Another Trump ally gets jail time

ROGER Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for obstructing a congressional investigation in a case that has sparked fears about presidential interference in the justice system.

Soon after Judge Amy Berman Jackson revealed the sentence yesterday, Mr Trump publicly decried Stone’s conviction as unfair.

Prominent Republican legislators were giving tacit support for a pardon.

But Mr Trump said he wasn’t ready to act just yet.

“I want the process to play out. I think that’s the best thing to do because I would love to see Roger exonerated,” Mr Trump said.

“I’m going to watch the process. I’m going to watch very closely.

“At some point I’ll make a determination.”

The case was marked by the Justice Department’s extraordinary about-face on a sentencing recommendation and a very public dispute between Mr Trump and Attorney-General William Barr.

Mr Barr said that the President was undermining the department’s historical independence and making “it impossible for me to do my job”.

The President responded by asserting that he was the “chief law enforcement officer of the federal government”.

Stone was convicted in November on all seven counts of an indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.

He is the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted on charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian interference.

At his sentencing yesterday, Judge Jackson grilled federal prosecutor John Crabb on the department’s decision to replace a tough sentencing recommendation for Stone with a more lenient one, which had prompted the original prosecution team to quit.

Mr Trump had called the original recommendation of seven to nine years a “miscarriage of justice”.

But Judge Jackson pointedly told Mr Crabb that he might know less about the case than anyone in the room.

Judge Jackson said the evidence clearly showed that Stone testified falsely to Congress and repeatedly pressured a potential witness to back up his lie or refuse to testify.

I WANT THE PROCESS TO PLAY OUT. I THINK THAT’S THE BEST THING TO DO BECAUSE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE ROGER EXONERATED DONALD TRUMP