He will be going to jail, but not for as long as those four prosecuting lawyers had wanted.
Although the sentence has been handed down, Stone will not be going into jail today. That will wait until after he has his chance to appeal and contest the known issue about the corrupted jury.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced President Donald Trump’s long-time adviser Roger Stone to three years and four months in prison for charges that include lying to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The judge — an Obama appointee and no fan of Trump — had some pointed things to say about the accused:
“He was not prosecuted – as some have complained – for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president,” Jackson said.
“There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution,” Jackson added, citing words that Trump has used.
The judge also said Stone “knew exactly what he was doing” when he posted an image on social media last year that positioned a gun’s cross-hairs over her head.
“The defendant engaged in threatening and intimidating conduct toward the court,” Jackson said.
“This is intolerable to the administration of justice,” she added.
The initial sentencing memo by the original prosecutors in the case that called for seven to nine years in prison – later reversed by the Justice Department after Trump complained publicly – was thorough and well researched, the judge said, but added that such a sentence would be “unnecessary” for Stone.
Stone is under a gag order, and on a short leash. He also never said anything in his own defense.
His lawyer pointed out that his legally-unrelated reputation as a political ‘dirty trickster’ contributed to the severity of his sentence, and claimed Stone’s lack of any prior criminal record was not given due consideration.
“Mr. Stone is, in fact, not simply that public persona, but a human being,” he said.
Jackson also said she would not discount tougher sentencing guidelines that apply to witness tampering and obstruction, which were among the seven criminal counts on which Stone was convicted in November.
The judge noted that Stone was not charged with or convicted of having any role in conspiring with Russia. But the judge said Stone’s effort to obstruct a congressional investigation into Russian election meddling “was deliberate, planned – not one isolated incident.” The investigators were not some “secret anti-Trump cabal,” the judge said, but members of Congress from both parties at the time when the committee was controlled by the president’s fellow Republicans.
Trump, not surprisingly had something to say about it.
He is raising the issue so important to his ‘deplorable’ base. Why do political insiders of ONE stripe keep getting a pass, while anyone on the other side of the political aisle seem to get targeted for malicious prosecution?
“They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.” @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
John Kerry and Senator Chris Murphy grossly violated the Logan Act with respect to Iran. If a Republican did what they did, there would be very serious ramifications!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
You could add plenty of other folks caught up in the Crossfire Hurricane scandal, and even Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her skeezy IT crew as well.
