title: Roger Stone

text: In February 2012, Stone said that he had changed his party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Libertarian Party. Stone predicted a "Libertarian moment" in 2016 and the end of the Republican party.


title: Roger Stone

text: In June 2012, Stone said that he was running a super PAC in support of former New Mexico governor and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, whom he had met at a "Reason" magazine Christmas party two years earlier. Stone told "The Huffington Post" that Johnson had a real role to play, although "I have no allusions of him winning."


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone considered running as a Libertarian candidate for governor of Florida in 2014, but in May 2013, he said in a statement that he would not run, and that he wanted to devote himself to campaigning in support of the 2014 Florida Amendment 2 referendum legalizing medical cannabis.


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone served as an adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Stone left the campaign on August 8, 2015, amid controversy, with Stone claiming he quit and Trump claiming that Stone was fired. Despite this, Stone still supported Trump. A few days later, Stone wrote an op-ed called "The man who just resigned from Donald Trump's campaign explains how Trump can still win" for "Business Insider".


title: Roger Stone

text: Despite calling Stone a "stone-cold loser" in a 2008 interview and accusing him of seeking too much publicity in a statement shortly after Stone left the campaign, Donald Trump praised him during an appearance in December 2015 on Alex Jones' radio show that was orchestrated by Stone. "Roger's a good guy," Trump said. "He's been so loyal and so wonderful." Stone remained an informal adviser to and media surrogate for Trump throughout the campaign.


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone had considered entering the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida to challenge white nationalist Augustus Invictus for the Libertarian nomination. He ultimately did not enter the race.


title: Roger Stone

text: During the course of the 2016 campaign, Stone was banned from appearing on CNN and MSNBC after making a series of offensive Twitter posts disparaging television personalities. Stone specifically referred to the CNN commentator Ana Navarro as an "entitled diva bitch" and imagined her "killing herself", and called another CNN personality Roland Martin a "stupid negro" and a "fat negro". Erik Wemple, media writer for "The Washington Post", described Stone's tweets as "nasty" and "bigoted". In February 2016, CNN said that it would no longer invite Stone to appear on its network, and MSNBC followed suit, confirming in April 2016, that Stone had also been banned from that network. In a June 2016 appearance on "On Point", Stone told Tom Ashbrook: "I would have to admit that calling Roland Martin a 'fat negro' was a two-martini tweet, and I regret that. As for my criticism of Ana Navarro not being qualified ... I don't understand why she's there, given her lack of qualifications."


title: Roger Stone

text: In March 2016, an article in the tabloid magazine "National Enquirer" stated that Ted Cruz, Trump's Republican primary rival, had extramarital affairs with five women. The article quoted Stone as saying, "These stories have been swirling about Cruz for some time. I believe where there is smoke there is fire." Cruz denied the allegations (calling it "garbage" and a "tabloid smear") and accused the Trump campaign, and Stone specifically, of planting the story as part of an orchestrated smear campaign against him. Cruz stated, "It is a story that quoted one source on the record, Roger Stone, Donald Trump's chief political adviser. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He's a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent." In April 2016, Cruz again criticized Stone, saying on "The Sean Hannity Show" of Stone: "He is pulling the strings on Donald Trump. He planned the Trump campaign, and he is Trump's henchman and dirty trickster. And this pattern, Donald keeps associating himself with people who encourage violence." Stone responded by comparing Cruz to Richard Nixon and accusing him of being a liar.


title: Roger Stone

text: In April 2016, Stone formed a pro-Trump activist group, Stop the Steal, and threatened "Days of Rage" if Republican party leaders tried to deny the nomination to Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. "The Washington Post" reported that Stone "is organizing [Trump] supporters as a force of intimidation", noting that Stone "has ... threatened to publicly disclose the hotel room numbers of delegates who work against Trump". Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that Stone's threat to publicize the hotel room numbers of delegates was "just totally over the line".


title: Roger Stone

text: After Trump had been criticized at the Democratic National Convention for his comments on Muslims by Khizr Khan, a Pakistani American whose son received a posthumous Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, Stone made headlines defending Trump's criticism by accusing Khan of sympathizing with the enemy.


title: Roger Stone

text: In 2017, Stone was the subject of a Netflix documentary film, titled "Get Me Roger Stone", which focuses on his past and on his role in the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Stone first suggested Trump run for President in early 1998 while Stone was Trump's casino business lobbyist in Washington.


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone called Saudi Arabia "an enemy" and criticized Trump's visit to Riyadh in May 2017. He suggested that the Saudi government or members of the Saudi royal family directly supported or financed the September 11 attacks, tweeting that "Instead of meeting with the Saudis @realDonaldTrump should be demanding they pay for the attack on America on 9/11 which they financed."


title: Roger Stone

text: During the campaign, Stone frequently promoted conspiracy theories, including the false claim that Clinton aide Huma Abedin was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. In December 2018, as part of a defamation settlement, Stone agreed to retract a false claim he had made during the campaign: that Guo Wengui had donated to Hillary Clinton.


title: Roger Stone

text: On September 10, 2020, Stone told "InfoWars" Alex Jones that, if Trump appeared to lose the 2020 United States presidential election, he should consider declaring martial law via the Insurrection Act and confiscate ballots, particularly in Nevada, where they were "completely corrupted" and so "should be seized by federal marshals." Further, Stone advised that the president invoke federal law to arrest the leading businessmen Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg as well as the politicians Bill and Hillary Clinton for "illegal activity" and shut down the opinion website "The Daily Beast", arresting its staff for "seditious" activities; "this is war," announced Stone.


title: Roger Stone

text: As numerous false and unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud spread after the 2020 presidential election, Stone asserted he had "learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine." Matthew Dunlap, the Maine secretary of state, said the "vague rumor has absolutely no validity." In an 2020 interview with "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Stone also called Trump "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln."


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone has repeatedly indicated he would back Trump if he decided to run for a second non-consecutive term in the 2024 United States presidential election, and criticized Ron DeSantis for "disloyalty" amid rumors that he would run his presidential campaign.


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone supported Russia during its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Vladimir Putin was "acting defensively" in order to halt a purported U.S.-funded biological weapons program, which, in fact, did not exist.


title: Roger Stone

text: On April 25, 2022, the Ontario Party announced that Stone had joined their campaign team as a Senior Strategic Advisor for the 2022 Ontario general election. According to the media release issued by the Ontario Party, Stone had previously joined party leader Derek Sloan to address the party's candidate convention and criticized Ontario Premier Doug Ford's approach to conservatism.


title: Roger Stone

text: In early 2018, ahead of an appearance at the annual Republican Dorchester Conference in Salem, Oregon, Stone sought out the Proud Boys, a radical right group known for street violence, to act as his "security" for the event; photos posted online showed Stone drinking with several Proud Boys. After his arraignment at the Miami federal courthouse in January 2019, they joined him on its steps holding signs that said, "Roger Stone is innocent," and promoting right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his "InfoWars" website. Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes said Stone was "one of the three approved media figures allowed to speak" about the group. When Stone was asked by a local reporter about the Proud Boys' claim that he had been initiated as a member of the group, he responded by calling the reporter a member of the Communist Party. He is particularly close to the group's current leader, Enrique Tarrio, who has commercially monetized his position. At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt.


title: Roger Stone

text: "The Washington Post" reported in February 2021 that the FBI was investigating any role Stone might have had in influencing the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in their participation in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.


title: Roger Stone

text: According to "The Times of Israel", Roger Stone "was in contact with one or more apparently well-connected Israelis at the height of the 2016 US presidential campaign, one of whom warned Stone that Trump was "going to be defeated unless we intervene" and promised "we have critical intell[sic]." The exchange between Stone and this Jerusalem-based contact appears in FBI documents made public".


title: Roger Stone

text: During the 2016 campaign, Stone was accused by Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta of having prior knowledge of the publishing by WikiLeaks of Podesta's private emails obtained by a hacker. Stone tweeted before the leak, "It will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel". Five days before the leak, Stone tweeted, "Wednesday Hillary Clinton is done. #Wikileaks." Stone has denied having any advance knowledge of the Podesta email hack or any connection to Russian intelligence, stating that his earlier tweet was referring to reports of the Podesta Group's own ties to Russia. In his opening statement before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on September 26, 2017, Stone reiterated this claim: "Note that my tweet of August 21, 2016, makes no mention, whatsoever, of Mr. Podesta's email, but does accurately predict that the Podesta brothers' business activities in Russia ... would come under public scrutiny."


