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

Extract from The Guardian

Roger Stone

The president has commuted Stone’s sentence after he was convicted of multiple crimes. Here’s what you need to know

• Trump commutes Roger Stone’s sentence

Guardian staff and agencies

Sat 11 Jul 2020 12.15 AEST First published on Sat 11 Jul 2020 11.02 AEST

Roger Stone leaves federal court in Washington. He was convicted of crimes including obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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.”