Tag: Roger Stone

Prosecutor in Roger Stone Case Will Testify About Barr’s Intervention

New York Times logoThe prosecutor is one of two Justice Department officials coming forward whom Democrats are calling whistle-blowers.

WASHINGTON — A career Justice Department prosecutor who quit the case against President Trump’s friend Roger J. Stone Jr.after political appointees intervened to seek a more lenient sentence has agreed to testify under subpoena next week before the House Judiciary Committee.

House Democrats issued subpoenas on Tuesday to the prosecutor, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, along with a second Justice Department official, John W. Elias, who has also agreed to testify in public on June 24 about politicization under Attorney General William P. Barr — setting up a potential fight with the department about what they will be permitted to say.

Mr. Elias is a career official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, which opened an inquiry into a fuel efficiency deal between major automakers and the State of California; congressional Democrats have called the scrutiny politically motivated. Continue reading.

Trump Hints At Upcoming Pardon For Roger Stone

Donald Trump on Thursday hinted he is going to pardon Roger Stone, his longtime ally who was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

Trump’s hint came in response to a tweet from right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk, who tweeted, “Roger Stone will serve more time in prison than 99% of these rioters destroying America All because he supports Donald Trump. This isn’t justice. RT for a full pardon of Roger Stone!”

In response, Trump tweeted, “No. Roger was a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!” Continue reading.

Judge Denies Roger Stone’s Bid for a New Trial

New York Times logoThe judge rejected the defense’s argument of juror bias in a politically fraught case in which President Trump publicly attacked his friend’s conviction.

WASHINGTON — The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Roger J. Stone Jr. refused on Thursday to grant him a new trial, rejecting the defense’s argument of juror misconduct that President Trump has also repeatedly trumpeted.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington ordered Mr. Stone to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons as soon as he is notified to do so. She also released him and his lawyers from a gag order she imposed months ago.

The judge’s decision appears to end one of the most politically fraught federal criminal cases in recent years. In a last-ditch effort to keep their client out of prison, Mr. Stone’s lawyers had claimed that the jury forewoman had improperly concealed a bias against Mr. Stone, justifying a new trial. Continue reading.

How the Constitution prohibits Trump from pardoning Roger Stone: law professor

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has been dropping hints for a long time that he will pardon ally Roger Stone, the man who lied to Congress and obstructed justice to conceal the truth about his efforts to acquire emails that Russian hackers stole from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University and visiting professor of law at Fordham Law School, argues in an editorial for Politicothat the Constitution might prohibit Trump from issuing this particular pardon, despite the fact that the president’s clemency powers are generally seen as very broad.

“Many scholars agree that once a president has been impeached, he or she loses the power to pardon anyone for criminal offenses connected to the articles of impeachment,” he writes. “Less noticed is that even after the Senate’s failure to convict the president, he or she does not regain this power.” Continue reading.

I was a juror in the Roger Stone trial. Attacking our foreperson undermines our service.

Washington Post logoSeth Cousins was a juror in the Roger Stone trial.

Lost amid the avalanche of allegations about the trial and sentencing of Roger Stone are some critical facts and a striking irony: The jury foreperson, who has been the subject recently of numerous ad hominem attacks, was actually one of the strongest advocates for the rights of the defendant and for a rigorous process. She expressed skepticism at some of the government’s claims and was one of the last people to vote to convict on the charge that took most of our deliberation time.

Stone received a fair trial. But events since his trial threaten to undermine the equal administration of justice.

In November, I joined 13 of my fellow citizens as jurors and alternates in the case of United States v. Roger Stone. After several days of testimony and argument — and eight hours of deliberation — we returned guilty verdicts on all seven charges of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress. Federal prosecutors recommended on Feb. 10 that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison. Early the next day, President Trump tweeted his outrage, and soon the Justice Department announced that the sentencing recommendation would be amended. All four prosecutors handling the case withdrew in protest.

Trump attacks a private citizen for doing her civic duty

Washington Post logoPresident Trump attacked the federal prosecutors in the Roger Stone case, calling them “these corrupt people.” He went after the judge who oversaw Stone’s prosecution. But these assaults, unwarranted as they are, pale by comparison to Trump’s unprecedented and unceasing assault on the jury forewoman.