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone repeatedly acknowledged that he had established a back-channel with the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to obtain information on Hillary Clinton and pointed to this intermediary as the source for his advance knowledge about the release of Podesta's e-mails by WikiLeaks. Stone ultimately named Randy Credico, who had interviewed both Assange and Stone for a radio show, as his intermediary with Assange. A January 2019 indictment claimed Stone communicated with additional contacts knowledgeable about WikiLeaks plans.


title: Roger Stone

text: In February 2017, "The New York Times" reported that as part of its investigation into the Trump campaign, the FBI was looking into any contacts Stone may have had with Russian operatives. The following month "The Washington Times" reported that Stone had direct-messaged alleged DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter. Stone acknowledged contacts with the mysterious persona and made public excerpts of the messages. Stone said the messages were just innocent praise of the hacking. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Guccifer 2.0 to be a persona created by Russian intelligence to obscure its role in the DNC hack. The Guccifer 2.0 persona was ultimately linked with an IP address associated with the Russian intelligence agency, GRU, in Moscow when a user with a Moscow IP address logged into one of the Guccifer social media accounts without using a VPN.


title: Roger Stone

text: In March 2017, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Stone to preserve all documents related to any Russian contacts. The Committee Vice Chair, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), called on Stone to testify before the committee, saying he "hit the trifecta" of shady dealings with Russia. Stone denied any wrongdoing in an interview on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on March 31, 2017, and said he was willing to testify before the committee. The Committee's final report of August 2020 found that Stone did have access to Wikileaks and that Trump had spoken to Stone and other associates about it multiple times. Immediately after the "Access Hollywood" tape was released in October 2016, Stone directed his associate Jerome Corsi to tell Julian Assange to "drop the Podesta emails immediately," which Wikileaks leaked minutes later. However the drop had been announced three days previously and the Mueller investigation was only able to establish Corsi talked to Ted Malloch who was not an Assange associate. The Committee also found that Wikileaks "very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort." In written responses to the Mueller investigation, Trump had stated he did not recall such discussions with Stone.


title: Roger Stone

text: On September 26, 2017, Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors. He also provided a statement to the Committee and the press. "The Washington Post" annotated Stone's statement by noting his affiliations with "InfoWars", Breitbart, and Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories promulgator, Jerome Corsi. Stone also made personal attacks on Democratic committee members Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Dennis Heck.


title: Roger Stone

text: On October 28, 2017, following a news report by CNN that indictments would be announced within a few days, Stone's Twitter account was suspended by Twitter for what it called "targeted abuse" of various CNN personnel in a series of derogatory, threatening and obscenity-filled tweets.


title: Roger Stone

text: On December 1, 2017, Stone texted Randy Credico, a prosecution witness: "If you testify you're a fool. Because of tromp (sic), I could never get away with a certain (sic) my Fifth Amendment rights but you can. I guarantee you you (sic) are the one who gets indicted for perjury if you're stupid enough to testify." According to his indictment, page 20, on April 9, 2018, Stone emailed these threats to the witness, including a comment regarding his security dog that he would: "...take that dog away from you," "You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds." "I am so ready. Let's get it on. Prepare to die cock sucker." In a May 21, 2018 email, Stone wrote: "You are so full of shit. You got nothing. Keep running your mouth and I'll file a bar complaint against your friend."


title: Roger Stone

text: In a December 2017 interview with the Florida television station WBBH-TV, following the sentencing of Michael Cohen, Stone said that Cohen shouldn't have lied under oath, and Cohen was a "rat" because he turned on the president, something that Stone said he would never do.


title: Roger Stone

text: On March 13, 2018, two sources close to Stone, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg and a person speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged to "The Washington Post" that Stone had established contact with WikiLeaks owner Julian Assange and that the two had a telephone conversation discussing emails related to the Clinton campaign which had been leaked to WikiLeaks. According to Nunberg, who claimed he spoke to the paper after being asked to do so by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Stone joked to him that he had taken a trip to London to personally meet with Assange, but declined to do so, had only wanted to have telephone conversations to remain undetected and did not have advance notice of the leaked emails. The other source, who spoke on anonymity, stated that the conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents that WikiLeaks released in July and October 2016. Stone afterwards denied that he had contacted Assange or had known in advance about the leaked emails.


title: Roger Stone

text: In May 2018, Stone's social media consultant, Jason Sullivan, was issued grand jury subpoenas from the Special Counsel investigation.


title: Roger Stone

text: On July 3, 2018, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle dismissed a lawsuit brought by political activist group Protect Democracy, alleging that Trump's campaign and Stone conspired with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential election race. The judge found that the suit was brought in the wrong jurisdiction. The next week, Stone was identified by two government officials as the anonymous person mentioned in the indictment released by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that charged twelve Russian military intelligence officials with conspiring to interfere in the 2016 elections, as somebody the Russian hackers operating the online persona Guccifer 2.0 communicated with, and who the indictment alleged was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign.


title: Roger Stone

text: On January 25, 2019, in a pre-dawn raid by 29 FBI agents acting on both an arrest warrant and a search warrant at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home, Stone was arrested on seven criminal charges of an indictment in the Mueller investigation: one count of obstructing an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering. The same day, a federal magistrate judge released Stone on a US$250,000 signature bond and declared that he was not a flight risk. Stone said he would fight the charges, which he called politically motivated, and would refuse to "bear false witness" against Trump. He called Robert Mueller a "rogue prosecutor". In the charging document, prosecutors alleged that after the first WikiLeaks release of hacked DNC emails in July 2016, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and determine what other damaging information WikiLeaks had regarding the Clinton campaign. Stone thereafter told the Trump campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by WikiLeaks, the indictment alleged. The indictment also alleged that Stone had discussed WikiLeaks releases with multiple senior Trump campaign officials.


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 18, 2019, Stone posted on Instagram a photo of the federal judge overseeing his case, Amy Berman Jackson, with what resembled rifle scope crosshairs next to her head. Later that day, Stone filed an apology with the court. Jackson then imposed a full gag order on Stone, citing her belief that Stone would "pose a danger" to others without the order.


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone's trial began on November 6, 2019, at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Randy Credico testified that Stone urged and threatened him to prevent him testifying to Congress. Stone had testified to Congress that Credico was his WikiLeaks go-between, but prosecutors said this was a lie in order to protect Jerome Corsi. During the November 12 testimony, former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates testified that Stone told campaign associates in April 2016 of WikiLeaks' plans to release documents, far earlier than previously known. Gates also testified that Trump had spoken with Stone about the forthcoming releases. After a week-long trial and two days of deliberations, the jury convicted Stone on all counts – obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering – on November 15, 2019. After the trial, one of the jurors emphasized that the jury did not convict Stone based on his political beliefs. On November 25, a decision denying a defense motion for acquittal was released. The judge wrote that the testimony of Steven Bannon and Rick Gates was sufficient to conclude that Stone lied to Congress.


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 10, 2020, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia requested that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison for his crimes after securing convictions on all seven charges. Around midnight, Trump characterized the sentencing recommendation as "horrible and very unfair situation" in tweeted, "Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!" The next morning a senior Justice Department official said the department would recommend a lighter sentence, adding that the decision had been made before Trump commented. That afternoon the Department of Justice filed a revised sentencing memorandum, saying the initial recommendation could be "considered excessive and unwarranted under the circumstances." All four of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who were prosecuting the case Jonathan Kravis, Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed and Michael Marando withdrew from the case, and Kravis resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office altogether. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General requesting a probe into the reduced sentencing recommendation, over fears of potential improper political interference in the process. Trump later said he had not asked the Justice Department to recommend a lighter sentence, but also asserted he had an "absolute right" to intervene. The next day he praised U.S. Attorney General William Barr for "taking charge" of the case and thanked Justice Department officials for recommending a lesser sentence than was proposed by the prosecutors who tried the case.


title: Roger Stone

text: The politicization of Stone's sentencing by Trump and senior Trump administration officials at the Justice Department caused controversy and prompted allegations of political interference; the Justice Department's unusual decision to overrule the prosecutors on the case, as well as Stone's close association with Donald Trump, led to the affair being described as a crisis in the rule of law in the U.S. More than 2,000 former employees of the Department of Justice signed an open letter calling on Barr to resign, and the Federal Judges Association convened an emergency meeting on the matter. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Zelinsky, one of the prosecutors who withdrew from the case after the Justice Department intervened to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone, said that the "highest levels" of Justice Department had been "exerting significant pressure" on prosecutors "to cut Stone a break" and "water down and in some cases outright distort" Stone's conduct. Zelinsky testified that "What I heardrepeatedlywas that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president." Zelinsky also testified that acting U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea made the request for a lighter sentence for Stone after coming under "heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice" and out of fear of Trump. Zelinsky testified that in his career as a prosecutor, "United States v. Roger Stone" was the sole occasion in which he witnessed "political influence play any role in prosecutorial decision making," and that he opted to resign from the case and his temporary appointment in the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. "rather than be associated with the Department of Justice's actions at sentencing. Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted, "do not underestimate the danger of this situation: the political appointees in the DOJ are involving themselves in an inappropriate way in cases involving political allies of the President"; former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub tweeted, "a corrupt authoritarian and his henchmen are wielding the Justice Department as a shield for friends and a sword for political rivals. It is impossible to overstate the danger." Channing D. Phillips, who previously served as U.S. Attorney for D.C., said that the events were "deeply troubling" and that the withdrawal of all four line prosecutors suggested "undue meddling by higher ups at DOJ or elsewhere." CNN reported that other prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. had discussed resigning over the matter. "The New York Times" reported that federal prosecutors around the nation – already leery of taking cases that might catch Trump's attention – had become increasingly concerned after the Stone developments. In late June, Attorney General Barr agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee at an oversight hearing on July 28, 2020, which would be Barr's first congressional testimony since his confirmation in early 2019. Barr agreed to appear before the committee one day after Chairman Jerry Nadler said he would issue a subpoena to compel Barr's testimony if he did not appear voluntarily.


