Judge says lying to Congress was more than Stone’s normal ‘campaign hijinks’
A federal judge in Washington vigorously defended congressional power to investigate national security matters when giving Roger Stone a 40-month prison sentence Thursday, a punishment that “has to send the message that witnesses to do not get to decide for themselves” whether they can mislead lawmakers.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone, the longtime Republican political operative and confidant of President Donald Trump, wasn’t just doing his brand of “campaign hijinks” when he lied to a House Intelligence Committee during a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“He lied to Congress,” Jackson said. “Not to some secret anti-Trump cabal, but to Congress. To the elected representatives of both parties who were confronted with a matter of grave national importance.” Continue reading.