Even as U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson was holding a hearing Tuesday on Stone’s allegations of jury bias, Trump was tweeting — again, this time from India — about the juror. “There has rarely been a juror so tainted as the forewoman in the Roger Stone case,” Trump asserted. “Look at her background. She never revealed her hatred of ‘Trump’ and Stone. She was totally biased, as is the judge. Roger wasn’t even working on my campaign. Miscarriage of justice. Sad to watch!“

Yes, sad to watch a president so out of control. As Jackson noted at Tuesday’s hearing, “Any attempt to harass or intimidate jurors is completely antithetical to our system of justice.” Not that Trump has any understanding of, or respect for, our system of justice. Continue reading.

Roger Stone asked for a judge’s removal. It may be more fuel for a Trump pardon, experts say.

Washington Post logoRoger Stone, just sentenced to 40 months in prison for impeding a congressional investigation of Russian election interference, is seeking the removal of the federal judge who sentenced him, in the latest turn of a bizarre legal odyssey involving President Trump’s longtime friend and political adviser.

The case has been fraught with political overtones as President Trump and conservative commentators have leveled broadsides against U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson and the jury’s forewoman, saying political bias has tainted the proceedings.

And that, former federal prosecutors say, is why Stone’s defense team may have thrown a Hail Mary in its motion for Jackson to recuse herself — not to win a new trial, but to win political intervention in the future. Continue reading.

Strange scenes at Roger Stone’s sentencing raise even more questions about William Barr

Washington Post logoOfficial Washington has been consumed over the past week with the drama at the Justice Department. Attorney General William P. Barr is increasingly embattled thanks to President Trump’s heavy-handed approach to DOJ business, in which Barr has unsuccessfully urged Trump to stop meddling.

The scenes in a courtroom Thursday — where Stone was ultimately sentenced to 40 months in prison — only heightened the drama. And they raised more questions about what in the world is happening inside Barr’s DOJ.

Barr intervened last week to overrule career prosecutors’ tough seven- to nine-year sentencing recommendation for Trump ally Roger Stone — shortly after Trump tweeted in opposition to the recommended sentence. That prompted the four prosecutors on the case to withdraw. Then came a more watered-down recommendation, which was signed by the prosecutor now leading the charge for the Justice Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb.

Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months in prison as judge accuses him of ‘covering up’ for Trump

AlterNet logoJudge Amy Berman Jackson has sentenced Trump ally Roger Stone to 40 months in prison. The sentence follows an outcry over President Donald Trump’s interference in the case and the radically different sentencing memos that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued earlier this month.

Last year, Roger was found guilty on seven criminal courts in federal court, including witness tampering and lying to Congress.

The sentence that Jackson handed down was neither as harsh as what the DOJ originally recommended nor as lenient as what it recommended in a subsequent sentencing memo. On Monday, February 12, the DOJ issued a sentencing memo that recommended seven to nine years in prison for the veteran GOP operative and self-described “dirty trickster.” But after Trump posted an angry tweet lambasting that recommendation, the DOJ issued a new sentencing memo the following day and recommended a much more lenient sentence — inspiring four federal prosecutors to resign from Stone’s case. Three of them are still with the DOJ, although one of the four left the DOJ altogether. Continue reading.

Roger Stone sentenced to three years and four months in prison, as Trump predicts ‘exoneration’ for his friend

Washington Post logoA federal judge on Thursday sentenced Roger Stone, President Trump’s longtime friend and political adviser, to serve three years and four months in prison for impeding a congressional investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The penalty from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson comes after weeks of infighting over the politically charged case that threw the Justice Department into crisis, and it is likely not to be the final word. Even before the sentencing hearing began, Trump seemed to suggest on Twitter that he might pardon Stone. With the proceedings ongoing, Trump questioned whether his ally was being treated fairly. Afterward, he attacked the jury in the case and said he would “love to see Roger exonerated.”

In a lengthy speech before imposing the penalty, Jackson seemed to take aim at Trump, saying Stone “was not prosecuted for standing up for the president; he was prosecuted for covering up for the president.” She also appeared to call out Attorney General William P. Barr, saying his intervention to reduce career prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation was “unprecedented.” But she said the politics surrounding the case had not influenced her decision. Continue reading.