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 11, 2020the same day the four Stone prosecutors withdrew from the case after the Justice Department intervened in the sentencing recommendationTrump withdrew the nomination of Jessie K. Liu, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to become an Under Secretary of the Treasury, two days before her scheduled confirmation hearing. As U.S. attorney, Liu had overseen some ancillary cases referred by the Mueller investigation including the Stone prosecution, as well as a politically charged case involving former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, until attorney general Barr replaced her with his close advisor Shea in January 2020. CNN reported the next day that Liu's nomination was withdrawn because she was perceived to be insufficiently involved in the Stone and McCabe cases.


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 12, Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied Stone's motion for a new trial. Stone had asserted that a juror was biased against him. Stone again requested a new trial on February 14, after the jury foreperson of his trial publicly voiced support for the four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case. All jurors in the Stone trial had been vetted for potential bias by Judge Jackson, the defense team, and prosecutors.


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 20, 2020, Judge Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in federal prison and a $20,000 fine for his crimes, but allowed him to delay the start of his sentence pending resolution of Stone's post-trial motions. Jackson stated in the sentencing hearing, "The truth still exists. The truth still matters [in spite of] Roger Stone's insistence that it doesn't [pose] a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy." Jackson also rejected Trump's attacks on the investigators and prosecutors, saying, "There was nothing unfair, phony, or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution." Jackson said "Roger Stone will not be sentenced for who his friends are, or who his enemies are."


title: Roger Stone

text: On February 23, 2020, Judge Jackson rejected a request by Stone's lawyers that she be removed from the case.


title: Roger Stone

text: On April 16, Judge Jackson denied Stone's motion for a new trial and ordered Stone to federal prison within 2 weeks. On April 30, ABC News reported that they had learned through sources that the Federal Bureau of Prisons planned to delay Stone's surrender date by at least 30 days due to concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 28, Stone was ordered by Judge Jackson to report to prison by June 30. On June 24, Stone filed a motion to delay his transfer to prison, alleging potential health concerns connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 27, Judge Jackson rescheduled Stone's surrender date as July 14, but also ordered him to immediately begin serving time in home confinement before reporting to prison.


title: Roger Stone

text: After Stone's conviction, Trump repeatedly indicated that he was considering a pardon for Stone. Trump also repeatedly attacked the prosecutors, judge, and jury in Stone's trial, and contended, without evidence, that the foreperson of the jury (which unanimously convicted Stone), was dishonest in the jury questionnaire, however she had previously made anti-Trump social media posts and had retweeted a social media post about Roger Stone's initial arrest shortly after it happened (before the trial). Another juror stated that had she not been there, they would have returned the same verdict but faster, insisting that the jury forewoman was impartial and focused on process. Stone publicly lobbied for clemency, stressing his loyalty to the president, saying: "He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn't." Within Trump's circle, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, Trump aide Larry Kudlow, and Republican congressman Matt Gaetz urged Trump to grant clemency to Stone, as did Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Carlson reportedly visited the white house and met with Jared Kushner to demand clemency for Stone.


title: Roger Stone

text: Other Trump advisors, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone were concerned about granting clemency to Stone, viewing a grant of clemency as a political liability for Trump.


title: Roger Stone

text: On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted Stone's sentence by entirely removing his jail time a few days before he was to report to prison. Trump personally called Stone to inform him that his sentence was being commuted. In a lengthy statement containing an array of grievances, Trump attacked the prosecutors as "overzealous" and said, "Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!" The Trump White House statement contained multiple statements and claims regarding Stone's prosecution and the Mueller investigation. The commutation was announced late on a Friday evening, a common time for the release of prospectively damaging news. Stone's commutation followed a number of occasions in which Trump granted executive clemency to his supporters or political allies, or following personal appeals or campaigns in conservative media, as in the cases of Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza, and Clint Lorance, as well as Bernard Kerik. Trump's grant of clemency to Stone, however, marked "the first figure directly connected to the president's campaign to benefit from his clemency power." On July 15, 2020, counsel for two constitutional law professors sought leave of Judge Jackson to file an amicus brief addressing whether the commutation "may not be constitutionally valid". Judge Jackson denied their motion on July 30, saying that the matter was no longer in her court, so she lacked jurisdiction.


title: Roger Stone

text: In rare public comments, prosecutor Robert Mueller forcefully rebutted Trump's claims in an op-ed in "The Washington Post". Democrats condemned Trump's commutation of Stone's sentence, viewing it as abuse of the rule of law that distorted the U.S. justice system to protect Trump's friends and undermine Trump's rivals. Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn B. Maloney, who chair two House committees, said that "No other president has exercised the clemency power for such a patently personal and self-serving purpose" and said that they would investigate whether Stone's commutation was a reward for protecting Trump. Most Republican elected officials remained silent on Trump's commutation of Stone. Exceptions were Republican Senators Mitt Romney, who termed the commutation "unprecedented, historic corruption," and Pat Toomey, who called the commutation a "mistake" due in part to the severity of the crimes of which Stone was convicted.


title: Roger Stone

text: After Trump's November 2020 U.S. Presidential election loss, Stone urged followers to "fight until the bitter end". He appeared at the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 5, at Freedom Plaza, telling the crowd that the president's enemies sought "nothing less than the heist of the 2020 election and we say, No way!" And "… we will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness. We dare not fail. I will be with you tomorrow shoulder to shoulder."


title: Roger Stone

text: "The Washington Post" reported that video footage showed Stone meeting with the Oath Keepers, a militia group indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in the storming of the Capitol, on the day of the attack. In the weeks afterwards he pressured the Trump administration for a pardon of all Members of Congress who supported overturning the 2020 election, including Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz.


title: Roger Stone

text: On November 22, 2021, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenaed Stone and Alex Jones for testimony and documents by December 17 and 6, respectively. Stone invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer the committee's questions. Stone also sued to prevent a subpoena of his AT&T cell phone metadata by the committee. The committee also revealed ties between Stone and the Proud Boys extremist group.


title: Roger Stone

text: On December 23, 2021, Stone urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by eight Capitol Police officers, alleging that he is responsible for inciting a crowd of former President Donald Trump's supporters to riot on January 6, 2021. Video evidence later surfaced of him telling Trump supporters on November 2, 2020 that they had "the right to violence."


title: Roger Stone

text: In April 2021, the Justice Department filed a civil suit against Stone and his wife to recover about $2 million in alleged unpaid federal taxes, asserting they had used a commercial entity to shield their income and fund their personal expenses.


title: Roger Stone

text: Since 2010, Stone has been an occasional contributor to the conservative website "The Daily Caller", serving as a "male fashion editor". Stone also writes for his own fashion blog, "Stone on Style".


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone has written five books, all published by Skyhorse Publishing of New York City. His books have been described as "hatchet jobs" by the "Miami Herald" and "Tampa Bay Times".


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone's personal style has been described as flamboyant. In a 2007 "Weekly Standard" profile written by Matt Labash, Stone was described as a "lord of mischief" and the "boastful black prince of Republican sleaze". Labash wrote that Stone "often sets his pronouncements off with the utterance 'Stone's Rules,' signifying to listeners that one of his shot-glass commandments is coming down, a pithy dictate uttered with the unbending certitude one usually associates with the Book of Deuteronomy." Examples of Stone's Rules include "Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art, sometimes for its own sake."


title: Roger Stone

text: Stone does not wear socksa fact that Nancy Reagan brought to her husband's attention during his 1980 presidential campaign. Labash described him as "a dandy by disposition who boasts of having not bought off-the-rack since he was 17", who has "taught reporters how to achieve perfect double-dimples underneath their tie knots". Washington journalist Victor Gold has noted Stone's reputation as one of the "smartest dressers" in Washington. Stone's longtime tailor is Alan Flusser. Stone dislikes single-vent jackets (describing them as the sign of a "heathen"), saying he owns 100 silver-colored neckties and has 100 suits in storage. Fashion stories have been written about him in "GQ" and "Penthouse". Stone has written of his dislike for jeans and ascots and has praised seersucker three-piece suits, as well as Madras jackets in the summertime and velvet blazers in the winter.


title: Roger Stone

text: In 1999, Stone credited his facial appearance to "decades of following a regimen of Chinese herbs, breathing therapies, tai chi and acupuncture." Stone wears a diamond pinky ring in the shape of a horseshoe and in 2007 he had Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back. He has said: "I like English tailoring, I like Italian shoes. I like French wine. I like vodka martinis with an olive, please. I like to keep physically fit." Stone's office in Florida has been described as a "Hall of Nixonia" with framed pictures, posters, bongs, and letters associated with Nixon.


