SALT LAKE CITY — Roger Stone, a longtime political and campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison for seven federal felony convictions, including five counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of a congressional investigation.
The sentence is nearly half of the seven to nine years recommended by Stone’s prosecutors last week before Trump called that recommendation a “miscarriage of justice.” The president has posted several tweets over the last week related to a potential pardon for Stone.
Separately, Stone’s defense team has requested a retrial. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said earlier this week that Stone’s sentence would not be imposed until that request has been resolved, CBS News reported.
Trump hears conservative calls to pardon
Wednesday night, on the eve of Stone’s sentencing, Trump tweeted a video of conservative Fox News personality Tucker Carlson calling for the president to pardon Stone.
In his monologue on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Carlson called Stone’s prosecution “wholly political” and “a shocking insult to the American tradition of equal justice,” and accused Jackson of being partisan.
“President Trump could end this travesty in an instant with a pardon,” Carlson said staring into the camera as if he was speaking directly to the president — an avid Fox News viewer.
“What has happened to Roger Stone should never happen to anyone in this country, of any political party,” Carlson said. “Fixing it is the right thing to do, and in the end, that is the only thing that matters.”
Trump pinned the tweet to the top of his Twitter profile.
Lying to Congress and witness tampering
Stone was convicted by a federal jury on Nov. 15 of seven felonies related to his role in the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election.
A Department of Justice press release about the conviction says the president’s ally — a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” — lied in his testimony during the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Stone lied about his “back-channel” contact to WikiLeaks — the organization that hosted leaked emails from then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — and what he may have asked that person to do on behalf of the Trump campaign. He then urged his contact, Randy Credico, to lie to the House Intelligence Committee or not testify at all by invoking his right against incrimination.
The charges carried a total maximum penalty of 50 years in a prison — what could have been a life sentence for the 67-year-old, who worked on President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972.
DOJ intervenes, prosecutors quit
Last Monday, prosecutors in the case recommended Stone serve a seven- to nine-year prison sentence. That evening, Trump called the sentencing recommendation a “miscarriage of justice” that could not be allowed.
The Department of Justice began to walk back the recommendations the next day. All four prosecutors — Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis, Adam Jed and Michael Marando — subsequently withdrew from the case.
The following morning, early last Wednesday, Trump congratulated Attorney General William Barr in a tweet for “taking charge” of the case.
“Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought,” the president wrote.
Barr later said the Justice Department had not been influenced by the White House and said that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do me job,” in an interview with ABC News last Thursday.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Barr could resign over frustration with the president’s public comments about ongoing cases.