Trump Advisor Roger Stone Sentenced To Over Three Years In Prison For Lying To Congress & "Covering Up For The President"

Roger Stone, the longtime friend, advisor and ally of President Donald Trump, was sentenced in federal court in Washington, D.C. today to 40 months—three years and four months—in prison for lying to Congress and impeding their investigation into Russia's multi-pronged attack on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Stone was was found guilty in November of multiple counts of witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress in his efforts to obtain Russian-hacked emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid and positive for Trump's campaign.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during sentencing that Stone was not prosecuted by his political enemies but because "Roger Stone characteristically injected himself smack in the middle of" the DNC hacking scandal, then lied to Congress about it. His lies were "why he was indicted. Not for his political activities."

“He was not prosecuted, as some have claimed, for standing up for the president," she said. "He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”

Jackson has postponed the implementation of Stone's sentence while she considers a motion filed by Stone's lawyers arguing for a new trial.

Last week, four career prosecutors on the case withdrew in protest after the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of overruling the government's recommended sentence for Stone, which Trump had criticized on Twitter. Senate Democrats called for an investigation into Attorney General Bill Barr after he recommended a sentence "far less" than the seven-to-nine years that the government's own prosecutors said Stone should serve.

Judge Jackson noted the confusing circumstances around the case during sentencing, saying she had reviewed two sentencing memorandums filed by the government: the first by the original four prosecutors, who recommended a term of seven-to-nine years; the second, filed after Barr personally intervened, recommending a lesser sentence. “For those who woke up last week and became persuaded that the guidelines are harsh and perhaps sentences shouldn’t be driven by strict application of a mathematical formula…I can assure you that defense attorneys and judges have been making that argument for a very long time.” she said. “But we don’t usually succeed in getting the government to agree.” It is not clear who wrote the second memo, and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said he could not disclose that information.

“The government’s initial memorandum was thorough, well-researched and supported,” Jackson said, adding that it was in agreement with DOJ policy. “There was nothing unfair, phony, or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution." But she felt that seven-to-nine years "would be greater than necessary," regardless of Barr's intervention.

Crabb, one of the new prosecutors who took over the case for the government after the withdrawals, ended up arguing in favor of sentencing enhancements for Stone because of witness threats, that were in line with the original recommendations. “The fact is that the defendant threatened [Randy] Credico’s personal safety and his pet,” Crabb said, which the judge agreed with. Crabb also noted that, "the initial sentencing recommendation was done in good faith" and that it was "fully consistent with Justice Department policy."

Jackson also brought up that Stone had threatened her in an Instagram post in which he put a target next to her head: "The defendant engaged in threatening and intimidating conduct toward the court...that could and did impede the administration of justice," Jackson said. "The court should not sit idly by, shrug its shoulders and say, 'That's just Roger being Roger.'"

She also brought up the fact that even in letters sent on his behalf, Stone's friends and allies referred to him as a "provocateur and dirty trickster." She said at one point, ”Nothing about this case was a joke. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t a prank.”

“The truth still exists," she said before handing out the sentence. "The truth still matters. Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t [poses] a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy.” She added that disgust at that notion should transcend party lines.

Even though Barr has publicly pleaded with the president to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, Trump continued to tweet his outrage over Stone's convition literally while the sentencing was happening. Jackson noted that Trump's tweets throughout the case were “entirely inappropriate."

Stone, 67, was convicted of seven charges, which result from his September 2017 testimony to a House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. The charges included five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstructing a Congressional committee proceeding. These were the last charges filed as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia's "sweeping and systematic" attack on the 2016 election.

Prosecutors successfully argued that Stone lied to and withheld documents from House Intelligence Committee investigators about his attempts to get Clinton-related emails that Russia had stolen from Democratic computers and gotten to WikiLeaks. Prosecutors said that Stone allegedly briefed the Trump campaign about what he knew of WikiLeaks’ plans “every chance he got.” In a written statement, Trump said he could not recall the specifics of any of the 21 conversations he had with Stone in the six months leading up to the election.

Prosecutors also said Stone pressured and threatened Credico, a comedian and talk show host, to coerce him not to cooperate with the House committee, sending him text messages including one in which Stone wrote Credico, “You are a rat. A stoolie. Prepare to die.”

Stone is the sixth major Trump ally to be convicted of charges arising from Mueller's probe, along with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, former Trump Deputy Campaign Manager Rick Gates, former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, and former Trump Foreign Policy Adviser George Papadopoulos.

Barr will testify before the House Judiciary committee on March 31st, and is expected to address "numerous concerns regarding his leadership of the Department of Justice and the President's improper influence over the Department."