title: Second French Empire

text: The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France.


title: Second French Empire

text: Historians in the 1930s and 1940s often disparaged the Second Empire as a precursor of fascism. That interpretation is no longer widely held, and by the late 20th century they were giving it as an example of a modernising regime. Historians have generally given the Empire negative evaluations on its foreign policy, and somewhat more positive evaluations of domestic policies, especially after Napoleon III liberalised his rule after 1858. He promoted French business and exports. The greatest achievements included a grand railway network that facilitated commerce and tied the nation together with Paris as its hub. This stimulated economic growth and brought prosperity to most regions of the country. The Second Empire is given high credit for the rebuilding of Paris with broad boulevards, striking public buildings, and elegant residential districts for upscale Parisians.


title: Second French Empire

text: In international policy, Napoleon III tried to emulate his uncle Napoleon I, engaging in numerous imperial ventures around the world as well as several wars in Europe. He began his reign with French victories in Crimea and in Italy, gaining Savoy and Nice. Using very harsh methods, he built up the French Empire in North Africa and in Southeast Asia. Napoleon III also launched an intervention in Mexico seeking to erect a Second Mexican Empire and bring it into the French orbit, but this ended in a fiasco. He badly mishandled the threat from Prussia, and by the end of his reign, the French emperor found himself without allies in the face of overwhelming German force. His rule was ended during the Franco-Prussian War, when he was captured by the Prussian army at Sedan in 1870 and dethroned by French republicans. He later died in exile in 1873, living in the United Kingdom.


title: Second French Empire

text: On 2 December 1851, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic, staged a coup d'état by dissolving the National Assembly without having the constitutional right to do so. He thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted a 92 percent support.


title: Second French Empire

text: At that same referendum, a new constitution was approved. Formally enacted in January 1852, the new document made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, with no restrictions on re-election. It concentrated virtually all governing power in his hands. However, Louis-Napoléon was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, he set about restoring the empire. In response to officially inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the "yes" votes were manufactured out of thin air.


title: Second French Empire

text: The empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became "Napoléon III, Emperor of the French". The constitution had already concentrated so much power in his hands that the only substantive changes were to replace the word "president" with the word "emperor" and to make the post hereditary. The popular referendum became a distinct sign of Bonapartism, which Charles de Gaulle would later use.


title: Second French Empire

text: With almost dictatorial powers, Napoleon III made building a good railway system a high priority. He consolidated three dozen small, incomplete lines into six major companies using Paris as a hub. Paris grew dramatically in terms of population, industry, finance, commercial activity, and tourism. Working with Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Napoleon III spent lavishly to rebuild the city into a world-class showpiece. The financial soundness for all six companies was solidified by government guarantees. Although France had started late, by 1870 it had an excellent railway system, supported as well by good roads, canals and ports.


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon, in order to restore the prestige of the Empire before the newly awakened hostility of public opinion, tried to gain the support from the Left that he had lost from the Right. After the return from Italy, the general amnesty of 16 August 1859 had marked the evolution of the absolutist or authoritarian empire towards the liberal, and later parliamentary empire, which was to last for ten years.


title: Second French Empire

text: The idea of Italian unification, which would inevitably end the temporal power of the popes, outraged French Catholics, who had been the leading supporters of the Empire. A keen Catholic opposition sprang up, voiced in Louis Veuillot's paper the "Univers", and was not silenced even by the Syrian expedition (1860) in favour of the Catholic Maronite side of the Druze–Maronite conflict.


title: Second French Empire

text: Ultramontane Catholicism, longing for close links to the Pope in Rome, played a pivotal role in the democratisation of culture. The pamphlet campaign led by Mgr Gaston de Ségur, at the height of the Italian question in February 1860, made the most of the freedom of expression enjoyed by the Catholic Church in France. The goal was to mobilise Catholic opinion and encourage the government to support the Pope. A major result of the Catholic ultramontane campaign was to trigger reforms in the cultural sphere, which also granted freedoms to their political enemies the Republicans and freethinkers.


title: Second French Empire

text: Although the Second Empire strongly favoured Catholicism, the official state religion, it tolerated Protestants and Jews, with no persecutions or pogroms. The state dealt with the small Protestant community of Calvinist and Lutheran churches, whose members included many prominent businessmen who supported the regime. The emperor's Decree Law of 26 March 1852 led to greater government interference in Protestant church affairs, thus reducing self-regulation in favor of Catholic bureaucrats who misunderstood and mistrusted Protestant doctrine. Their administration affected not only church-state relations but also the internal lives of Protestant communities.


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon III manipulated a range of politicised police powers to censor the media and suppress opposition. Legally he had broad powers but in practice he was limited by legal, customary, and moral deterrents. By 1851 political police had a centralised administrative hierarchy and were largely immune from public control. The Second Empire continued the system; proposed innovations were stalled by officials. Typically political roles were part of routine administrative duties. Although police forces were indeed strengthened, opponents exaggerated the increase of secret police activity and the imperial police lacked the omnipotence seen in later totalitarian states.


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon began by removing the gag which was keeping the country in silence. On 24 November 1860, he granted to the Chambers the right to vote an address annually in answer to the speech from the throne, and to the press the right of reporting parliamentary debates. He counted on the latter concession to hold in check the growing Catholic opposition, which was becoming more and more alarmed by the policy of "laissez-faire" practiced by the emperor in Italy. The government majority already showed some signs of independence. The right of voting on the budget by sections, granted by the emperor in 1861, was a new weapon given to his adversaries. Everything conspired in their favour: the anxiety of those candid friends who were calling attention to the defective budget, the commercial crisis and foreign troubles.


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon again disappointed the hopes of Italy, allowed Poland to be crushed, and allowed Prussia to triumph over Denmark regarding the Schleswig-Holstein question. These inconsistencies led opposition leaders to form the "Union libérale", a coalition of the Legitimist, Liberal and Republican parties. The Opposition gained forty seats in the elections of May–June 1863, and Adolphe Thiers urgently gave voice to the opposition parties' demands for "necessary liberties".


title: Second French Empire

text: It would have been difficult for the emperor to mistake the importance of this manifestation of French opinion, and in view of his international failures, impossible to repress it. The sacrifice of minister Persigny of the interior, who was responsible for the elections, the substitution for the ministers without portfolio of a sort of presidency of the council filled by Eugène Rouher, the "Vice-Emperor", and the nomination of Jean Victor Duruy, an anti-clerical, as minister of public instruction, in reply to those attacks of the Church which were to culminate in the Syllabus of 1864, all indicated a distinct "rapprochement" between the emperor and the Left.


title: Second French Empire

text: But though the opposition represented by Thiers was rather constitutional than dynastic, there was another and irreconcilable opposition, that of the amnestied or voluntarily exiled republicans, of whom Victor Hugo was the eloquent mouthpiece. Thus those who had formerly constituted the governing classes were again showing signs of their ambition to govern. There appeared to be some risk that this movement among the bourgeoisie might spread to the people. Napoleon believed that he would consolidate his menaced power by again turning to the labouring masses, by whom that power had been established.


title: Second French Empire

text: Assured of support, the emperor, through Rouher, a supporter of the absolutist "régime", refused all fresh claims on the part of the Liberals. He was aided by international events such as the reopening of cotton supplies when the American Civil War ended in 1865, by the apparent closing of the Roman question by the convention of 15 September, which guaranteed to the Papal States the protection of Italy, and finally by the treaty of 30 October 1864, which temporarily put an end to the crisis of the Schleswig-Holstein question.


title: Second French Empire

text: France was primarily a rural society, in which social class depended on family reputation and land ownership. A limited amount of upward mobility was feasible through the steadily improving educational system. Students from all levels of society were granted admission to public secondary schools, opening a ladder to sons of peasants and artisans. However, whether through jealousy of or distrust for the higher classes, few working-class families took advantage of education or wished to see their sons move up and out: very few sought admission to the 'grandes écoles.' The elite maintained their position while allowing social ascent through the professions for ambitious sons of wealthy farmers and small-town merchants.


title: Second French Empire

text: The Ultramontane party grumbled, while the industries formerly protected were dissatisfied with free trade reform. The working classes had abandoned their political neutrality. Disregarding Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's impassioned attack on communism, they had gradually been won over by the collectivist theories of Karl Marx and the revolutionary theories of Mikhail Bakunin, as set forth at the congresses of the International. These Labour congresses defied official proscriptions, and proclaimed that the social emancipation of the worker was inseparable from his political emancipation. The union between the internationalists and the republican bourgeois became an accomplished fact.


