Stone convicted of witness tampering
The dirty trickster is all out of tricks.
Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump confidant and self-described “dirty trickster” of Republican politics, was convicted Friday of witness tampering, lying to Congress and obstructing a House committee probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
A Washington jury deliberated over a day-and-ahalf before returning its verdict.
Stone (inset), 67, is the sixth Trump ally to be convicted of charges brought as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Kremlin’s 2016 election attack and possible coordination with the president’s campaign.
Clad in a pinstripe suit and blue tie, Stone had no visible reaction as the seven-count guilty verdict was read in court. Stone could face as much as 20 years behind bars when he’s sentenced Feb. 6.
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson allowed Stone to remain free on bail until his sentencing. As he walked out of court holding hands with his wife, reporters asked Stone if he had any comment.
“None whatsoever,” he snapped before jumping into an SUV.
Trump, already fuming Friday over the House impeachment inquiry into his Ukraine scandal, quickly took to Twitter after Stone’s guilty verdict landed.
“So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come,” the president tweeted before listing off a number of his perceived political enemies, including Hillary Clinton, Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey.
“Didn’t they lie?” Trump continued. “A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?”
Stone, who worked for Richard Nixon — he’s got the disgraced president’s face tattooed on his back — lied in sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 because the “truth” would have looked “bad” for Trump, prosecutors said.
The truth, as laid out by prosecutors, was that Stone went to extraordinary lengths in 2016 to find out what information Russia had that could damage Hillary Clinton and thus help Trump.