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    Roger Stone: five things to know about Trump's controversial ally

    Who is Roger Stone?A master of the dark arts of politics who cut his teeth on a Richard Nixon election campaign, Roger Stone regularly gives Nixon’s trademark salute and has a tattoo of the disgraced 37th president on his back. A self-described “dirty trickster”, Stone, 67, is also a longtime friend of Donald Trump.What was he found guilty of?Stone was convicted in November 2019 of seven crimes, including obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering in the congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.Stone had boasted during the 2016 campaign that he was in contact with the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, through a trusted intermediary and hinted at inside knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release more than 19,000 emails hacked from the servers of the Democratic National Committee.Stone did not take the stand during his trial, did not speak at his sentencing, and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense.Did he face time in prison?Stone was sentenced in February by Judge Amy Berman Jackson to three years and four months in prison. In April, Berman Jackson denied Stone’s request for a new trial. (Stone had argued the jury forewoman in his case had been tainted by anti-Trump bias.) He was scheduled to report to a prison in Jesup, Georgia, by Tuesday.How did Trump intervene?The president on Friday commuted Stone’s sentence. The commutation does not erase Stone‘s felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but it protects him from serving prison time as a result.In a statement, the White House denounced Stone’s prosecution. “Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!”Is this the first time Trump has weighed in on Stone’s case?No. Trump has long said he thought Stone was being treated unfairly and Stone had publicly been campaigning for a commutation. Just before the sentencing, Trump had suggested in a tweet that Stone was being subjected to a different standard than several prominent Democrats. He railed that the conviction “should be thrown out” and called the justice department’s initial sentencing recommendation “horrible and very unfair”.The attorney general, William Barr, caused the recommendation to be changed, prompting a call for his resignation from more than 2,600 former justice department officials.After Stone’s sentencing, Trump said: “I’d love to see Roger exonerated, and I’d love to see it happen because I personally think he was treated very unfairly.” More

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    Roger Stone case: Trump ally given special treatment, Congress hears

    A federal prosecutor who was part of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation told Congress on Wednesday Roger Stone, a close ally of Donald Trump, was given special treatment before sentencing because of his relationship with the US president. “What I heard repeatedly was that Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his […] More

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    ‘This is not just Roger being Roger’: Stone gets 40 months – and a scolding from the judge

    Amy Berman Jackson tore into Trump’s longtime friend and reminded the court ‘he was prosecuted for covering up for the president’ Roger Stone, a longtime friend of Donald Trump and a self-styled dirty trickster of American politics, showed little emotion as he stood, squeezed between his defense team, at the front of the courtroom to […] More

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    Roger Stone has ‘very good chance of exoneration’, says Trump – video

    Donald Trump said his longtime ally Roger Stone had a ‘very good chance of exoneration’, addressing the case for the first time since his former associate was sentenced at a Las Vegas event on Thursday 20 February. Trump also said the jury foreman in Stone’s case was ‘totally tainted’ and an an ‘anti-Trump activist’. After […] More