DOJ details Stone’s clemency
Prison term, probation, $20,000 fine all erased
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s executive order granting clemency for his longtime ally Roger Stone wiped away not only Stone’s prison sentence, but also the two years he was supposed to spend on probation and the $20,000 fine he was ordered to pay.
The Justice Department on Monday released the president’s executive order after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sought more information about the scope of the clemency.
Jackson sentenced Stone to a little over three years in prison and two years of supervised release. Jackson said her inquiry was in response questions from the U.S. Probation Office.
Trump commuted Stone’s sentence Friday, just days before Stone, a longtime GOP consultant, was set to report to prison. Democrats condemned the move, the latest in a series of instances in which Trump has wielded his broad clemency powers in highly political criminal cases.
The president has granted pardons and commutations to several conservative allies and controversial figures, including Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff in Arizona, and commentator Dinesh D’Souza. His decision to commute Stone’s sentence represents the first time Trump has circumvented the justice system in a case directly tied to himself.
Stone was convicted in November of lying to Congress and obstructing its investigation on Russian election interference in order to protect Trump. The 67-year-old was one of several Trump associates to be convicted in cases stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.