title: Second French Empire

text: The Empire, taken by surprise, sought to curb both the middle classes and the labourers, goading both into revolutionary actions. There were multiple strikes. The elections of May 1869, which took place during these disturbances, inflicted upon the Empire a serious moral defeat. In spite of the government's warning against the "red terror", the conciliatory candidate Ollivier was rejected by Paris, while 40 irreconcilables and 116 members of the Third Party were elected. Concessions had to be made, and by the "senatus-consulte" of 8 September 1869, a parliamentary monarchy was substituted for the Emperor's personal government. On 2 January 1870 Ollivier was placed at the head of the first homogeneous, united and responsible ministry.


title: Second French Empire

text: Although most the country hailed this reconciliation of liberty and order, the republican party insisted on further reforms and liberties and demanding the overthrow of the Empire. The killing of the journalist Victor Noir by Pierre Bonaparte, a member of the imperial family, gave the revolutionaries their long desired opportunity (10 January). But the "émeute" (uprising) ended in a failure.


title: Second French Empire

text: In a concession to democratic currents, the emperor put his policy to a plebiscite on 8 May 1870. The result was a substantial success for Bonaparte, with seven and a half million in favour and only one and a half million against. However, the vote also signified divisions in France. Those affirming were found mainly in rural areas, while the opposition prevailed in the big towns.


title: Second French Empire

text: The Crimean War ended in 1856, a victory for Napoleon III and a resulting peace that excluded Russia from the Black Sea. His son Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was born the same year, which promised a continuation of the dynasty.


title: Second French Empire

text: In 1859, Napoleon led France to war with Austria over Italy. France was victorious and gained Savoy and Nice.


title: Second French Empire

text: The commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1860 ratified the free trade policy of Richard Cobden and Michel Chevalier, had brought upon French industry the sudden shock of foreign competition. Thus both Catholics and protectionists discovered that authoritarian rule can be favourable when it serves their ambitions or interests, but not when exercised at their expense.


title: Second French Empire

text: France was officially neutral throughout the American Civil War, 1861–1865 and never recognised the Confederate States of America. The United States warned that recognition would mean war. However, the textile industry needed Southern cotton, and Napoleon had imperial ambitions in Mexico, which could be greatly aided by the Confederacy. At the same time, other French political leaders, such as Foreign Minister Édouard Thouvenel, supported the United States. Napoleon helped finance the Confederacy but refused to intervene actively until Britain agreed, and London always rejected intervention. The Emperor realised that a war with the US without allies would spell disaster for France.


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon dreamed of building a French economic sphere in Latin America, centered on Mexico. He helped to rapidly promote rapid economic modernisation, but his army battled diehard insurgents who had American support. By 1863, French military intervention in Mexico to set up a Second Mexican Empire headed by Emperor Maximilian, brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, was a complete fiasco. The Mexicans fought back and after defeating the Confederacy the U.S. demanded the French withdraw from Mexico—sending 50,000 veteran combat troops to the border to ram the point home. The French army went home; the puppet emperor did not leave and was executed.


title: Second French Empire

text: From 1861 to 1863 France embarked on colonising experiments in Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) and Annam (central Vietnam). The conquest was bloody but successful, and supported by large numbers of French soldiers, missionaries and businessmen, as well as the local Chinese entrepreneurial element.


title: Second French Empire

text: Mixed domestic gains and losses resulted from European policies. The support France gave to the Italian cause had aroused the eager hopes of other nations. The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861 after the rapid annexation of Tuscany and the kingdom of Two Sicilies had proved the danger of half-measures. But when a concession, however narrow, had been made to the liberty of one nation, it could hardly be refused to the no less legitimate aspirations of the rest.


title: Second French Empire

text: In 1863, these "new rights" again clamoured loudly for recognition: in Poland, in Schleswig and Holstein, in Italy, now united, with neither frontiers nor capital, and in the Danubian principalities. To extricate himself from the Polish "impasse", the emperor again proposed a congress, with no luck. He was again unsuccessful: Great Britain refused even to admit the principle of a congress, while Austria, Prussia and Russia gave their adhesion only on conditions which rendered it futile, i.e. they reserved the vital questions of Venetia and Poland. The Emperor support of the Polish rebels alienated the Russian leadership. The visit of Czar Alexander II to Paris for John disaster when he was twice attacked by Polish assassins, but escaped. In Berlin, Bismarck saw the opportunity to squeeze out the French by forming closer relationships with the Russians.


title: Second French Empire

text: The success of the 1870 plebiscite, which should have consolidated the Empire, determined its downfall. It was thought that a diplomatic success would make the country forget liberty in favour of glory. It was in vain that after the parliamentary revolution of 2 January 1870, Comte Daru revived, through Lord Clarendon, Count Beust's plan of disarmament after the Battle of Königgrätz. He met with a refusal from Prussia and from the imperial entourage. The Empress Eugénie was credited with the remark, "If there is no war, my son will never be emperor."


title: Second French Empire

text: Napoleon III doubled the area of the French overseas Empire; he established French rule in New Caledonia, and Cochinchina, established a protectorate in Cambodia (1863); and colonised parts of Africa. He joined Britain in sending an army to China during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion (1860), but French ventures failed to establish influence in Japan (1867) and Korea (1866).


title: Second French Empire

text: To carry out his new overseas projects, Napoleon III created a new Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies, and appointed an energetic minister, Prosper, Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, to head it. A key part of the enterprise was the modernisation of the French Navy; he began the construction of fifteen powerful screw steamers; and a fleet of steam powered troop transports. The French Navy became the second most powerful in the world, after Britain's. He also created a new force of colonial troops, including elite units of naval infantry, Zouaves, the Chasseurs d'Afrique, and Algerian sharpshooters, and he expanded the Foreign Legion, which had been founded in 1831 and fought well in the Crimea, Italy and Mexico. French overseas territories had tripled in area; in 1870 they covered almost a million square kilometres, and controlled nearly five million inhabitants. While soldiers, administrators, businessmen and missionaries came and left, very few Frenchmen permanently settled in the colonies, apart from some in Algeria. The colonial trade reached 600 million francs, but the profits were overwhelmed by the expenses. However, a major goal was the 'Mission civilisatrice', the mission to spread French culture, language and religion, and this proved successful.


title: Second French Empire

text: The rise of the neighbouring state of Prussia during the 1860s threatened French supremacy in western Europe. Napoleon, growing steadily weaker in body and mind, badly mishandled the situation, and eventually found himself in a war without allies. Britain was afraid of French militarism and refused to help. Russia was highly annoyed about French interference in supporting Polish rebels in the 1863 uprising. Napoleon had given strong support to Italy, but refused the demand for Rome, and kept French troops in Rome to protect the pope from the new Italian government, thus leading to Italian refusal to help. The United States remained alienated because of the fiasco in Mexico. Napoleon did not know what he wanted or what to do, but the reverse was true for Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, who planned to create a great new German nation, based on Prussian power, as well as resurgent German nationalism based on the systematic humiliation of France. After seeing the defeat of Austria, the Emperor demanded a conscription law. The parliament disagreed, claiming professionals will be always the better option, and outvoted, he backed down.


title: Second French Empire

text: The immediate issue was a trivial controversy regarding control of the Spanish throne. France was actually successful in the diplomatic standoff, but Napoleon wanted to humiliate the Prussian king, Wilhelm I. Bismarck in turn manipulated the situation such that France declared war against Prussia on 15 July 1870 after major uprisings in France (however, Napoleon was reluctant as he had become ill as well as being skeptical of the outcome), thus sparking the Franco-Prussian War. The smaller German states rallied behind Prussia, while the large French army proved to be poorly armed, poorly trained, and, initially led by the Emperor himself, very poorly commanded. The French empire made the first move, as the Emperor led a charge that crossed the German border. On August 2, the French defeated a Prussian vanguard and occupied the town of Saarbrücken. Two days later, the Prussians launched an offensive that repulsed the French army. After the first nine days of August, France experienced major losses. The Emperor handed power to the other generals and let them command, then telegrammed his wife, asking if he should return to Paris. His wife refused, and thus he only sent his son home. The French prime minister resigned, being replaced with a more effective military leader, who soldered the disorganised and demoralised French. He forged the army of Châlons, who, led by Marshal MacMahon and the Emperor, attempted to relieve the siege of Metz, where the largest French army lay entrapped. The army was repulsed by the Prussians, and retreated to Sedan, where it was surrounded and forced to surrender after the Battle of Sedan. Napoleon III himself became a prisoner and Republican forces quickly took control of Paris.


title: Second French Empire

text: France, under the leadership of Léon Gambetta, declared the establishment of the Third French Republic. Napoleon and Eugénie went into exile in England. Victory produced an onrush of German nationalism that Bismarck immediately seized to unite all of the German states (except Austria), thereby creating the German Empire, with the Prussian king as its emperor and Bismarck as chancellor. The new Germany was now continental Europe's dominant military force. Additionally, France was forced to give up the two border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, and its humiliation lasted for generations.


title: Second French Empire

text: The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First. Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government; if government was to guide the people toward domestic justice and external peace, it was his role as emperor, holding his power by universal male suffrage and representing all of the people, to function as supreme leader and safeguard the achievements of the revolution.


