Trump Confidant Roger Stone Sentenced to 40 Months After Judge Spends Hours Ensuring President Has No Room to Interfere

Judge: Stone’s Obstruction of House Intel Russia Probe ‘Led to an Inaccurate, Incomplete and Incorrect Report’

Trump confidant and former campaign advisor Roger Stone has been sentenced to serve 40 months in jail after Judge Amy Berman Jackson passed judgment on actions of the self described “dirty trickster,” “mendacious windbag,” and political fixer. Stone was convicted last year of lying to Congress, obstructing Congress, and witness tampering.

Judge Jackson spent three hours examining both the defense and the prosecution’s arguments and requests and went over each of the seven felony counts for which Stone was convicted. She clearly explained her reasoning in a precise manner, as reporters in the court revealed. She has left President Trump with zero room to cry her sentence is unfair.

Judge says one of Stone’s motives was to ‘shield’ Trump. Notes Stone said he couldn’t take 5th because it’d look bad for Trump. Judge notes Congress was GOP-controlled at time Stone lied, so it wasn’t an anti-Trump cabal

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) February 20, 2020

Jackson is back on the bench and is recounting the history of the case in great detail. She is rejecting claims the prosecution was political.

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) February 20, 2020

Politico’s Darren Samuelsohn reports out a this damning bombshell:

Jackson says the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe was stymied because of Stone. His obstruction, she says, “led to an inaccurate, incomplete and incorrect report.”

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 20, 2020

Judge Jackson appears to have ignored Attorney General Barr’s efforts to get a reduced sentence for Stone. As Mother Jones’ Dan Friedman reports, the DOJ’s attorney has backed off Barr’s revised recommendation of a reduced sentence entirely:

The big news here is that DOJ’s new lawyers seem to have just backed off the second, Barr-influenced second memo and stuck by the initial sentencing recommendation. Wow.

— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) February 20, 2020

She also dismissed Barr’s claim that the threat Stone made to Randy Credico should not be considered since he said it did not bother him. Federal guidelines allow for an “enhancement” to the sentence to be added for the threat.

Politico Senior Legal Affairs Contributor Josh Gerstein reports “Jackson says she’s applying the enhancement. She doesn’t seem to think it is a close call.”

Jackson is reading some of the messages Stone sent to Credico:

“You are a weak broke piece of shit.” “Prepare to die cocksucker.”

“The defendant’s memo refers to this as banter, which it hardly is,” Jackson says.

— Jacqueline Thomsen (@jacq_thomsen) February 20, 2020

Jackson adds that the sentencing enhancement applies when there is a threat made, regardless of the victim’s interpretation.

She read off various threats from the indictment that Stone made to Credico, dropping a f****** and weak a** piece of s***.

— Megan Mineiro (@MMineiro_CNS) February 20, 2020

Judge Jackson also made clear Stone will pay for his post-sentencing actions:

Judge Jackson rules she will give Stone a stronger sentence b/c of his social media campaign challenging his prosecution: “This is intolerable to the administration of justice and the courts should not sit idly by, shrug its shoulders and just say it’s ‘Roger being Roger.'”

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 20, 2020

Stone’s attorneys asked for leniency.

Defense notes Stone, at 67 is an unlikely to engage in recidivism. Also notes that he cares about animals, will soon be a great-grandfather, helps former NFL players facing brain injuries, and is a “mentor” to many people.

— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) February 20, 2020

Stone is just one of many Trump associates who have been convicted in connection with the Mueller investigation, as the Washington Post noted, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos..