.

He would spend the next three years of his life incarcerated in one of the most notoriously over crowded prisons in the country.

In October 2014, said the New York Times after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. “Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.”

Browder’s long periods of solitary confinement were defended by the correction’s department as the only way to protect the boy from the adult population which made Browder a frequent target of violence and sexual assaults.

Browder was released when the prosecutor’s “case was found to be lacking any evidence against Browder and the case’s main witness was found to have left the United States.”

After his release Browder was putting his life back together according to numerous sources: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. He even talked about his experience in a video (watch below).

On June 6th 2015 Browder committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx after a long struggle with PTSD stemming from his experience.

According to Essence: “Browder’s story has been credited with making significant reforms to the criminal justice system. Since his story first appeared in the New Yorker, the use of solitary confinement for juveniles has been banned by federal prisons, New York’s “Raise The Age” policy went into effect making it unlawful for young people under the age of 18 to be tried as an adult. And the #CloseRikers movement scored a huge win when in June of 2017, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio pledged to close Rikers Island for good.”

This settlement is good and all, but ultimately won’t heal the crime that was committed against this boy.

WATCH: TIME: The Kalief Browder Story below.

The post NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH