Roger Stone sentenced to prison – Trump does not plan a pardon

Donald Trump’s ex-advisor was sentenced to prison. The court found Stone guilty of misrepresentation and interference with witnesses. Trump has now commented on a possible pardon.

In the Russia Affair is the former advisor to the US President Donald Trump. Roger Stone, sentenced to almost three and a half years in prison. A judge in the capital, Washington, sentenced Thursday to 40 months for false testimony before Congress and interference with witnesses. Most recently, Trump had repeatedly publicly campaigned for his former political advisor in the process, thereby drawing sharp criticism.

Stone was found guilty in November of hindering parliamentary investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The 67-year-old was convicted of lying to the congress and putting a witness under pressure.

Trump is not planning a pardon at first

Trump has now announced that he is not planning a pardon for now. However, he expressly does not rule this out in the future. “I’m not going to do anything about the great powers of a President of the United States,” Trump said on Thursday at an appearance in Las Vegas. He initially wanted to observe the further development in the case.

“I think that’s the best because I would like to see Roger relieved,” said Trump. Stone has a good chance of being cleared of the allegations if the case is renegotiated. Stone’s trial was not fair. “What happened to him is incredible.” Trump also stressed that he would monitor the further procedure closely and make a decision “at some point”. President Stone defended again. “He’s a smart guy. He’s a little different,” said Trump. “But he’s a good person.” Stone itself called for a new process.

The case recently regained explosiveness: Trump publicly criticized the prosecutor’s demand last week for Stone’s up to nine years in prison. The Ministry of Justice then intervened and described the claim as excessive. The four senior prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest at this interference.

“They say Roger Stone song 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

A newly appointed prosecutor finally spoke out for a milder sentence. Although he did not propose a specific sentence, he cited around three to four years in prison as a possible framework. The sentence imposed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Thursday is within this framework.

Criticism of Trump’s Twitter messages

The President’s repeated interference in the Stone case has met with criticism even from his loyal Justice Minister Bill Barr. The latter warned that Trump’s Twitter messages would make his work “impossible”. However, the president did not let the Twitter stop him: even on Thursday, during the judge’s verdict, he criticized the trial against Stone as unfair.

Stone is said to have acted as a liaison between the Trump team and the disclosure platform Wikileaks in the 2016 election campaign. Wikileaks published tens of thousands of internal e-mails from the camp of Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton during the election campaign, some of which were explosive. According to US intelligence, the emails had been stolen by Russian hackers.

Russia special investigator Robert Mueller found in his almost two-year investigation into the Russia affair, insufficient evidence of illegal agreements between the Trump team and Moscow. However, the special investigator expressly did not exonerate the president from the allegation of legal obstruction.

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