CONGRESS/ROBERT MUELLER/ROGER STONE/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Federal prosecutors argued Friday [5-3-19] that special counsel Robert Mueller did not need to prove conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to show that longtime Trump ally Roger Stone obstructed Congress’ investigation of the matter…That argument has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, following Attorney General Bill Barr’s suggestion that evidence collected by Mueller implicating President Donald Trump for multiple efforts to thwart his probe fell short, in part because Mueller didn’t establish the existence of a criminal conspiracy…Democrats and some legal experts have sharply disputed Barr’s argument, suggesting that Trump’s actions to undermine the probe could have prevented the discovery of evidence of a conspiracy or that he may have been attempting to conceal the discovery of other related crimes — such as allegations that he directed the payment of hush money to two women who accused him of extramarital affairs, evidence of which emerged from Mueller’s investigation. Several of Trump’s closest allies, including Stone, were also charged with crimes in Mueller’s investigation.”
–Kyle Cheney, “Prosecutors: No need to prove Russian conspiracy to charge Stone with obstruction,” Politico, May 3, 2019 9:25 pm