Some of Stone's closest confidantes -- including his daughter and friend Michael Caputo, who now works in the administration -- have advocated for a pardon on Fox News on Tucker Carlson's program, which Trump watches religiously. Sentencing Commission. The 2016 campaign proved to be Trump's big moment. Jackson’s sentence fell well short of the seven to nine years initially recommended by the case’s original prosecutors before they were overruled by the Justice Department after Trump complained publicly. You can't win the race if you don't have a horse. “This is intolerable to the administration of justice.”.

“Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t, his belligerence, his pride in his own lies are a threat to our fundamental institutions - to the very foundation of our democracy.”. "Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency," said Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary. Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox. The Mueller report also raised the possibility that Trump had lied to investigators in sworn answers about his communications with Stone regarding WikiLeaks. ", She added, "Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts. He was convicted of lying to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks, the website that released damaging emails about Trump’s 2016 Democratic election rival Hillary Clinton that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were stolen by Russian hackers. Stone himself circulated a petition on his website asking for Trump to grant him a full pardon. At this time, however, and particularly in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial, the President has determined to commute his sentence. At times Trump had seemed reluctant to intervene, fuming and bad-mouthing Stone to others. "Mr. Stone is incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy. Roger Stone arrives at the U.S. courthouse in Washington, D.C., on February 20, 2020.

"I was like a jockey looking for a horse. ", "I'm following this very closely and I want to see it play out to its fullest," the president said at an event in Las Vegas. Stone has long embraced no-holds-barred politicking and sports a tattoo of former President Richard Nixon -- who also received clemency from a president -- on his back, as a tribute to his idol. Barr deemed that recommendation too harsh and overruled the prosecutors, prompting all four to withdraw from the case, with one resigning from the Justice Department outright.
"After Mr. Trump got off the phone with Mr. Stone, what did Mr. Trump say?" Stone, a long-time friend of President Donald Trump, was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress during its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Stone and other Trump allies convinced Trump to bring Paul Manafort into the campaign to manage the convention. In the years that followed, Stone befriended the Trump family, attended two of Trump's three weddings, went to the funerals for both of Trump's parents and spent years agitating for his friend to run for president, Stone said in interviews. (CNN)President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone, who was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President. the prosecutor asked Gates. But Stone's allies have lobbied Trump for months to clear him, telling him Stone was facing devastating legal fees. And nor was the country in trouble like it is today. That's for a higher authority.". She strenuously rejected claims that Stone's prosecution was motivated by politics, as Mr. Trump and other allies have argued, and said she was imposing the sentence strictly based on the facts in the case. The clock for Stone was ticking. More than 2,000 former Justice Department employees signed an open letter calling on Barr to step down for interfering in Stone's sentencing. Hours after he was sentenced to more than three years in prison, Roger Stone sat in a Washington, DC restaurant, using a phone to watch as President Trump talked about Stone’s sentence. Stone’s lawyers have asked Jackson for a new trial, and his allies have complained that some of the jurors have expressed anti-Trump sentiments on social media. Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. “The defendant engaged in threatening and intimidating conduct toward the court,” Jackson said. This has included selective declassification of intelligence materials, a ramped-up counter-investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and attempts to drop the case against Michael Flynn.

At Stone's trial, prosecutors argued that "truth still matters." "I want the President to know that I have exhausted all my legal remedies and that only an act of clemency will provide justice in my case and save my life!" Stone declined to speak at the hearing and did not address a swarm of media outside the courthouse. The announcement came just days before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia. “There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution,” Jackson said, citing words that the Republican president has used. Stone declined to speak at the hearing. But Jackson said Stone’s effort to obstruct a congressional investigation into Russian election meddling “was deliberate, planned - not one isolated incident.” The investigators were not some “secret anti-Trump cabal,” Jackson said, but lawmakers on a committee led at the time by Republicans. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down the sentence at a hearing in federal court in Washington on Thursday. Factbox: Stone is one of dozens ensnared in Trump-Russia probe. "Roger always wanted me to run for president. / CBS News. Watergate prosecutor weighs in, Judge in 2000 election recount issues warning about Trump, Russia's top state TV anchor weighs in on US elections, Hear Trump's response to NYT story about his taxes, Stelter: Trump will call this 'fake news.' Around the same time, the Trump campaign was eager to know what WikiLeaks had coming. Barr denied discussing the case with Mr. Trump but said his tweets about active Justice Department cases make it "impossible for me to do my job.". In a 2008 interview in The New Yorker, Trump said, "Roger is a stone-cold loser.

At Stone's trial, former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates testified that he was with Trump when Trump received a call from Stone about the planned release of hacked Democratic emails. In the same documentary, Trump confirmed that Stone had pressed him over and over again to make a bid for the Oval Office. He has been on supervised release and under a gag order over the course of the case. The truth still matters,” Jackson added. "This is not 'Roger just being Roger.' They also said he threatened radio host Randy Credico not to cooperate in the investigation by the House Intelligence Committee, which was examining Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The jury agreed with prosecutors and found Stone guilty of all seven charges he faced. Stone was one of several Trump associates who were convicted or pleaded guilty to charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Russian meddling in the 2016 election to boost Trump’s candidacy. At trial, prosecutors said Stone sought to collaborate with WikiLeaks over the release of stolen Democratic Party emails to damage Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign and subsequently lied to lawmakers about his involvement. In recent weeks, Stone has railed against prosecutors, the judge and the media in persistent attempts to appeal to Trump.

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Here's the truth. “The truth still exists.

Trump has faced immense pressure from some of his political allies to grant Stone clemency. Stone remained a staunch supporter of Trump's campaign anyway. After U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced the veteran Republican operative in Washington, Trump indicated he has no immediate plans to pardon Stone and would let the legal process play out, while adding that “at some point I’ll make a determination.”. And Stone was at his side, at least at the beginning. "Roy thought Roger was a very tough guy. Not all the lobbying has been done behind closed doors. "I am not here to judge Roger Stone the person.

At a Las Vegas event for rehabilitated prisoners, Trump praised Stone as a “good person” and “smart guy” while repeating his claim that the trial’s jury forewoman was “totally tainted.” Trump said he would not use the presidency’s “great powers” as Stone seeks a new trial, but left open the possibility of a pardon.
Stone's criminal case has drawn intense political reactions since the beginning and the decision could set off another round of Trump's attacks on the Russia investigation, as well as criticism that Stone received the commutation because he's a friend of the President. Roger Stone is now a free man!". Democrats said a pardon would be a green light for others to break the law to further Trump’s interests. Washington — Roger Stone, the longtime GOP operative and Trump confidant, has been sentenced to 40 months behind bars for lying to Congress about his efforts to collaborate with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign and threatening a witness to cover up his actions. “He was not prosecuted - as some have complained - for standing up for the president.