Following the FBI’s raid on President Trump associate Roger Stone on matters related to the Mueller investigation, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders openly blasted the agency’s double-standard for seemingly to always raid members of Trump’s team while ignoring other high-profile figures like Hillary Clinton.
In an early morning interview with CNN, Sanders wondered aloud why the FBI will not apply the same standards to other people in the 2016 election that lied to the agency. Stone was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a government investigation.
“We’ll let the courts make the decision,” Sanders said. “A bigger question is: If this is the standard, will the same standard apply to people like Hillary Clinton, James Comey and [James] Clapper?”
Sanders continued, “Will we see the same people we know have all made false statements? Will that same standard apply? That’s a question we’ll see what happens on that front.”
In the same interview with CNN on Friday, Sanders emphasized that Roger Stone’s arrest has nothing to do with the president, according to The Hill.
“This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House,” Sanders said on CNN. “This is something that has to do solely with that individual.”
The indictment on Thursday against Stone said that he contacted Trump campaign officials about the release of Democratic emails stolen by Russia and published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. When asked if President Trump directed Roger Stone to say this, Sanders did not give a direct answer.
“I haven’t read this document,” she said. “I’m not an attorney. I’m not going to be able to get into the weeds on the specifics.”
Later, reporters asked Sanders if Trump’s support for Stone motivated him to commit a crime. She replied, “That is probably one of the more ridiculous and insulting questions to accuse the president of the United States of asking someone to break the law. That is — frankly, it’s just insulting and it’s just not true.”
Roger Stone was released on bond Friday and denied all charges brought against him.
According to the Washington Examiner, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) recently said a “growing body of evidence” shows that James Comey lied to Congress when he said that the FBI and the Justice Department were not coordinating on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“Not only was that false, but we know that over and over again now, we have emails that would suggest that that testimony was false and at best misled the American public, at worst was lying to Congress,” Meadows said on Fox News. “And here we are today with emails, text messages, that says that even the ‘no coordination’ message that Director Comey put out on that infamous day in July was actually suggested by the Department of Justice,”
“There’s even another email from the Department of Justice that would indicate … on how to articulate the exoneration of Hillary Clinton,” Meadows said.