title: Second French Empire

text: He had so often, while in prison or in exile, chastised previous oligarchical governments for neglecting social questions that it was imperative France now prioritise their solutions. His answer was to organise a system of government based on the principles of the "Napoleonic Idea". This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, "who had sprung armed from the French Revolution like Minerva from the head of Jove".


title: Second French Empire

text: The anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852 was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was solely responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the emperor rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire.


title: Second French Empire

text: One innovation was made, namely that the legislative body was elected by universal suffrage but had no right of initiative, all laws being proposed by the executive power. This new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. On 2 December 1852, France, still under the effect of Napoleon's legacy, and the fear of anarchy, conferred almost unanimously by a plebiscite the supreme power, with the title of emperor, upon Napoleon III.


title: Second French Empire

text: The Legislative Body was not allowed to elect its own president or to regulate its own procedure, or to propose a law or an amendment, or to vote on the budget in detail, or to make its deliberations public. Similarly, universal suffrage was supervised and controlled by means of official candidature, by forbidding free speech and action in electoral matters to the Opposition, and by a gerrymandering in such a way as to overwhelm the liberal vote in the mass of the rural population. The press was subjected to a system of "cautionnements" ("caution money", deposited as a guarantee of good behaviour) and "avertissements" (requests by the authorities to cease publication of certain articles), under sanction of suspension or suppression. Books were subject to censorship.


title: Second French Empire

text: To counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. Felice Orsini's attack on the emperor in 1858, though purely Italian in its motive, served as a pretext for increasing the severity of this "régime" by the law of general security ("sûreté générale") which authorised the internment, exile or deportation of any suspect without trial. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the "lycées", and the disciplinary powers of the administration were increased.


title: Second French Empire

text: For seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites. Up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist; from then until 1860 it was reduced to five members: Alfred Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre, and Ernest Picard. The royalists waited inactive after the new and unsuccessful attempt made at Frohsdorf in 1853, by a combination of the legitimists and Orléanists, to re-create a living monarchy out of the ruin of two royal families.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The Indonesia national football team () represents Indonesia in international association football. It was the first Asian team to participate in the FIFA World Cup, particularly in the 1938 edition as Dutch East Indies. The 6–0 loss to eventual finalists Hungary in the first round remains the nation's only appearance in the World Cup. Thus, Indonesia holds the World Cup record as the team with the fewest matches played (1) and one of the teams with the fewest goals scored (0).


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The team's only appearance in the Olympics was in 1956. Indonesia qualified for the AFC Asian Cup on five occasions and have never progressed beyond the group stage on the previous four tournaments. Indonesia achieved the bronze medal at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. The team has reached the AFF Championship final ties on six occasions and has never won the tournament. They share a local rivalry with ASEAN teams including the one against Malaysia which is somewhat pertained to cultural and political reasons.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The matches involving sides from the Dutch East Indies (or Netherlands East Indies) were organised by the Nederlandsch Indische Voetbal Bond (NIVB), or its successor, the Nederlandsch Indische Voetbal Unie (NIVU). The matches that were run prior to the nation's independence in 1945 are not recognised by PSSI.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The first recorded match that involved a team from the Dutch East Indies was a contest against a Singapore national team on 28 March 1921. The match was played in Batavia and the Dutch East Indies won with a final score of 1–0. This was followed by matches against an Australian XI in August 1928 (2–1 victory) and a team from Shanghai two years later (4–4 draw).


