Roger Stone., the Republican political consultant who for years portrayed himself as the dirty trickster of American politics, was sentenced today to more than three years in prison for obstructing a congressional inquiry in a bid to protect President Trump.
The case against Stone, 67, a longtime friend of Trump’s, had become a cause célèbre among the president’s supporters.
Trump has attacked the prosecutors, the jury forewoman and the federal judge overseeing the trial, casting his former campaign adviser as the victim of a vendetta by law enforcement.
Stone was convicted of lying to congressional investigators and trying to block the testimony of a witness who would have exposed his lies to the House Intelligence Committee.
At the time, the panel was investigating whether Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.
His sentencing played out amid extraordinary upheaval at the Justice Department set off by Attorney General William Barr overruling prosecutors on the case who had asked for a seven- to nine-year sentence.
Barr said that was too harsh.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson excoriated Stone, saying his efforts to thwart a legitimate congressional inquiry of national importance were “a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy.”
But she stopped well short of the original prosecutors’ recommendation, handing down a sentence of 40 months in prison for Stone.
Instead she turned his sentencing hearing into a stunning rebuke not just of Stone but of Trump himself, saying the prosecution was not brought by ‘political enemies,’ and that there was no ‘anti-Trump cabal’ at the hear of the case.
‘He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president, he was prosecuted for covering up for the president,’ she said.
‘There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution.’
Stone is among a half-dozen former Trump aides to be convicted — many on charges of lying to investigators or obstructing inquiries — in cases stemming from the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russia’s election interference. Most already served their sentences or are in prison.
Stone’s lawyers were expected to appeal.
The case also prompted a virtual standoff between the president and Barr over Trump’s comments about it. T
Trump has criticized the jury’s verdict, claiming that “the real crimes were on the other side.”
He intensified those attacks after the prosecutors recommended that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison.
Their request, Trump said, was “horrible and very unfair” and constituted a “miscarriage of justice.”
Almost simultaneously, Barr overruled the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation and a new one was filed in court.
It recommended a prison term well below seven to nine years but left the specific length of time up to the judge.
The reversal, more aligned with Trump’s preference, led all four prosecutors to withdraw from the case.
One resigned from the Justice Department entirely.
John Crabb, a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, apologized during the sentencing hearing for “the confusion” over the government’s sentencing position and stressed that the prosecutors who quit from the case were not to blame.
He said that department policy is to follow the sentencing guidelines in recommending punishment, and those prosecutors did so.
He said Stone’s offenses were serious and worthy of a “substantial period of incarceration,” but left it up to the judge to decide the right punishment.
He blamed the competing sentencing memorandums on “miscommunication” between Timothy Shea, the interim United States attorney, and his superiors at Justice Department headquarters.
Judge Jackson questioned him closely about the process, asking whether he wrote the second sentencing memorandum or simply signed it.
And she asked him point-blank about the last-minute switch in the prosecution team.
“Is there anything you would like to say about why you are standing there today?” she demanded.
Crabb deflected some of her questions, saying, “I apologize I cannot engage in discussions of internal deliberations.”