Stone’s request for a judge’s removal may be more fuel for Trump pardon

Roger Stone, just sentenced to 40 months in prison for impeding a congressional investigation of Russian election interference, is seeking the removal of the federal judge who convicted him, in the latest turn of a bizarre legal odyssey.

The case has been fraught with political overtones as President Donald Trump and conservative commentators have leveled broadsides against U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson and the jury’s forewoman, saying political bias has tainted the proceedings.

And that, former federal prosecutors say, is why Stone’s defense team may have thrown a Hail Mary in their motion for Judge Jackson to recuse herself — not to win a new trial, but to win political intervention in the future.

“There is zero chance she recuses herself. This is a ridiculous motion,” said Randall D. Eliason, an adjunct professor of white collar crime law at George Washington University and a former assistant U.S. attorney.

“This has been a political case from start to finish, and this motion gives anyone who wants it ammunition to argue the judge was unfair,” he told The Washington Post on Saturday.

Stone’s legal team has zeroed in on Judge Jackson’s remarks during sentencing Thursday to bolster its argument of bias. They noted in a motion late Friday that Judge Jackson said, “The jurors who served with integrity under difficult circumstances cared,” among other comments to demonstrate the seriousness of the proceedings.

The value of the strategy appears to be groundwork to bolster a pardon or commutation from Mr. Trump, Mr. Eliason said. The president has suggested on Twitter that he may pardon Stone.