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In 1934, a team from Java represented the Dutch East Indies in the Far Eastern Games that was played in Manila. After defeating the Japanese, 7–1, in its first match, the next two matches ended in defeats (2–0 to China and 3–2 to the host nation) resulting in a second-place tournament finish for the Java national team. Although not recognised by PSSI, these matches are treated by the World Football Elo ratings as the first matches involving the Indonesian national side.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The Dutch East Indies were the first Asian team to participate in the FIFA World Cup, when the team qualified for the 1938 tournament after Japan withdrew from the qualification heats. The 6–0 loss to Hungary, in the first round of the tournament in Reims, remains the nation's only appearance in the World Cup.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: After the Second World War, followed by the Indonesian Revolution, a highlight of the football history of independent Indonesian team occurred at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. The team forced the Soviet Union to a nil-all draw, then lost 0–4 in the replay match. This remains the country's only appearance in the Olympics.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In 1958, the team tasted its first World Cup action as Indonesia in the qualifying rounds. The team defeated China in the first round, then subsequently refused to play its next opponents, Israel, for political reasons.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia won the bronze medal at the 1958 Asian Games where it beat India 4–1 in the third-place match. The team also drew 2–2 with East Germany in a friendly match.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The Indonesian team lifted the Merdeka Tournament trophy on three occasions (1961, 1962 and 1969). Indonesia were also champions of the 1968 King's Cup.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia returned to World Cup qualification competition in 1974; the team was eliminated in the first round, with only one win from six matches, against New Zealand. During the 1978 qualification heats, the Indonesian team won a single match out of four matches, against host team, Singapore. Four years later, in 1982, Indonesia recorded two victories in qualifying matches, against Chinese Taipei and Australia.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification round saw Indonesia advanced from the first round with four wins, one draw and one loss, eventually finishing at the top of its group. South Korea emerged victorious over Indonesia in the second round.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The team reached the semi-final of the 1986 Asian Games after beating United Arab Emirates in the quarter-finals. Indonesia then lost to hosts South Korea in the semi-finals and lost to Kuwait in the bronze medal match.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: A milestone during this era was the gold medal victory at the Southeast Asian Games in both 1987 and 1991. In 1987, Indonesia beat Malaysia 1–0; while in 1991, it beat Thailand in a penalty shoot-out.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In the 1990 qualification, the team lost in the first round, with only one win against Hong Kong, three draws and two defeats. The team also only managed a single victory against Vietnam in the 1994 qualification round.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia's first appearance in the AFC Asian Cup was against United Arab Emirates in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup. During the tournament, Indonesia only scored a single point from a 2–2 draw against Kuwait in the first round.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The team's second appearance in the Asian Cup was in Lebanon in the 2000 AFC Asian Cup; again, the Indonesian team gained only one point from three games, and again, from a match against Kuwait that finished without a score from either side. Indonesia established a higher record in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup, beating Qatar 2–1 to record the team's first ever victory in the history of the tournament. The win was not enough for it to qualify for the second round, having fallen 0–5 to host China and 1–3 to Bahrain.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In the 2007 tournament, Indonesia acted as one of the four Southeast Asian co-hosts and get eliminated from the first round.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia reached the finals of ASEAN Football Championship on six occasions (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016, and 2020), albeit never managing to lift the trophy victoriously. The team's claim of regional titles came in the Southeast Asian Games of 1987 and 1991.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: After the Withe era, the inability to fulfil the ASEAN target has been cited as the reason for Indonesia's "revolving door" in terms of team managers. Over the course of two years, the Indonesia's manager changed from Kolev to local coach Benny Dollo who was in turn sacked in 2010. The head coach position was then held by Alfred Riedl who failed to lift any cups and in July 2011 was then replaced by Wim Rijsbergen.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The 1998 Tiger Cup saw the group stage match between Thailand and Indonesia with both teams had already qualified for semi-finals but were also aware that the winner would have to face hosts Vietnam. Indonesia's Mursyid Effendi deliberately kicked the ball into the Indonesia's own goal as a Thailand's attacker ran towards the ball. FIFA fined both teams $40,000 for "violating the spirit of the game" while Effendi was banned from international association football for a lifetime. Indonesia then lost to Singapore in the semi-finals.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In March 2012, PSSI received a warning for the divided state of Indonesian football, whereby two separate leagues existed: the rebel Super League (ISL), which isn't recognised by PSSI or FIFA, and the Premier League (IPL). The National Sports Committee (KONI) encouraged PSSI to work collaboratively with Indonesian Football Savior Committee (KPSI) officials to rectify the situation but KONI chairman Tono Suratman stated in March 2012 that KONI will take over the beleaguered PSSI if matters are not improved. FIFA did not state whether Indonesia would face suspension, but on 20 March 2012, FIFA made an announcement. In the lead-up to 20 March 2012, PSSI struggled to resolve the situation and looked to its annual congress for a final solution. PSSI was given until 15 June 2012 to settle the issues at stake, notably the control of the breakaway league; failing this, the case was to be referred to the FIFA Emergency Committee for suspension. FIFA eventually set a new 1 December 2012 deadline and in the two weeks preceding the deadline, three out of four PSSI representatives withdrew from the joint committee, citing frustrations in dealing with KPSI representatives. However, FIFA stated that it would only issue a punishment to Indonesian football after the Indonesian national squad finished its involvement in the 2012 AFF Championship.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: In 2013, the president of PSSI Djohar Arifin Husin signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with La Nyalla Matalitti (KPSI-PSSI) that was initiated by FIFA and the AFC through the Asian Football Confederation's Task Force. Since then, the control of Indonesia Super League was taken by Joint committee to remain manageable by "PT Liga Indonesia" until the establishment of a new professional competition by the committee. This means the Indonesian players from ISL were able to play and join the national team. The PSSI called players from both football leagues, ISL and IPL to fortify the national team for Asian Cup qualifier of 2015. On 7 January 2013, PSSI announced a lists of 51 players from both side football leagues regardless of whether players from the breakaway Indonesia Super League (ISL) would make an appearance, allegedly ISL clubs were reluctant to release players because they doubted Djohar's leadership.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: On 18 March 2013, PSSI held a congress at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both parties, PSSI and KPSI (breakaway group) solved their differences in four contentious points; such as; Reunification of two leagues; Revision of the PSSI Statutes; Reinstatement of the four expelled PSSI Executive Committee members La Nyalla Mattalitti, Roberto Rouw, Erwin Dwi Budiawan and Toni Apriliani; and agreement of all parties to the Memorandum of Understanding from 7 June 2012 on the list of delegates to the PSSI Congress based on the list of the Solo Congress of July 2011. The new PSSI called 58 players from both sides leagues (ISL and IPL) for the national squad. Rahmad Darmawan returned as the caretaker coach for the senior team and his friend, Jacksen F. Tiago was also in-charge as the assistant coach. Both Rahmat and Jaksen trimmed the 58 players initially called for national training to 28. The list would then be trimmed again to just 23 players for the Saudi Arabia match. Victor Igbonefo, Greg Nwokolo and Sergio van Dijk the three naturalised players were on the final list. On 23 March 2013, Indonesia was defeated 1–2 by Saudi Arabia at home. Boaz Solossa gave Indonesia the first goal at their campaign at AFC Asian Cup qualification; the home team started with the goal in the sixth minute but the Saudi Side fought back with the equaliser from Yahya Al-Shehri in the 14th minute before Yousef Al-Salem the scored what turned out to be the winner on 56th minute.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The Indonesian Football Association was suspended by FIFA because of government interference in the Southeast Asian country's national league on 30 May 2015.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The ban took effect immediately and meant that Indonesia would not be eligible to compete in the next round of qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup, starting less than two weeks later. FIFA took action against Indonesia following a row between local government and the football association which has resulted in the cancellation of the domestic competition. The suspension was lifted at the 66th FIFA Congress. By then, hurried perpetration was done for Indonesia in order to get in touch for the upcoming 2016 AFF Championship where Indonesia eventually reached the final and once again fell to Thailand in process.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Some weeks after finishing second in the ASEAN Football Championship, PSSI held a congress on 8 January 2017 in efforts to sign Luis Milla to handle their senior and U-22 team. Prior to the 2018 AFF Championship, Milla departed without any explanations, causing angers among Indonesian supporters. Indonesia crashed out from the group stage in 2018 AFF Championship led to the sacking of Bima Sakti. In order to prepare for the 2022 World Cup campaign, Indonesia signed Simon McMenemy with hope that his successful tenure with the Philippines could reinvigorate Indonesia's performance especially when Indonesia was grouped with three Southeast Asian rivals Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam alongside UAE. Indonesia lost all four matches including a 2–3 home defeat to Malaysia despite having taken a 2–1 lead prior followed by a home loss to Vietnam for the first time ever in any competitive tournaments. On 6 November 2019, PSSI decided to sack McMenemy over the national team's deteriorating performance. Indonesia traveled to Malaysia and lost 0–2 to its rival and was officially eliminated from the 2022 World Cup qualification.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Following the failure to qualify for World Cup, PSSI appointed Shin Tae-yong as coach of Indonesia with hope to reinvigorate the team for the upcoming 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification using the success of Park Hang-seo in Vietnam as an evidence for their appointment.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Under the management of Shin Tae-yong, the majority of senior teams were reshuffled and have many young players of whom majority were from under-23. Indonesia made it to the 2020 AFF Championship final with an average players age of 23.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: On the Asian Cup qualification, Indonesia shockingly defeated host and former Asian champions, Kuwait, whom they have not defeated in 42 years, by the result 2–1, to the surprise of many people, the first-ever official win by a Southeast Asian team against a West Asian host since 2004 (when Thailand beat Yemen 3–0 in Sana'a during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification), and was the first time in the history that a Southeast Asian team had won against a Persian Gulf team as the visitor. Boosted by the win, Indonesia successfully qualified for the upcoming 2023 AFC Asian Cup after a 16-years absence.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: During the Dutch colonial era, the team competed as Dutch East Indies in international matches and played in an orange jersey, the national colour of the Netherlands. There are no official documents about the team's kit, only several black-and-white photos from the match against Hungary in the 1938 FIFA World Cup; but unofficial documents stated that the kit consisted of an orange jersey, white shorts and light blue socks.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Since Indonesia's independence, the kit consists red and white, the colours of the country's flag. A combination of green and white has also been used for the away kits and was used for the team's participation in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, until the mid-1980s.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: The 2010–2012 home kit became an issue when the team played against an opponent wearing an all-white uniform, since the socks were white instead of usual red. The solution was solved with a red-green-green combination (for away games) with green shorts and socks taken from the away kit, or initially an all-red uniform (for home games). After a home defeat in the 2014 World Cup third round qualifier match against Bahrain on 6 September 2011, the red shorts used (with green application) were scrapped after its first outing and never used again. The red socks had white application on it, different from the red socks with green application worn during training. The combination of red-white-red used some times in the future as the alternate home kit, for example on the subsequent home matches of the qualifiers against Qatar and Iran later that year.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: On 12 November 2012, a week prior to the start of the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, Indonesia released its new home and away kits, again designed by Nike. The home kit returned to the red-white-red combination, as was the case in 2008, and the away kit consisted of a white-green-white combination. "The green colour brings a historical touch as the national team in the 1950s wore green shirts," Nike Indonesia marketing manager, Nino Priyambodo, said. "We hope it can inspire the national team for better performances in the future." The alternate shorts for this home kit were red shorts and green away shorts, while the away kit's alternate shorts were white shorts with red numbering from the default home shorts.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: On 31 October 2014, Nike released Indonesia's home and away kits for the 2014 AFF Championship. The home shirt was red with white Nike logo and lines and green accent on the shoulders and tip of the sleeves, restricted by the white lines. The home kit consisted of red-white-red combination. The away shirt is white with green collar, sleeve tips, and Nike logo. The away kit consisted of white-green-white combination. Due to the FIFA sanction imposed in 2015, the kits were used again in the 2016 AFF Championship and up until 2018 with two different fonts other than the 2014 Nike fonts used earlier.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: On 31 May 2018, Nike released Indonesia's new home and away kits. The home shirt is red with golden Nike logo inspired from the country's national emblem, the Garuda Pancasila. The home kit consists of red-white-red combination. The away shirt is white with green Nike logo. The away kit consists of white-green-white combination.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Since 2020 Indonesia has been using new apparel from local brand Mills. The home kit consists of red-white-red combination with a silhouette in the front of the kit. The away kit consists white-green-white combination with a green horizontal strip across the front of the kit and a smaller white horizontal strip across the green strip. The third kit consists all black combination with golden strips and a silhouette in the front of the kit.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia also wear another apparel when they competed in international sport event such as Asian Games 2018 and Southeast Asian Games. In those events Indonesia wear Li-Ning in case wear Nike or current apparel Mills. This is due to Asian Games and SEA Games are multi-sports event which all of whose contingents are under the Indonesian National Olympic Committee (NOC).


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia has played home matches at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium located within the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, Gelora, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta - Indonesia, the main home stadium for the Indonesia national football team. The stadium is mostly used for association football matches and has a seating capacity of over 77,193 spectators, though it has been able to hold more than that during special matches. The final of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup was held in this stadium. This stadium was once the 7th largest association football stadium in the world.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Jakarta International Stadium, the occasional home stadium for the Indonesia national football team, is a retractable roof football stadium under construction in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta - Indonesia. It will be the home ground for the occasional home of the Indonesia national football team, after an agreement between PSSI and PT JAKPRO to use the facility. The stadium will be able to host 82,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in Indonesia.


title: Indonesia national football team

text: Indonesia team qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (second round only) and 2023 AFC Asian Cup are broadcast by free-to-air public television network TVRI, Emtek's free-to-air television network SCTV (from 2021), and Polytron's premium multiplatform network Mola TV, through 2022.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: The characters of the usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. The characters are exaggerated "real characters", such as a know-it-all doctor called Il Dottore, a greedy old man called Pantalone, or a perfect relationship like the "Innamorati". Many troupes were formed to perform , including I Gelosi (which had actors such as Andreini and her husband Francesco Andreini), Confidenti Troupe, Desioi Troupe, and Fedeli Troupe. was often performed outside on platforms or in popular areas such as a (town square). The form of theatre originated in Italy, but travelled throughout Europe - sometimes to as far away as Moscow.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: The genesis of may be related to carnival in Venice, where the author and actor Andrea Calmo had created the character Il Magnifico, the precursor to the (old man) Pantalone, by 1570. In the Flaminio Scala scenario, for example, Il Magnifico persists and is interchangeable with Pantalone into the 17th century. While Calmo's characters (which also included the Spanish Capitano and a type) were not masked, it is uncertain at what point the characters donned the mask. However, the connection to carnival (the period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday) would suggest that masking was a convention of carnival and was applied at some point. The tradition in Northern Italy is centred in Florence, Mantua, and Venice, where the major companies came under the protection of the various dukes. Concomitantly, a Neapolitan tradition emerged in the south and featured the prominent stage figure Pulcinella, which has been long associated with Naples and derived into various types elsewhere—most famously as the puppet character Punch (of the eponymous Punch and Judy shows) in England.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: Although flourished in the Italian theatre during the Mannerist period, there has been a long-standing tradition of trying to establish historical antecedents in antiquity. While it is possible to detect formal similarities between the and earlier theatrical traditions, there is no way to establish certainty of origin. Some date the origins to the period of the Roman Republic (Plautine types) or the Empire (Atellan Farces). The Atellan Farces of the Roman Empire featured crude "types" wearing masks with grossly exaggerated features and an improvised plot. Some historians argue that Atellan stock characters, Pappus, Maccus+Buccus, and Manducus, are the primitive versions of the characters Pantalone, Pulcinella, and il Capitano. More recent accounts establish links to the medieval jongleurs, and prototypes from medieval moralities, such as Hellequin (as the source of Harlequin, for example).


