Despite commutation, Stone’s appeal still pits him vs. DOJ

Trump pal has said he aims to overturn conviction for lying.

Roger Stone’s commutation by President Donald Trump spares the Republican operative from spending more than three years at a federal lockup in rural Georgia, but his legal journey is not over.

Even after Trump’s act of clemency for his friend and political booster, Stone’s conviction from November — for lying to Congress during the probe into Russian election interference — is still intact. That’s because Trump’s act of clemency wasn’t the full pardon.

A pardon would have required Stone to abandon the appeal he filed in April after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington denied his request for a new trial. Stone, 67, has said he’s eager to clear his name and overturn a conviction he says is the result of a politically biased judge and jury.

“A pardon includes acceptance of guilt and ends the appeals process. The commutation allows me to go forward with the appeals,” Stone said Saturday.

Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who wasn’t involved in Stone’s case, predicted Stone’s push for a new trial “will fail, but that is at least part of why” he was only commuted by the president.

The commutation could make it easier for Stone to plead his Fifth Amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination if he’s subpoenaed. That would be harder to do if he’s been pardoned, said Rocah.

Stone’s chances before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, which has more judges appointed by Democrats than Republicans, are not clear. Hours before the commutation was announced, the court rejected Stone’s emergency motion to delay reporting to prison on July 14, finding he failed to prove he was in any particular danger from an outbreak of the coronavirus at the facility.

An appeal assures that all the facts tied to Stone’s case will be rehashed in the months ahead.

It also means Attorney General William Barr’s Justice

Department will continue to defend its case against Stone on appeal, despite abandoning the case against another Trump ally, former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“I have appealed my conviction on constitutional ground because in her zeal Judge Jackson made many errors,” Stone said. “She granted a motion by the government prohibiting me from raising the issue of misconduct by the special counsel, the FBI, the DO J or any member of Congress in my defense.”

CLIFF OWEN / ASSOCIATED PRESS 2019 A pardon would have forced Roger Stone to abandon an appeal he filed in April after a U.S. district judge in D.C. denied his request for a new trial.