Roger Stone gets 40-month sentence after Justice Department clashed with prosecution team
Roger Stone. Photo from Shutterstock.com.
A federal judge sentenced Roger Stone to 40 months in prison Thursday, less than the seven-to-nine-year sentence initially recommended by prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said politics surrounding the case didn’t influence her decision. “The dismay and disgust at the defendant’s belligerence should transcend party,” she said. The Washington Post, the New York Times and Law.com have coverage.
Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, was sentenced for lying to Congress about his contacts with the Trump campaign regarding WikiLeaks, tampering with a witness, and obstructing the congressional probe of Russian election influence.
The story gained widespread attention when the Department of Justice disagreed with the prosecution team’s sentencing recommendation and submitted a new brief saying seven to nine years could be considered excessive. The four prosecutors who made the initial recommendation withdrew from the case, including one who quit his job entirely.
Trump had also weighed in. On Twitter last week, Trump had written, “Who are the four prosecutors (Mueller people?) who cut and ran after being exposed for recommending a ridiculous 9 year prison sentence to a man that got caught up in an investigation that was illegal, the Mueller Scam, and shouldn’t ever even have started?”
Jackson resisted any suggestion that the prosecution was political, as did the new prosecution team. “This prosecution is righteous,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb.