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: The first recorded performances came from Rome as early as 1551. was performed outdoors in temporary venues by professional actors who were costumed and masked, as opposed to , which were written comedies, presented indoors by untrained and unmasked actors. This view may be somewhat romanticized since records describe the Gelosi performing Tasso's "Aminta", for example, and much was done at court rather than in the street. By the mid-16th century, specific troupes of performers began to coalesce, and by 1568 the Gelosi became a distinct company. In keeping with the tradition of the Italian Academies, I Gelosi adopted as their impress (or coat of arms) the two-faced Roman god Janus. Janus symbolized both the comings and goings of this travelling troupe and the dual nature of the actor who impersonates the "other." The Gelosi performed in Northern Italy and France where they received protection and patronage from the King of France. Despite fluctuations the Gelosi maintained stability for performances with the "usual ten": "two (old men), four (two male and two female lovers), two , a captain and a (serving maid)". often performed inside in court theatres or halls, and also as some fixed theatres such as Teatro Baldrucca in Florence. Flaminio Scala, who had been a minor performer in the Gelosi published the scenarios of the around the start of the 17th century, really in an effort to legitimize the form—and ensure its legacy. These scenarios are highly structured and built around the symmetry of the various types in duet: two , , and , etc.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: In , female roles were played by women, documented as early as the 1560s, making them the first known professional actresses in Europe since antiquity. Lucrezia Di Siena, whose name is on a contract of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonnas and the first well-documented actresses in Italy (and Europe). In the 1570s, English theatre critics generally denigrated the troupes with their female actors (some decades later, Ben Jonson referred to one female performer of the as a "tumbling whore"). By the end of the 1570s, Italian prelates attempted to ban female performers; however, by the end of the 16th century, actresses were standard on the Italian stage. The Italian scholar Ferdinando Taviani has collated a number of church documents opposing the advent of the actress as a kind of courtesan, whose scanty attire and promiscuous lifestyle corrupted young men, or at least infused them with carnal desires. Taviani's term describes this and other practices offensive to the church, while giving us an idea of the phenomenon of the performance.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: By the early 17th century, the comedies were moving from pure improvisational street performances to specified and clearly delineated acts and characters. Three books written during the 17th century— "Fruti della moderne commedia" (1628), Niccolò Barbieri's "La supplica" (1634) and Perrucci's "Dell'arte rapresentativa" (1699—"made firm recommendations concerning performing practice." Katritzky argues, that as a result, was reduced to formulaic and stylized acting; as far as possible from the purity of the improvisational genesis a century earlier. In France, during the reign of Louis XIV, the Comédie-Italienne created a repertoire and delineated new masks and characters, while deleting some of the Italian precursors, such as Pantalone. French playwrights, particularly Molière, gleaned from the plots and masks in creating an indigenous treatment. Indeed, Molière shared the stage with the Comédie-Italienne at Petit-Bourbon, and some of his forms, e.g. the tirade, are derivative from the ().


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: It is possible that this kind of improvised acting was passed down the Italian generations until the 17th century when it was revived as a professional theatrical technique. However, as currently used the term was coined in the mid-18th century.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: Curiously, was equally if not more popular in France, where it continued its popularity throughout the 17th century (until 1697), and it was in France that developed its established repertoire. evolved into various configurations across Europe, and each country acculturated the form to its liking. For example, pantomime, which flourished in the 18th century, owes its genesis to the character types of the , particularly Harlequin. The Punch and Judy puppet shows, popular to this day in England, owe their basis to the Pulcinella mask that emerged in Neapolitan versions of the form. In Italy, masks and plots found their way into the , and the plots of Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: During the Napoleonic occupation of Italy, instigators of reform and critics of French Imperial rule (such as Giacomo Casanova) used the carnival masks to hide their identities while fueling political agendas, challenging social rule and hurling blatant insults and criticisms at the regime. In 1797, in order to destroy the impromptu style of carnival as a partisan platform, Napoleon outlawed the commedia dell'arte. It was not reborn in Venice until 1979 because of this.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: , or companies, were troupes of actors, each of whom had a specific function or role. Actors were versed in a plethora of skills, with many having joined troupes without a theatre background. Some were doctors, others priests, others soldiers, enticed by the excitement and prevalence of theatre in Italian society. Actors were known to switch from troupe to troupe "on loan," and companies would often collaborate if unified by a single patron or performing in the same general location. Members would also splinter off to form their own troupes, such was the case with the Ganassa and the Gelosi. These travelled throughout Europe from the early period, beginning with the "Soldati", then, the "Ganassa", who travelled to Spain, and were famous for playing the guitar and singing—never to be heard from again—and the famous troupes of the Golden Age (1580–1605): "Gelosi", "Confidenti", "Accessi". These names which signified daring and enterprise were appropriated from the names of the academies—in a sense, to lend legitimacy. However, each troupe had its (like a coat of arms) which symbolized its nature. The Gelosi, for example, used the two-headed face of the Roman god Janus, to signify its comings and goings and relationship to the season of Carnival, which took place in January. Janus also signified the duality of the actor, who is playing a character or mask, while still remaining oneself.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: Magistrates and clergy were not always receptive to the travelling (companies), particularly during periods of plague, and because of their itinerant nature. Actors, both male and female, were known to strip nearly naked, and storylines typically descended into crude situations with overt sexuality, considered to teach nothing but "lewdness and adultery...of both sexes" by the French Parliament. The term was used in reference to the , and remains a derogatory term to this day (vagabond). This was in reference to the nomadic nature of the troupes, often instigated by persecution from the Church, civil authorities, and rival theatre organisations that forced the companies to move from place to place.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: A troupe often consisted of ten performers of familiar masked and unmasked types, and included women. The companies would employ carpenters, props masters, servants, nurses, and prompters, all of whom would travel with the company. They would travel in large carts laden with supplies necessary for their nomadic style of performance, enabling them to move from place to place without having to worry about the difficulties of relocation. This nomadic nature, though influenced by persecution, was also largely due in part to the troupes requiring new (and paying) audiences. They would take advantage of public fairs and celebrations, most often in wealthier towns where financial success was more probable. Companies would also find themselves summoned by high-ranking officials, who would offer patronage in return for performing in their land for a certain amount of time. Companies in fact preferred to not stay in any one place too long, mostly out of a fear of the act becoming "stale." They would move on to the next location while their popularity was still active, ensuring the towns and people were sad to see them leave, and would be more likely to either invite them back or pay to watch performances again should the troupe ever return. Prices were dependent on the troupe's decision, which could vary depending on the wealth of the location, the length of stay, and the regulations governments had in place for dramatic performances.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: Generally, the actors playing were diverse in background in terms of class and religion, and performed anywhere they could. Castagno posits that the aesthetic of exaggeration, distortion, anti-humanism (as in the masked types), and excessive borrowing as opposed to originality was typical of all the arts in the late Italian Renaissance. Theatre historian Martin Green points to the extravagance of emotion during the period of 's emergence as the reason for representational moods, or characters, that define the art. In , each character embodies a mood: mockery, sadness, gaiety, confusion, and so forth.


title: Commedia dell'arte

text: According to 18th-century London theatre critic Baretti, incorporates specific roles and characters that were "originally intended as a kind of characteristic representative of some particular Italian district or town." (archetypes) The character's persona included the specific dialect of the region or town represented. Meaning that on stage, each character was performed in its own dialect. Characters would often be passed down from generation to generation, and characters married onstage were often married in real life as well, seen most famously with Francesco and Isabella Andreini. This was believed to make performances more natural, as well as strengthening the bonds within the troupe, who emphasized complete unity between every member. Additionally, each character has a singular costume and mask that is representative of the character's role.