Roger Stone Sentenced to 40 months in Federal Prison

WASHINGTON, D.C — (02-20-20) — Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in Federal Prison on Thursday after being found guilty of witness tampering and lying to Congress.

The sentence was less than the 7-9 years recommended by prosecutors but within norms.

The high profile former political adviser to Donald Trump, was convicted in connection with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Stone’s sentencing was handed down by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the DC District Court, who oversaw several of the legal cases Robert Mueller brought against Trump’s allies in 2019.

During the hearing, Jackson defended the maximum sentencing guidelines while rejecting the argument from Stone’s lawyer that his client didn’t engage in witness tampering by threatening Randy Credico’s dog.

Judge Amy Berman pointed out that Stone’s obstruction wasn’t directed at “an anti-Trump cabal,” but rather at the House Intelligence Committee, which was at the time controlled by Republicans and chaired by Devin Nunes.

Judge Berman came out of her chambers with all guns blazing saying “Nothing about this case was a joke. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t a prank.” But she also claimed to agree that the original 7 to 9 year sentencing memo was too harsh, adding that she doubts she would have thought differently even if not for “unprecedented actions of the Department of Justice in the past week.”

Jackson also took a grave tone with Stone for his conduct throughout the trial, particularly for violating his gag orders.

Needless to say legal and political scholars were quick to react on twitter to the 40 month sentene.

DOJ prosecutor John Crabb says the stronger sentence should be applied to Stone on the witness tampering charge.

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 20, 2020

Judge says one of Stone’s motives was to ‘shield’ Trump. Notes Stone said he couldn’t take 5th because it’d look bad for Trump. Judge notes Congress was GOP-controlled at time Stone lied, so it wasn’t an anti-Trump cabal

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) February 20, 2020

Now with Donald Trump’s complaints about the case and the fact that Stone’s jury was led by a foreperson who posted anti-Trump messages on social media, it is possible that president Trump will issue a pardon to Stone in the naar future.

Trump has been very outspoken about pardoning Roger Stone when asked about it over the last few days. His go to platform for advice is Fox News and yesterday on the Tucker Carlson show, Carlson went off of his script by calling Stone’s prosecution a “travesty” the president could resolve by granting him clemency.

Now that Roger Stone has been sentenced to 40 months in Federal prison, let’s see what happens next at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

Sign Up Below for #JRLCHARTS Breaking News and Follow @JRLCHARTS Daily on Twitter