Trump commutes sentence of Roger Stone ahead of prison term
Washington — President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his former aide and longtime confidant Roger Stone, who was convicted at trial last year of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
In a statement released shortly before 8 p.m., White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “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.”
While the statement recited a litany of Trump supporters’ complaints about Stone’s “unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial,” the commutation leaves Stone’s conviction standing. Unlike a pardon, which would have absolved the GOP operative of any wrongdoing, the White House action only lifted Stone’s punishment, a 40-month prison sentence set to begin Tuesday.
In so doing, the White House cited said Stone’s age, saying it would put him at medical risk in prison while he continues his appeals.
Stone “maintains his innocence and has stated that he expects to be fully exonerated by the justice system. Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts. The President does not wish to interfere with his efforts to do so.”
The president signaled his intentions on Twitter last month, saying Stone “was a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt” and “can sleep well at night!” Trump then told reporters Friday that he is “looking at” pardoning Stone, as he continued to build suspense over whether he will intervene before Stone is scheduled to report to prison next week.
“Well, I’ll be looking at it,” Trump said Friday, before traveling to south Florida for events including a fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale where Stone is living. “I think Roger Stone was very unfairly untreated, as were many people.”
Stone, 67, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison after being convicted of seven felony counts including lying about his attempts to get details from Hillary Clinton’s private emails from the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, then threatening a witness who could contradict his story.
He had been ordered to report to prison by July 14. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had given Stone a two-week delay to quarantine before traveling from south Florida to the prison Jessup, Ga. But she denied the two-month reprieve that Stone had requested with prosecutors’ assent.
An appeals court Friday evening also rejected Stone’s attorneys’ renewed request for a delay in his prison reporting date, ruling they had failed to show why the reporting date was inappropriate or that he was likely to win an appeal for a new trial or reduced sentence. Stone’s defense earlier Friday, echoing Trump’s attacks against Stone’s treatment by prosecutors, argued that 20 inmates at Jesup have tested positive for the virus in the past two weeks, up from zero, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Stone has argued the judge and jury in his case were biased against him. Jackson rejected that claim in April, saying Stone’s argument that the forewoman’s anti-Trump political views rendered the verdict against him invalid “is not supported by any facts or data and it is contrary to controlling legal precedent.” Stone appealed her ruling to a higher court.
The Trump administration’s intervention in Stone’s case has roiled the Justice Department and the federal judiciary. Trump has repeatedly attacked the prosecutors, judge and jury. Trump also sent tweets suggesting that “everyone” involved in prosecuting the case could be sued.