Tag: Roger Stone

Trump, tweeting a Tucker Carlson segment, hints of possible pardon for Roger Stone

Washington Post logoPresident Trump tweeted a clip from a Fox News segment early Thursday that suggested he is leaning toward pardoning confidant Roger Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for lying to Congress and witness tampering.

Tucker Carlson, along with other Fox News personalities, serves as an informal adviserto the president. While it was unclear whether Carlson knows something about Trump’s plans to which the public is not privy, or was again lobbying the president, the fact that Trump retweeted the clip suggests at least that he approves of the idea, which he claimed Tuesday he had not thought about.

“President Trump could end this travesty in an instant with a pardon, and there are indications tonight that he will do that,” the Fox News host said on his show Wednesday night, noting the series of pardons the president has already offered this week. Continue reading.

Stone faces sentencing amid political firestorm

The Hill logoRoger Stone is set to be sentenced Thursday in the midst of a growing political controversy after the Trump administration intervened in his case to push for a lighter prison sentence than originally sought by prosecutors.

President Trump himself helped ignite the controversy, loudly calling for a light sentence for his longtime ally, attacking the original prosecution team and using the case to declare himself the nation’s “chief law enforcement officer.”

A firestorm engulfing the sentencing process over the past week has quickly eclipsed the facts of the case, which centers around what Stone told Congress about his role as a back channel between the 2016 Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which was releasing damaging stolen emails from then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee at the time. Continue reading.

Judge refuses to delay Stone sentencing

The Hill logoA federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay Roger Stone‘s sentencing amid the fallout over the Trump administration’s decision to intervene in the case against the president’s longtime ally.

The sentencing will move forward on Thursday at its originally scheduled time, the judge said, despite a new effort from Stone’s defense team to get a new trial.

“I think that delaying this sentence would not be a prudent thing to do under all of the circumstances,” U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said during a telephone conference with the two sides. Continue reading.

Trump calls for Roger Stone’s conviction to be thrown out

President condemned ‘fraudulent investigation’ into Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing Trump-Russia inquiry

Donald Trump has called for his longtime ally Roger Stone’s recent conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress to be thrown out.

Trump’s barrage of Tuesday morning tweets comes days after his own attorney general, William Barr, sparked a furore over his apparent intervention in the case.

“Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out,” one of Trump’s tweets said. Continue reading.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea’s role in Roger Stone sentencing storm remains in question

Washington Post logoLess than two weeks on the job, the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, Timothy J. Shea, has stepped into the middle of a political firestorm.

Taking over an office that is overseeing high-profile cases involving President Trump’s friends, self-declared enemies and former advisers — including Roger Stone, former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and former national security adviser Michael Flynn — Shea has played a central role in the crisis over whether the White House has interfered with the independence of the Justice Department’s prosecutions.

Questions about Shea’s role broke open this week in a controversy surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Stone, one of Trump’s longtime friends. Continue reading.

How Deep Does Barr’s Intervention Go?

Attorney General William Barr’s shocking intervention to help Roger Stone is a blatant abuse of power. It confirms that Barr sees his job as protecting Trump’s political interests rather than enforcing the law. By overturning the prosecutor’s sentencing recommendations, Barr is abandoning longstanding norms to insert himself into a range of cases that implicate Trump and his cronies. His behavior also raises important questions about whether—or how—the attorney general has intervened to protect Trump on a host of other politically sensitive matters.

  • Mueller’s criminal referrals: Appendix D of the Mueller report lists 14 referrals for “potential criminal activity that was outside the scope of the Special Counsel’s jurisdiction.” All except two—Mueller’s referral of Michael Cohen for the Stormy Daniels hush-money scheme and former White House Counsel Greg Craig for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act—were redacted for “Harm to Ongoing Matters.” (Cohen pleaded guilty to the relevant charges; Craig was found not guilty.) In addition, documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act Requests appear to show that the Department of Justice (DOJ) closed seven applications for court orders related to Mueller’s investigation on April 1, 2019, just 10 days after Mueller filed his report and more than two weeks before the report became public; it is unclear whether these are related to Mueller’s criminal referrals.
    • Were the cases that the DOJ closed on April 1 related to the criminal referrals?
    • Was Barr involved in the closing of those cases? If so, why?
    • What were the nature of the redacted referrals, and what are their current statuses?
    • Has Barr had any involvement with the redacted criminal referrals?
  • Erik Prince referral: After Mueller’s report was published in April 2019, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) made a criminal referral to the DOJ for Prince, alleging that the former Trump adviser lied to Congress about his contacts with Russian officials on behalf of the Trump transition team. More than 10 months later, on the day before the Senate voted in Trump’s impeachment trial, the DOJ finally confirmed that it was investigating Schiff’s referral. On February 11, the same day Barr reportedly intervened to reduce Stone’s sentencing recommendations, The Wall Street Journal reportedthat the DOJ is “in the late stages of deciding whether to charge” Prince for the contacts as well as potentially illegal arms trading.
    • Why did it take more than 10 months for the DOJ to respond to Schiff’s referral?
    • What role, if any, has Barr played in deciding whether to charge Prince? Continue reading.

The degradation of William Barr’s Justice Department is nearly complete

Washington Post logoMARK THIS as another big step in the erosion of standards at Attorney General William P. Barr’s Justice Department.

The department on Tuesday suggested a light sentence for President Trump’s old friend Roger Stone, by overturning a previously filed and tougher proposal. It did so over the strong objections of four career line prosecutors, all of whom resigned from the case; one left the department entirely. This extraordinary intervention played out publicly after Mr. Trump tweeted his displeasure over the initial recommendation that Mr. Stone spend seven to nine years in prison for obstructing Congress and witness tampering, which was in line with the department’s sentencing guidelines.

The Justice Department insists that the decision to reverse course came before the president’s tweet. But senior officials did not need a tweet to conclude that the president would react angrily to a tough sentence for his longtime crony, and to act in anticipation — or fear — of the president’s predictable reaction. Continue reading.

Political interference? Republicans say there’s a judge for that

Trump’s tweets about judge in Roger Stone case draw rebuke, but some Republicans downplay their effect

 

Corrected 9:06 p.m. | Senate Republicans left it to a federal judge Wednesday to sweep away questions of improper political influence by the White House in the criminal case against Roger Stone — even as President Donald Trump tried to cast doubt on fairness ahead of his longtime adviser’s sentencing.

Trump used his Twitter megaphone to highlight U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson and her previous actions in other cases, part of a remarkable series of presidential tweets related to Stone’s case.

First, Trump tweeted that a sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years in prison for Stone was “unfair.” The Justice Department then took the rare step of intervening to rescind that sentencing recommendation. Four career prosecutors resigned from the case in protest. Trump then tweeted congratulations to Attorney General William Barr for “taking charge” of the case. Continue reading.

Barr ensnared in Roger Stone firestorm

The Hill logoAttorney General Bill Barr is engulfed in a political firestorm on Capitol Hill amid the fallout from the Justice Department’s decision to reduce its recommended sentence for Roger Stone. 

Democrats are clamoring for Barr to testify and for the department’s decision to be investigated, arguing the move is the latest sign that Trump is feeling emboldened after Republicans acquitted him last week of abusing his power and obstructing Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Barr an “enabler” of Trump, adding, “That’s a kind word.”  Continue reading.

Trump attacks federal judge, prosecutors in Twitter tirade defending Roger Stone

Washington Post logoAs the fallout from the controversy surrounding Roger Stone’s prison term continued Tuesday night, President Trump defended his longtime confidant by firing off a barrage of heated tweets attacking the federal judge and prosecutors involved in the case.

Over the course of roughly two hours, Trump cranked out six blasts about the handling of Stone’s sentencing, including one that targeted U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the case.

He implied that Jackson harbored some broad bias, linking the Stone case to her role in the sentencing of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and her dismissal of a lawsuit against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton related to Benghazi, Libya. Continue reading.